Looking Out The Window: Penelope Marzec Talks About Her Christmas Novella, Clear As Ice And Shares A Yummy Recipe For Cream Puffs

A Warm Welcome To Penelope Marzec

Hi Penelope, Thank you for sharing your special recipe and the story behind it as well as nourishing our souls with your mother's favorite Bible verse!

The Best Cook’s Special Recipe—Cream Puffs

One of the best cooks I ever knew was my mother. The daughter of a coal miner, she never served small portions of anything, probably because she came from a family with seven children. She was the second oldest and after her there were five boys.

Mom married Dad in 1947. My brother was born the following year. Then came me. Next came Christine, who died shortly after birth. A few years later I had a new sister, and another one came several years after that. My little mother had her hands full caring for children.

She often quoted her favorite Biblical verse from 1 Timothy 2:15, “But she will be saved through motherhood, provided women persevere in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.” I think it was her way of reminding herself of her eventual reward amid all the chaos.

For most of her married life, my mother owned one cookbook, The Good Housekeeping Cook Book. It was the seventh edition published in 1944 by Hearst Magazines Inc. It was easy to tell which of the recipes were Mom’s favorites because those were the ones with splatters of dough on the pages. Over the years, the cookbook lost the back cover, the front cover, and a considerable amount of the index.
For the most part, the dishes we ate at home were typical of the cuisine of the times: stews, roasts, along with creamed this and that. It was hearty, stick-to-the-ribs kind of food.

Mom’s true talent lay in baking. Her pies, breads, cakes, and cookies put a smile on everyone’s face, but her most delightful creations were cream puffs. When my future husband’s parents came for dinner to meet my parents, Mom made cream puffs. When the neighbor’s daughter was very ill, Mom made cream puffs. Whenever Mom felt an occasion required something above the ordinary, she made cream puffs. And Mom didn’t make a few, she stacked them high on a platter, and covered them with sifted confectioners sugar.

Even today, when I bite into a cream puff, I think of Mom. Although there isn’t a cream puff in existence as amazing as the ones she made.

After my mother died, my youngest sister decided to keep Mom’s battered cookbook.  I never suspected my sister would search the Internet until she found copies— in good condition—of the same cookbook as the one my mother had used and cherished for so long. My sister gave me one as a Christmas gift.

Mom’s recipe for cream puffs is on page 654.

CREAM PUFFS

(Basic Recipe)

1/4 cup Butter, margarine or vegetable shortening

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup sifted, all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. Salt

2 eggs, unbeaten

Add butter to boiling water: heat until butter melts. Add flour and salt, all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook, stirring, until mixture leaves sides of pan. Remove: cool 1 minute. Add eggs, unbeaten, one at a time, beating with a spoon after each addition until smooth. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls (it helps to have the spoon wet), 2” apart on greased baking sheets, shaping with a wet spoon into rounds which point up in the center. Bake in hot oven of 450º F. For 10 minutes, then at 400º F. for 25 minutes. The cream puffs should be puffed high and golden brown.
Cool, cut a slit in one side of each puff and fill with Cream Puff filling. (Mom used Jell-O Cook and Serve vanilla pudding to fill her cream puffs.) Serve dusted with confectioners sugar.
Makes 8-10 cream puffs.

Yum! They sound delicious!

About Penelope's Christmas Novella, Clear As Ice

My heroine in Clear as Ice doesn’t make cream puffs. She makes cookies. After all, it’s almost Christmas and her mother is hosting a cookie exchange. However, you can be sure when the heroine’s new beau goes to meet her parents, there will be cream puffs on the table for dessert.

When Ethan's prayers for his mother's life go unanswered, he abandons his faith, tossing it out with his mother's Christmas ornaments. The loss of his hope leaves him empty and he begins to shy away from relationships, but when his dog Rufus, a rescue from a shelter, develops a fondness for a woman skating on the frozen lake behind his house, he's annoyed. Not only does he resent her using his pond, he doesn't understand her fear of dogs.

Haylie, once an Olympic figure skater, is afraid of more than just Ethan's dog. She lives in constant fear due to threats from a stalker, but one day Ethan's dog chases the danger away, so Haylie decides to try to lose her fear of dogs...But then the stalker's plans expand to include revenge toward Ethan as well. If they are to remain safe and live to see a happily-ever-after, Haylie and Ethan must put aside differences and learn to trust each other. This Christmas season promises to be the most challenging and the most meaningful of their lives.

Clear as Ice is available on Amazon

Bio:

Penelope Marzec grew up along the Jersey shore. She started reading romances at a young age and fell hopelessly in love with happy endings. Two of her inspirational romances won EPIC’s eBook Award and another was a finalist in that contest. Her paranormal, Irons in the Fire, was a nominee for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice award. Visit her Website for more information.

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