The Cookie Table

[RedRover]

I am a Yinzer (a native of western Pennsylvania) and cookie tables are a big part of the culture.

When I was a little boy, my brother and I would wait up for my parents to come home from a wedding. We knew that my mother would have a paper plate wrapped with a napkin; both of us knew that there were cookies under that napkin.

In Yinzer culture, once the engagement is announced, every female relative (and close family friend) start baking. Cousin Sally might always make ladylocks, Aunt Kate might make her famous nut horns while the mother of the groom might make apricot horns. The best man's mother will make pizzelles (a thin, waffle-like cookie usually flavored with anise). As a rule, one only purchases specialty cookies, such as pizzelles.

Cookie tables are more of a tradition for southern (Greek or Italian) or Eastern European (too many to list) communities. Close friends and neighbors will bring their particular ethnic cookies, so Italian pizzelles will on the cookie table at a Polish wedding.

Yes, the wedding cake and the meal are more important. However, while no one might admit it, every one notices how many cookies and how many varieties were at the table.