[Tio Gato]

My Grandma Nina made the best chocolate chip cookies. She had a simple recipe that all in our family have tried to make, but they were simply not the same.
My mother began to suspect that the secret was Nina's old oven. Finally the old stove gave up the ghost and she had to get a new one. The cookies were never the same. There must have been some magic in that old oven.

My other grandmother made the best pickles, all different types. The best were salt pickles. She sliced cukes into quarters lengthwise and placed them in a colander. She covered them with a tremendous amount of salt and let them sit in the basement for 3 days. The salt leached a lot of the water out of the cukes and gave them nice texture. She then pickled them. I miss these pickles tremendously. They are fantastic with cold beer.