Amazing Cookies

I was nonplussed tonight, running rejoinders through my head…
My mother had said to me on the phone, “Of course, I know you’re not interested in politics…” She’d spent the last four hours watching CNN on the day’s proceedings for Teddy Kennedy. “Did you watch it, Sylvia?” “No, Ma, I didn’t.” “Why not?” “Uh, well, I was working and—” My mother said, “I see. Well, it’s been magnificent, inspiring.” “I’m so glad, Ma.” “Yes. It’s too bad you’re not interested...”
Stung, my natural defenses coursed into action and I said, “Ma, you know how much I love politics. I’m the one that worked so hard for Obama, remember? I’m the one who went to Texas for him...” My mother shot back, “That was a year ago.”
I needed a cookie.
I remembered there was a little storage container in the fridge packed with four cookies left from the batch I made some time ago. I pulled it out, lifted the top, picked up a bar, ate.
Whoa. The bottom crust was as crisp—was it crisper?—as the day I baked it. The flavors, hazelnut, raspberry, coconut, came through clearly. Amazing.
So if you have a celebration coming up in which you’ll need a platter of handsome cookies or want to give a gift of cookies at the holidays, some that can be baked weeks in advance, see my entry of July 22nd, “Lovely Easy Bar Cookies for Picnics”—I should drop the “for Picnics”—and whomp up a batch.
Maybe I'll make them and take some over to Ma.
Except I know in my heart of hearts that tussles between mothers and daughters are not about what they appear to be.
And throwing cookies at them in hopes of gaining ground is by and large not the highest and best use of good cookies.