Ingredients:
Fallen buds from the base of your neighbor’s magnolia tree
1 cup sugar
1 ½ cups water
4 cups flour
2 cups butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar
¾ cup strained magnolia syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
A dash of cinnamon
Instructions:
Walk your senior spaniel to the neighbor’s yard, pick up fallen buds from the base of their tree, press wet magnolias to the knit sweater you found in the attic. Wash the petals gently, grate them, and place in yellow bowl. Pour in the sugar, the water, and the flour, simmer gently till your kitchen smells of sun, dappled, bashful, but bright.
Mix the butter, the brown sugar, and the magnolia syrup, the syrup should be thick, the color of lounging on the yellow couch with a glass of raspberry lemonade. Add one dash of cinnamon and the vanilla extract. Roll your skin in granulated sugar. Taste the batter, it should taste gently of ginger and a nap with the window open.
Bake at 350 for fifteen minutes. Once the cookies cool, sit between the sleeping spaniel and the drowsy kitten, the freshly washed clothing hanging in front of the fireplace. Watch the last of April snow melt from trees as you dip the cookie in Earl Grey tea with just a little bit of milk.
Now, remind yourself of the stillness of walking in bird song, the silence in spring bloom.
