A few years ago, when I was living in the housing co-op and looking for a quick cookie recipe, I came across a blog post for something called “Norwegian Christmas butter squares.” I’d never found anything like it before: it created rich, buttery and chewy cookies, like a vastly superior version of the holiday sugar cookies I’d eaten growing up. About a year ago I went looking for the recipe again, and failed to find it. The blog had been taken down, and it sent me into momentary panic.
Luckily, I remembered enough to find it on the Wayback Machine, and quickly copied it into a file that I’ve saved ever since. I probably make these cookies about once a month, and they last about five days around my voracious husband - they’re fantastic with a cup of bitter coffee or tea. I’m skeptical that there is something distinctively Norwegian about these cookies, but they do seem like the perfect thing to eat on a cold day.
Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp salt Turbinado/ Raw Sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chill a 9x13″ baking pan in the freezer. Do not grease the pan.
Using a mixer, blend the butter, egg, sugar, and salt together until it is creamy. Add the flour and vanilla and mix using your hands until the mixture holds together in large clumps. If it seems overly soft, add a little extra flour.
Using your hands, press the dough out onto the chilled and ungreased baking sheet until it is even and ¼ inch thick. Dust the top of the cookies evenly with raw sugar.
Bake at 400 degrees until the edges turn a golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Let cool for about five minutes before cutting the cooked dough into squares. Remove the squares from the warm pan using a spatula.
So I tried this recipe.
And it is GREAT.
It basically makes the platonic ideal of commercial sugar cookies, only in bar form. When I give them to people (which I do a lot, because this is one of those simple recipes where the results seem very impressive), I just tell them they’re sugar cookie bars.
Life hack: add white chocolate chips and sea salt
I made these today for the equinox with sea salt caramel chips and they are simply amazing. Let’s see how long they last with six people in the house!
Noting for later (as we need more butter for this, and probably won’t do a grocery shopping till the weekend).
The OP version of this has become my go-to cookie for basically all things and I have a whole cohort of friends and colleagues who would murder each other to get them. Haven’t tried any add ons yet, since the base recipe is SO GOOD.
It has happened. Abortion is illegal in Texas right now. SCOTUS failed to act so in effect Roe v. Wade is meaningless. These are truly devastating times. I don’t know what else to say.
Here’s Jessica Mason Pieklo again explaining it helpfully. Check out the whole thread.
Sorry to spam so much tonight but I’m kinda freaking out.
Also sorry to be a broken record (not really sorry) but what happens in Texas is coming to a state near you soon. Check out the soon-to-be situation:
That’s a horrifying lack of access. How many poor and working class people will die of botched procedures? (While wealthy people like those who passed this law will be able to easily travel for their abortions.) How many children will suffer in families that didn’t want them and/or can’t afford them?
I fear the reverberations of this day immensely. I gotta get off my phone bc I have an early/long day tomorrow but I’m just so sad.
I feel like a walking zombie at the moment. Today is the first time I’ve been required to report to an in person work event in 18 months and I’m really fucking overwhelmed trying to pretend I’m not a mess.
Anyway, here are some helpful round ups of what’s going on w/ this.
I have no doubt in my mind that these states are hoping the people they arrest can become part of the prison industrial complex (slavery). These people will include, but not be limited to, the doctors, the parents (mainly the mother), those who help them access the abortions, and the children who will inevitably get caught up in the foster care/school to prison pipeline
Accurate. We have hella prisons in TX.
Please stop saying that abortion is illegal and that RvWade is dead. While the situation is dire that kind of language sends a counter productive message to the people facing and soon to face the same kind of legislation. Abortion is NOT illegal in Texas and it’s important to know how to navigate this new terrain.
If you live in Texas, please begin to look at your resources. Buy abortion pills now. Don’t wait. Have them just in case you need them. There are companies that will mail them discreetly to you for free. Get serious about contraception. Know the laws. Know your rights.
The Handmaid’s Tale shows white women experiencing what women of color all over the globe have experienced for generations.
Still horrible. Still needs fixing. Glad we’re talking about reproductive rights.
But the shit ain’t new.
Reproductive Injustice disproportionately affects women of color.
The Heartbeat Bill has been voted on in the House of Represenatives and Senate, signed into law by the Governor in May. To my knowledge, citizens have not voted, where are these accusations coming from? Where is the data of white women supporting this law?
Is there any factual basis to these TWEETS or are we just sharing anything which shits on white women?
God if only we knew how senators got elected. Like if only there was like a system in which people elected officials to act in a capacity that mirrored their desires.
If only we had like some kind of…I dunno data? That showed how white women continue to vote and align themselves a certain way.
Oh well. Guess we’ll never be able to piece together how this tweet makes sense. At least we tried.
^link to the article for further info & accessibility
Just so ya’ll know. They’re gonna loophole this which is why we have to spread this information. I work at a pharmacy and I can tell you that a lot of these insurance companies only “Cover” them. Here’s what has been happening: You go to your doctor to get PrEP, they write a prescription and send it to the Pharmacy. When you get there they tell you that insurance isn’t covering it. You say that the law says that they have to. They say that it will, but not through THEM. The insurance company says that they’ll only cover it through a “specialty pharmacy” (which on the one hand, fair enough, NIOSH standards for drugs state that if you are handling the pills then there are specific forms of PPE you need that we at retail do not have, but on the other hand that doesn’t matter if we aren’t opening the freaking bottles) which will then either mail it to you or ship it to the pharmacy to take it out of the box, scan it in, and bag it. Which is what we’d do normally anyways except with the added step of making you wait 2-3 business days to get it. And because technically they “cover it” it’s not a law violation. But they’re hoping that you’ll not want to wait and just pay the $3000 out of pocket.
