Madeleine's sewing box was on the floor. If you knew Madeleine you would think this odd. Madeleine was always very careful about cleaning up her messes immediately, yet there the turned over sewing basket sat. She was starring out her newly cleaned window to the snow covered hills with one thimble still on her hand.
No one was home today so she felt the freedom to think. Madeleine had been nicknamed "Honey" ever since she was a little girl. With blond hair, a face that looks as open as a countryside, and one of the kindest hearts in the county, her nickname fit her well.
Today her white lace collar, pale yellow dress, and white button up boots, made her look like the first day of spring. She let her chamomile tea sit in its saucer and she had a bite of her honey madeleine cookies, baked by her friend Anne who thought it was the cleverest idea she had ever had to bring her friend cookies that were named after her. Honey had (of course) laughed along with her and agreed it was the cleverest. She wasn't laughing inside.
Honey didn't feel like she looked today. She actually felt more like those snow covered hills in the distance. They were so cold, shielded, and desolate. She felt as if everything the whole town had loved her for was what she wanted to be for them and not what she actually was. Her battle was an inner battle. She disliked people on the whole. It got to be in the last week that every little thing about them bugged her, but she pretended that they didn't bug her, because she knew it was wrong to think such things. When no one else was around she would sit here with her basket on the floor and she didn't have to prove anything to anyone. So she let the basket spill out on the floor.
She liked being liked, but she felt it was for the wrong reasons. She had this fear that if she was ever her real self then everyone would stop liking her. Who she wished should be like is Aunt Meade. High spirited and very independent, she didn't care what anyone thought. She didn't have very many friends, but she didn't seem to mind. She felt "Honey" was a ninny and Madeleine happened to agree with her.
When Anne came to call later that day Honey's basket was still on the floor and she didn't even think about picking it up. Anne didn't know how it happened, but her friend changed that day. Independent and high spirited, she begun by loving herself and in return she started loving everyone (even all their little quirks). Do you think they stopped calling her "Honey?" Not a chance, she was sweeter than ever and the name had new meaning. As for Aunt Meade, her best friend's name was the only name included in her will. All her money was given to "Madeleine Upright: A Ninny Gone Right In A Town Of Idiots." Madeleine smiled.
"Dusted Honey Madeleine Cookies"*
Ingredients: 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour, 3 tbs of confectioners' sugar, 1/8 tsp of salt, ½ cup of melted margarine, 3 eggs, 2 tbs of honey, and the finely grated zest of one lemon.
1) Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter two madeleine pans.
2) Mix the flour and salt in a bow. Beat the eggs and the zest in a bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until pale and thick. Add the honey and beat until creamy. Fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the margarine.
3) Spoon the margarine into the prepared pans. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool the madeleines in the pans for 15 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool completely. Dust with the confectioners' sugar.
4) Enjoy the delicious lightness of these beautiful cookies.
* Base of recipe from Cookies and then I molded it from there.
Rachael Rizzo has been acting since she was nine years old. She uses her experience to write about what the things she loves mean to her (mostly movies and baking). She is twenty-three years old and resides in beautiful Oregon.
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