Baking 20 dozen cookies might faze some home cooks, but there was no harried sign of stress in Nichole Cancellare’s kitchen Sunday afternoon. Tempting trays of cookies covered the counters and dining table. They were cookies to make mouths water — red velvet, ginger, chocolate-chocolate mint cookies, white chocolate craisin cookies, plus praline cookies with dollops of sweet glaze topped with pecans.
The treats were destined for the Loaves and Fishes Community Soup Kitchen, a cookie drive for airmen at Columbus Air Force Base and a reception for a piano recital Nichole and Mike Cancellare’s two children would perform in later that very afternoon. Even as Nichole mixed brown sugar and cream for a praline cookie frosting, she calmly took time out to include Amy, 5, and James, 7, in the cookie-making process. (Mary, 2, slept upstairs.)
“We need more pecans on each cookie, James,” she told her son as they tag-teamed to add a dollop of glaze and then chopped nuts to praline cookies. Nichole adapted the recipe that originated with Martha Stewart. Amy wanted to help out as well. Mom mentored her two young assistants in rolling dough into balls to make ginger cookies. She also let Amy sprinkle confectioners’ sugar on red velvet cookies later.
And where does husband Mike come in?
“I’m a taste-tester extraordinaire,” he said.
Mike and Nichole met in North Carolina when both were stationed at Pope Air Force Base, serving in the U.S. Air Force. Mike is currently an instructor pilot at Columbus Air Force Base; Nichole is no longer in the military. They have now lived in Columbus two and one-half years. Whatever other traits drew them to each other, cooking ranks on the list. In fact, it may have been Nichole’s apple pie that cemented the relationship.
Mike said, “When we were dating, she told me, ‘I’ll cook for you all the time (when we’re married).’ And then she started cooking her apple pies for me.” Mike, as they say, was hooked.
“I call it my ‘marry me pie’,” Nichole joked, taking warm ginger cookies out of the oven.
From frozen to fresh
Nichole excels not only at desserts, but entrees and side dishes as well. Even with dozens of cookies to make Sunday, she had a savory chicken dish for supper simmering in the crock pot.
“Whenever I bring leftovers for my lunch, they are the envy of everyone,” Mike said, complimenting his wife.
Nichole traces her intense interest in cooking back to her frozen dinner days. She was in the military, working full-time and also completing her MBA.
“I was relying on frozen meals,” she said. “One day I had an epiphany … I thought, these are not good: I can do better than this.”
For the past several years, she’s been testing foods out on Mike and the children, to their delight. Cookbooks, the Food Network channel and the Internet have all fueled her enthusiasm and provided recipes. Her knowledge of world cuisines greatly expanded when Mike was stationed in Turkey; the couple lived there for two years. (James was born in Turkey.) Nichole enjoyed revisiting the cuisine and creating a feast when the family invited a Turkish exchange student at Columbus High School to dinner in their home.
Even as Sunday’s 20 dozen cookies were being finished up, Nichole was looking ahead on her culinary to-do calendar: Muffins for church Sunday, an upcoming potluck and a squadron Christmas party are on the horizon. A real red letter day on her calendar, however, comes up in just a few weeks.
“I’m going to be starting culinary school in the spring at The W,” said Nichole. “My dream is to start a business one day and to teach cooking to help out others, so they don’t have to be eating frozen meals.”
PRALINE COOKIES
Makes about 2 dozen
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) room temperature unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups light-brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream, plus more if necessary
1 cup of light-brown sugar, for frosting
1/2 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted and broken into large pieces
(Source: Nicole Cancellare, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe)
GINGER COOKIES
Makes about 3 dozen
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) room temperature unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1 cup of white sugar, for rolling
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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