grandma & her chocolate sandwich cookies

Yesterday our family received the very sad news that my Grandma had passed away during the night. It came as a bit of a surprise to all of us, although she had slowly been going downhill for a while. She was a beautiful woman inside and out and this morning when I woke up our world was missing one of its very best and I felt the need to talk about her.

When I was 5 years old we moved in with my stepdad, Glen. I have a very clear memory of the day we met his family, including his parents and his brother and his wife and girls (my amazing cousins).  I remember Glen's parents inviting us to call them Grandma and Grandpa and how warm and loving they were right from the start. From that very first day we were accepted as a part of the family by all of them and treated as if they had known us all our lives.

At the time I thought they were great fun, our visits were always filled with lots of laughs and Grandma's amazing baked goods (and we all know that is the way to my heart...). My brother and I loved the weekends we would spend with them - they would take us to Dairy Queen, we would play Chinese Checkers and Yahtzee, do crafts with Grandma, bake with her, and eat, eat, eat. Now, as an adult, I am overwhelmed by the generosity of their love. There was no question that we were their grandchildren and we were so incredibly lucky to have them in our lives. I was lucky to have 3 sets of grandparents (all of whom were wonderful), but Glen's parents were the ones that lived closest to us. They were the ones we saw for most holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day), the ones who came to watch our sports games, or Christmas concerts, or spent time with us when we were sick. I can't imagine growing up without them in my life, and I feel amazingly lucky to have known and loved them. There are countless good memories of times spent with both of them and our lives were so much richer for it.

In honour of my Grandma, I thought I would post the recipe for one of my favourite treats that she would make: Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. She would make dozens and dozens of these cookies and store them in the deepfreeze in an ice cream bucket...we knew her secret and we would sneak off and eat them whenever we had the chance. They are so easy with the packaged cake mix, but addictively good!

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
- by Grandma (Margaret) White

2 packages (515 grams each) chocolate cake mix
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cup oil

- Beat 1 package of chocolate cake mix, eggs and oil until well blended; stir in remaining package and mix well. Roll into 1" balls. Leave room for them to spread. Bake 12 minutes in 350 C oven, until slightly cracked on top. Cool and fill with icing.

Cream Cheese Icing
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 1/2 cups of icing sugar (depending on the consistency you like)
colouring (optional, hers were usually red and green)

- Mix, then beat until smooth consistency.

Eat, Eat, Eat.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I plan to go to Dairy Queen and eat lots of ice cream because that's what Grandma would want :)

XO