The prompt for 18 March 2016 is to write about talented female ancestors in your family tree.


March 18 — Shining star: Did you have a female ancestor who had a special talent? Artist, singer, actress, athlete, seamstress, or other? Describe.


[Note: This post originally ran during the Fearless Females series in March 2010]


I always said that my mother should have opened her own bakery. She was a great cook, but she had a real talent for making cakes, cookies, and other desserts. Her specialty: Lady Locks–dainty puffed pastry with creme filling. She made them for every wedding, baptism, graduation, and other special event in our family and they would disappear from the cookie table in a flash! Making these cookies requires patience and precision and I remember watching my mother labor for hours–working to get the dough just right before wrapping it around the special pins, and then after they came out of the oven would carefully fill each one using a pastry bag, and then delicately coat them with powdered sugar from her “magical” powdered sugar can.

Anna Alzo (right) with her cousin Mary, baking cookies for a family wedding.

They weren’t just cookies–they were works of art!

Copyright 2016, Lisa A. Alzo
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