A Shoebox of Love

I’ve heard these cookies called many different names: Russian Tea Cakes, Sandollars, Mexican Wedding Cookies. Whatever name you so choose to call them, these buttery, nutty, melt-in-your-mouth bites have a special place in my family’s history.

The summer after my parents started dating my dad headed north to Oklahoma to work in the oil fields while my mom returned to her native central Texas home. This was a simpler time, a time before cell phones, Facebook and email. With young love in the air, long distant relationships were fostered by hand written letters and in the case of my parents, shoeboxes filled with cookies.

I’ve heard of this summer and the cookie-filled shoeboxes for most of my life. Every time I make them myself, I can’t help but to picture my mom, age 20 with long straight blond hair, carefully placing each cookie snuggly in place and then rushing down to the local post office to have it mailed off to her beau.

My good friend Andrea has a love of these cookies as well, and seeming as her birthday is right around the corner I decided to mail her a special shoebox treat.

Made simply of butter, sugar, flour, pecans and a dash of vanilla and salt then finished with a hand tossed bath in a bowl of powdered sugar, one can truly taste the love that was put into these bite size treats.

Happy Birthday Andy and to Mom and Papa, may you continue to have many more summers filled with love and sweet treats.