One of the best, and most unexpected, parts of maintaining this blog is my interaction with all of you, dear readers. Back when I started VV, I never expected to gain such a wide readership! I thought maybe my mom and a few other family members and friends would enjoy my work here.

I love getting emails with questions, suggestions, and recipes from my readers. I am still methodically attempting to respond to each and every email that I get (bear with me!) because I am always touched, amazed, and intrigued by the input that I get from you all. My favorite emails are those from readers who want to share their own cherished family recipes with me. I had the chance to try one of these recipes out tonight, and it was such a hit!

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Last year, I threw together a batch of these cookies without really measuring any ingredients or thinking about it at all! I took them to a dinner with friends. My brother-in-law would not stop talking about how delicious they were, so this year I tried really hard to re-create what I had made last year. I had him sample the results, and he was very happy that I had re-captured the original magic.

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There is nothing like a day of baking cookies to get you into the Christmas spirit. I went on a cookie-baking rampage the other evening while listening to Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole sing my favorite Christmas carols on the stereo… Here is a “new” vintage cookie recipe that my family already loves that I am happy to share with you on this Christmas Eve Day.

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Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers!!

Here in the United States, we are celebrating Thanksgiving, the harvest, our families, delicious food, and life in general. This recipe celebrates all of those, fully and simultaneously.

Again, I’m afraid I have been holding out on you, dear readers. Don’t hold it against me – just know that I still have plenty of special family recipes up my sleeve… This is pretty much my mom’s family’s most prized, most loved, most famous and most delicious recipe. And here we are, over two years into this blogging adventure together, and I am finally handing over the goods!

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For those of you who haven’t read Anne of Green Gables, the title of this post may look like a mistake. Trust me, dear readers, that this cake does not involve any actual liniment! The Anne of Green Gables books and movies were a staple of my childhood, and I even got The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook when I was little. (You may remember the wonderful lemonade recipe I posted from this book.)

As the story goes, Anne accidentally flavored the cake she was making with anodyne liniment instead of vanilla. Marilla had broken the liniment bottle and poured what was left into an empty vanilla bottle, which Anne then used in the cake. Oops! So this is the cake that Anne meant to make when she mistakenly substituted liniment for the vanilla!  Make sure you put the vanilla in yours…

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