Pasta Puttanesca

This has always been an Abba favorite, but I found the recipes for it somewhat intimidating, until I bought a huge bottle of capers at Costco.  This motivated me to try it, since those capers weren't going anywhere soon. I make it with a lot of shortcuts - pitted olives, bottled minced garlic, spaghetti sauce.  It's a spicy, tasty sauce.  Really pretty with grated Parmesan and fresh parsey.

1/2 lb pasta - penne, or your choice.
Boil water for the pasta, and start your sauce prep.

1 or 2 cans anchovies
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes or spaghetti sauce of your choice
1/2 c pitted olives, sliced
1 T. drained capers
1/4 t crushed red pepper
[you can also add chopped artichoke hearts - just in case it's not rich enough for you ...]
Chopped parsley for garnish

In large skillet, over medium heat, pour the oil from the anchovies.  Add the garlic and cook a minute or two until fragrant.
Stir in the tomatoes (or sauce), capers, olives, and pepper and bring to a simmer.  Add the anchovies and break them up with the spatula.  Cook a few minutes.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Serve over drained pasta.
Add grated Parmesan to taste.

Aunt Ruth's Super Easy Ice Box Cookies

Ice Box cookies do sound old-fashioned.  Essentially these were commercialized as slice-and-bake cookies, chilled vacuum-packed dough logs.  These are so simple it seems ridiculous to buy store-bought.  It's originally from Aunt Ceil, Grandpa Sam's oldest sister.  Ruth brought the recipe to Fargo and it became very popular.  Debi Osnowitz makes them with poppy seeds, via Maxine Liszt.  Ruth's are crispy and incredibly simple and good - quite addictive.  I like the poppyseed-less version better.

When I tasted Aunt Ruth's I asked what happened to the poppyseeds, since I remembered that different version. "Betsy, I live in a retirement community. You can't bake with poppyseeds, everyone has diverticulitis!" In other words, what kind of idiot are you?
When Ruth took the tin out of the freezer, I enjoyed a wave of nostalgia - the tin was the same design Mom used for all her wonderful baked goods - though not these cookies.  It was from fruit cake.  Ruth reminisced that Mom had brought over a prune bread, her signature recipe, when Ruth moved to Fargo as a new bride in 1952. (Ruth claims responsibility for my existence, but that's another story.)

Double Recipe

2 c. confectioners sugar
1 lb butter
4 c. flour (sure, put in some ww...)

2/3 c. poppyseeds (optional)

Single Recipe
1 c. confectioners sugar
1/2 lb butter (2 sticks)
2 c. flour

1/3 c. poppyseeds (optional)

Mix the ingredients by hand, like you're working clay, and roll out in three long salami logs.  These cookies don't spread a lot, so I think Ruth's are around 3" thick.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Heat oven to 375.
Slice and place on cookie tins - no need to oil them, there's so much butter in these.
Let them cool - they will crisp and harden.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, until they are beautifully browned like the ones above.  Mine didn't brown around the edges - doing some research on that!