Just Like Mum Used to Make.... almost

For as long as I can remember my parents were entertaining; not in the Chris Rock type of "entertaining", but in the "Bewitched' type of "entertaining" - you know, the "guests-over, martini's-to-start, fancy-dinner-table, and lots-of-clean-up" type of entertaining.

Now as a child this had pluses and minuses. On the minus side, my parents tended to be crankier as the time-of-arrival drew nearer and the list of "things to get done" was still a list. But on the plus side, once the guests arrived you tended to get relegated to "background noise", and, as long as you remained out-of-sight, you could pretty much get into all sorts of mischief. And then there was the food-sampling.

My mother, being a great cook, had some regulars that I can remember well - although it seems most of what I remember are the deserts:

• Seedless Green Grapes marinated in Cognac, served with cream
• Brandy Snaps, stuffed with strawberries and cream
• Rasperry Fool
• ...and these great little cheese shortcake type of biscuits, which actually weren't a desert, but seemed to go well after my dinner all the same.

Well, I've never really tried to replicate these dishes - not being much of a desert person anymore and owing, in part, to that Cooking ROI again. But the other day I was in La Bottega, in the Byward Market, and I decided to test drive some little biscuits that I found. Much to my amazement, these little shortcake-type biscuits (they're actually called Cocktail Shortbread!) were almost exactly like the ones my mum use to make for their "Dinners" - or as exact as a thirty year memory will allow.

For $5.99 you get 2 dozen small biscuits; they come in distinct flavours (Rosemary, Spicey Thai and Curry) and are served up in a cute little "appropriate for hostess-gift-type box" - as Samantha would have you do. They're made by the Sprucewood Handmade Cookie Co., in Millbrook, Ontario, and are advertised as being "handbaked traditionally, without attitude"... now, as the troublesome teen, I only remember my mother's as being "handbaked traditionally"! Since she's coming to visit in a few weeks I know I'm going to "smart" for that one!