My Mother

Things my mother loved:

• Cooking
• Baking
• Viennese cooking and baking
• Especially Linzer Torte
  

Tricks my mother taught me:

• Keeping a cannister of vanilla sugar in the pantry by cutting up a vanilla bean into one inch pieces and putting them into a cannister of sugar. (You'll never have to use artificial vanilla flavoring if you use this sugar for baking.)
• How to make the special lattice top for Linzer Torte

Things my mother would have loved if she were still alive today:

• Costco
• Large bags of almonds available at Costco
• Hand-held Braun electric grinders, sold for grinding coffee beans but can be used for grinding just about anything

Tricks my mother probably would have figured out on her own if she were still alive today, but that she would have been proud of me for coming up with on my own:

• Grinding up (in my hand-held Braun electric grinder) my own almonds (from Costco) and keeping them in a cannister in the pantry for making Linzer Torte, instead of paying exorbitant supermarket prices for ground almonds

Reasons I wish my mother were still alive today:

• To taste my really great Linzer Torte with the lattice top that looks just like hers