Her maternal grandparents were Donald and Svea Jacobs.

“My grandmother was born in Sweden in 1923. Her parents brought her to Jamestown as a baby. She could not speak English when she started school and was actually held back a year because of it. She passed away in 2003.”

“She’s the one my mom always watched growing up, but the Swedish Dreams Cookies was actually my grandmother’s father’s recipe. My great-grandpa Albert literally made hundreds of Dreams every year, most of which he mailed to or gave away to people. My mom said that my grandma actually rarely made the Dreams. It went straight to my mom from Great Grandpa,” she says. “I was about three when he died, but I remember he smelled like moth balls. He was a stubborn Swede.”

She has several of her grandmother’s recipes and her mother reminds her “not to forget this or that” even though it is not written.

Pictured is a small representation of Amanda Jones’ beautifully decorated Christmas cookies.

“Mom always tells me to roll the Pepparkakor thin, but not too thin. She has made them since I was a little girl. They are a Christmas staple. She always loved baking and I think my love of baking came from watching her. She gave me tips about how to roll cookies and how to spread frosting. She was always a stay at home mom and we always had homemade food.”

“My mother is Christmas. Our house was like a winter wonderland. When I see certain things I get excited. She has a little wooden sleigh and she wraps little boxes,” she recalls. “I was so excited as a kid to put the boxes in the sleigh. She has a handmade fabric tree and it is actually kind of ugly, but I told her I want it one day.”

“She would always hang tinsel garland around every doorway in every room. They have an old house and it is country. It just looks really pretty decorated for Christmas.”

“I don’t do anything Christmas before Thanksgiving, because when I grew up watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Santa was always at the end and that was the start of Christmas for me. That’s when I would go through the Brand Names catalog and would circle things.”

“The day after Thanksgiving my mother would get out the Christmas cards from the year before and we would cut them out to make tags.”

“On Christmas Eve we have a traditional Smorgasbord with the aunts, uncles and cousins on my Mom’s side. The kids sit in the kitchen and the adults in the dining room. We always have ham and korv every year. We always serve the strawberry jam with rice pudding and Christmas is pretty much the only time we have the rice pudding. I watched my mom and got tips to make it just right. It was my grandmother’s recipe. Over the past several years my aunt and uncle make glogg, a drink that is warmed. When more cousins were around we did family pictures in front of the tree. The adults sit in the living room and the kids hand out presents from youngest to oldest. We always take turns.”

“We have one kind of weird tradition. We have a wrapping paper war. We wad up the paper and throw it at each other. I don’t know who started that, probably my dad.”

“When I was a kid we had to come downstairs with our eyes closed and could not look at the tree until she took a picture of us kids on the stairs,” the Randolph mom says. “We always opened our stockings first.”

“I make a ton of Christmas cookies every year and a couple kinds of fudge. I have about a dozen tins that I fill. Most get given away to the neighbors, the bus driver and a couple of friends.”

She tells about following her parents’ tradition of having live Christmas trees.

“A lot of people have themed trees, or all one color on a tree. We don’t. Ours is a disorganized conglomeration of every ornament my husband and I got over the years since childhood. It’s our wedding ornaments we received as a wedding gift from my brother and sister-in-law in 2004. The “first home” ornament and the “expecting” ornament we received from Mike’s grandparents, after finding out we were finally expecting, after a year of trying to conceive. It’s our children’s first Christmas ornaments and the homemade ornaments I’ve received from one of my very best friends. Every year, I put them up and there’s always some memory that comes to mind, who it was received from, how long ago it was, etc,” she remembers fondly.

“Sadly, last year, our Christmas tree fell over. Several of our ornaments were shattered on our wood floor. I was devastated. Now, I tend to be a bit overly emotional and sentimental. I literally sat at our dining room table with a bottle of super glue sobbing, attempting to salvage as many ornaments as I could. Most people probably wouldn’t be that bothered by losing a few ornaments. But to me, they’re memories and traditions. It literally broke my heart when one ornament, which I had received from my now deceased grandpa as a little girl, was broken beyond repair. It wasn’t anything super great, but it was the only thing I had from him. It may sound a little silly, but I’m hoping my boys will feel those connections even as they grow into young men.”

A new tradition she has started with her sons is setting up a tall wooden Santa that contains 24 drawers. Small surprises or treats are added to each drawer. The children take turns opening the drawer of the day. The Elf on the Shelf and a reindeer reappear annually on Thanksgiving Night.

“They absolutely love it! They can touch the reindeer, but not the elf.”

Mrs. Jones lists baking as her “biggest hobby.”

“I have so many baking supplies and cake decorating things.”

She also likes flower gardening. She works part-time at Cattaraugus County Bank and Adams Lumber Company.

“In fact, they get a lot of my treats at Adams Lumber Company.”

She is married to Mike Jones who is a conductor for Buffalo-Pittsburgh Railroad and an avid fisherman and hunter, having shot a ten-point buck the morning of the first day of deer season.

“He loves the Buffalo Bills,” says their eight-year-old son, Braden.

What are the boys’ memories of Christmases past?

Six year old Brice is looking forward to getting toys. “I like Elfie and Buck (the reindeer) and I like eating cookies.”

“I like the train,” says four year old Brody.

Braden says he likes to put up the decorations, play in the snow with Brice and open presents. He talks about the remote control train they display around the tree and how it has to be set up in a special way.

They all enjoy camping and the outdoors. Two nine-year-old miniature Dachshund brothers, Jack and Rosco and Summer and Snow their cats are the furry occupants in the home.  Amanda’s parents are Carol and Bill Pearson of Randolph.

Swedish Rice Pudding

¢ c rice

5 c milk

¢ tsp salt

6 eggs

1 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Strawberry jam, optional

Read method first.

Cook rice with milk and ¢ tsp. salt on low-medium heat. Add the milk 1 cup at a time, bringing to a boil after each cup, stirring constantly. Mixture will thicken after each cup of milk. Continue this for a half hour to one hour.

In a large oven-safe mixing bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla. Stir hot cooked rice into this mixture.

Bake in mixing bowl at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the middle is no longer runny. Can serve warm or cold. Top with strawberry jam.

Broccoli

Cheese Casserole

2 square packages frozen, chopped broccoli

1 egg

1 can cream of mushroom soup

¢ c mayonnaise

1 c grated sharp cheese

¢ medium onion, diced

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Cook the broccoli and drain (can cook in the microwave according to the directions on the package). Add the remaining ingredients and stir. Bake covered for 35 minutes; then uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes, or until set and not runny.

See

RECIPES,

Page C3

Recipes

From Page C1

Swedish Meatballs

1 lb ground beef

¢ c bread crumbs

2 T chopped onion

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Sprinkle of nutmeg

1 egg

¢ c milk

Mix all ingredients in large bowl. Form into balls. Fry in pan on stovetop (add 1 T oil before frying), or bake on greased cookie sheet in oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, turning half way through baking.

Apple Bread

1 c oil

3 eggs

2 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

¢ tsp cloves

Sprinkle of salt

3 c peeled and diced apples

Optional: ™ c sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon, for topping

Grease and flour loaf pans (can use regular loaf pans or mini loaf pans).

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In large bowl, beat eggs. Then add sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Once well mixed, add vanilla and oil. Beat until mixture is well incorporated. Fold in apples. Mix ™ c sugar with 2 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle each loaf with this mixture. Bake in regular loaf pans for 1 ¢ hours or mini loaf pans for 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cherry Bonbons

¢ c butter, softened

§ c confectioner’s sugar

1 T vanilla

1 ¢ c flour

1/8 tsp salt

1 small jar maraschino cherries, without stems

Food coloring, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain cherries, RESERVING THE JUICE. Slightly dry with a paper towel. Mix butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Blend in flour and salt thoroughly with hands. Using small amounts of dough, wrap each cherry inside a ball of dough. Roll in hands to allow dough to close around the cherry. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until set, but not brown. Cool cookies.

Mix together: 1 T melted butter, ¢ tsp vanilla and reserved cherry juice. Add powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time until you have a glaze consistency. May take ¢ c. powdered sugar or more. Color with food coloring, if desired.  Dip tops of cooled cookies into glaze mixture; sprinkle with red sugar if desired, before glaze hardens. Store in a cool place.

Caramel Corn

2 c brown sugar

¢ c light corn syrup

1 stick butter

1 stick margarine

1 tsp salt

¢ tsp soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 c popcorn kernels

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Heavily butter large roaster pan. In hot air popcorn popper, prepare popcorn. (I pop it directly into my prepared roaster pan). Set aside.

On stovetop, bring brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, margarine and salt to a boil over low-medium heat, stirring constantly. DO NOT BURN. Remove from heat and quickly add soda and vanilla. Stir until mixture is smooth and creamy. You will notice it changes to a much lighter color at this point. Pour mixture over popcorn, stirring with a rubber spatula until popcorn is evenly covered. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven; pour onto waxed paper to allow cooling. Separate the chunks into smaller pieces if needed. Store in air tight container or tin, or put into zip lock bags.

Cutout Sugar Cookies

1 c butter, softened

1 c sugar

2 eggs plus 1 T milk

¢ tsp vanilla

¢ tsp almond extract

3 ¢ c cake flour (can also use regular flour)

¢ tsp baking powder

¢ tsp soda

¢ tsp salt

Combine butter, sugar, eggs and extracts with electric mixer on high until fluffy. Add dry ingredients and STIR thoroughly. Chill in freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll and cut as desired on heavily floured cutting board. Bake 4-6 minutes or until bottoms are light brown.  Cool. Frost as desired.

Great-Grandpa Albert’s Swedish Dreams (Dromkokar)

¢ c shortening

1 c butter, softened (do not melt!)

2 c sugar

2 tsp baking ammonia (crushed very fine)

2 tsp vanilla sugar

3 c flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream shortening, butter and sugar. Add the dry ingredients and mix into a soft, smooth dough; dough should not be sticky. Form into 1-inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes. Cookies will stay very light, but bottoms should be slightly browned. Bake long enough that the center doesn’t sink. Cool on wax paper.

20-Second Cookie Icing

2 lbs confectioner’s sugar

1/3  c plus 1 T meringue powder

§ c warm water

3 tsp almond or vanilla extract

Mix dry ingredients. Add water and extract (consistency will be thick like honey). Mix on high about 5 minutes or until stiff and shiny, like meringue.

Color in desired color(s). Thin with water (1/2 tsp. at a time) until toothpaste consistency. You do not want any peaks in icing at this point, nor do you want it to be too liquid. Place in icing bag or icing bottles and decorate cookies. Allow icing to dry 20 minutes before icing areas of different colors that touch, otherwise colors will bleed together. (For example — Frost a snowman white; allow to dry 20 minutes; then add black eyes & mouth and orange nose over top of the white so the colors don’t mix).

Notes: Keep unused icing covered at all times with a damp cloth to prevent drying out. Store covered in refrigerator up to one month. Mix well to fluff prior to next use.

Swedish Pepparkakor

¢ lb butter, softened (do not melt!)

1 ¢ c sugar

1 T corn syrup

1 egg, beaten

1 ¢ tsp soda

2 ¢ c flour

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ginger

2 tsp cloves

Cream butter, sugar, corn syrup and egg with mixer. Then add dry ingredients with hands until well mixed. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Roll dough VERY THIN (1/8″) onto heavily floured cutting board. Cut with cookie cutters and decorate with colored sugar, as desired. Bake for 5-6 minutes until bottoms are very lightly browned. Cool on wax paper. Cookies should be crispy after cooled, not chewy.

Peanut Butter Balls

1 stick butter

1-16 oz jar peanut butter

1 lb confectioners’ sugar

3 c crisp rice cereal

2 c milk, dark or white chocolate wafers

Sprinkles

Melt butter and peanut butter together in microwave. In separate bowl. Combine sifted confectioner’s sugar and cereal. Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal and mix thoroughly. Make into small balls and place on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Put in freezer for about 10 minutes. Melt chocolate wafers until smooth. Remove peanut butter balls from freezer and dip into chocolate. Decorate with sprinkles if desired. Put back in freezer for 10 more minutes or until set. Store in air tight container or tin. Keep in a cool place.