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   Food writers don’t deal in earth shattering issues. But food does bring people together. Which is why a lot of the world’s problems are solved while sitting around the dinner table. Or around a simmering crab pot with a favorite brother you don’t see nearly enough. Or over a cup of tea with your mother.   And of course, there’s also the evocative element of food. How simple things like baking shortbread or sipping a single-malt scotch can kindle images of beloved people from our past.  So,  when an email arrived from a reader in search of a family recipe I decided to get in on the hunt. My own family has made great efforts over the years to get our hands on Grandma Roberts’ gum drop cookie recipe, to perfect Grandma Skinners griddle scones, and to make sure the McMillan chutney recipe was being made according to my Great Aunt Meg’s finicky standards.

   This woman was in search of a recipe for candy coating hazelnuts like the ones her grandmother - Grandma Aden - in Wilsonville used to make. In her note, Marcia said that her search had begun “during two post-funeral family gatherings this past spring, (when) we cousins were reminiscing about the old world family foods we used to enjoy during the holidays, and the family patriarch, my 90-year-old uncle from Spokane, was avidly quizzing each of us to see if anyone had that recipe for candied filberts.” 

   Marcia had provided a terrific description of the treasured recipe: “It was something simple that my grandmother kept in her head and involved covering roasted filberts with a light, subtle, buttery, brown-sugar type of coating and, I think, roasting them a second time. The coating did not make the nuts clump together the way a caramely coating would, and the finished coating was not chewy or hard but more on the dry, un-sticky side; the nuts stayed separate, and the coating enhanced their natural flavor and aroma rather than overpowering them.

   “Needless to say,” she concluded, “eleven grateful cousins (none of whom seem to have inherited Gram’s talent in the kitchen) and two elderly uncles would be thrilled to be able to eat these treats again.”

   I poured through old cookbooks and Googled  “candied filberts,” but was getting nowhere. The pay-off came through a phone call to friends, Wayne and Joanne Chambers. As second-generation filbert growers, they live eat and breathe filberts. If anybody had bumped into this particular nutty confection it would be the Chambers.

   “Let me check with Wayne’s cousin,” said Joanne. From that inquiry, two recipes arrived in the mail. One of them struck me as a contender, so I headed into the kitchen to give it a test run.     In an email back to Marcia, I told her that I was possibly on the right track. “As you suspected, the recipe for the batch in question was really straightforward. After roasting and rubbing off the peel, the nuts are roasted again on a baking sheet in a puddle of Karo light syrup and butter (with a sprinkling of salt). They’re stirred several times during the roasting. The finished nuts have a light glaze on them as you described and don’t stick together.”

   I mailed off a batch for her to taste, fingers crossed. Her response was swift: “Dear Jan...Thank you so very, very much for the delicious hazelnut treats! They arrived in excellent shape...and I have been sneaking a few every chance I get. They are perfect! On behalf of the entire family (all of whom will soon be making their own batches), I thank you for all your help...Thank you for giving this part of our grandmother back to us! We are all more grateful than you can imagine...”

   At a time of year when we are all teetering on the edge of chaos there is many a household that will forgo making and sharing whatever recipes define that family. And that’s a shame. You see, if I had one wish for the holidays, it would be to travel back in time to sit at one more family dinner surrounded by my loud, lively, and oh-so-loving relatives now gone. And with that impossibility as my goal, the very least I can do is make the food that had meaning to us then and share it with those who mean the world to me now. 

   And if in so doing I perpetuate just a fraction of the love and nurturing that enveloped me during my youth, well then, my wish for that perfect Christmas season will have been granted.

   With that in mind, instead of frantically revising your to-do list to accommodate one more event, do not second guess the value of any of the following:

   - Family time around the table.

   - A midnight cup of cocoa with your home-from-college youngster.

   - The boxes of homemade fudge (or pickles! or peanut brittle!) you are mailing to your string of relatives living far from home.

    - Cooking with your kids and grandkids.

    - Simple gatherings with good friends.

   - Sharing a Thermos of hot soup with your best friend at the top of a nearby peak.

   Grandma Aden's Candied Hazelnuts

   This is the recipe that Marcia's family had me find for them. It's a great treat to make during the holidays - both as gifts and to have on hand.  I’ve been serving them to drop-in-friends, along with a glass of wine this month and they’ve been a big hit.

4 cups shelled hazelnuts

1 tablespoon butter

4 tablespoons light Karo syrup
   Place hazelnuts on a jelly roll pan and toast in a 350 degree oven just until very pale golden brown and the outer papery skins are beginning to crack and separate from the nut. Remove from oven and let cool. Pour into a large terry cloth towel and either fold it over or place another towel on top. Rub vigorously back and forth through the towel to peel away the skins from the hazelnuts. This can be done several days ahead and the nuts stored in an airtight container.

   When ready to candy the hazelnuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the 1 tablespoon of butter in the center of a jelly roll pan (or any baking sheet with sides), and put the pan in the oven to melt the butter. When the butter has melted, mix in the Karo syrup, then add the skinned filberts. Sprinkle lightly with salt and using a wide spatula, stir the nuts around in the syrup/butter mixture to evenly coat the nuts and spread them into a flat layer in the pan.

   Begin roasting the nuts, stirring about every 5 to 7 minutes so they stay evenly coated with the syrup as it cooks.

   In preparation for cooling the nuts, spread a large sheet of waxed paper or parchment paper on the counter. Then, when the nuts are a lovely golden brown, remove from oven and pour them out onto the paper to cool, quickly spreading them apart so they don’t touch each other during cooling. (It’s not a tragedy if some stick together; they break apart very easily after cooled.)   That’s it. When the nuts are completely cool, store them in an airtight container.

   Grandma Roberts’ Gum Drop Cookies

    These were a favorite any-time treat in the Roberts household .  Special thanks to my childhood pal, Debbie Trevithick, for reminding me that they should be included in this post!

1 cup butter (2 cubes) softened to room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon baking soda

2-1/4 cups sifted flour, divided

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon hot water

1-1/2 cups chopped gumdrops (assorted fruit flavors; please, no “sour” or mint); see "tip" below

½ cups chopped toasted walnuts

With hand-held or free-standing mixer, cream butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Cream in both sugars. Beat in eggs.

Sift flour, soda, salt and cinnamon together and stir into the butter/sugar mixture, mixing well. Add the teaspoon of hot water. Stir in the gumdrops and nuts.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drop batter by rounded teaspoons onto lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

If batter is chilled before using, the cookies will be crisper.

Tip: Cut the gumdrops into small pieces (about 1/4-inch) with kitchen scissors or sharp knife and dip the blade(s) into the 1/4 cup  flour so the pieces won’t stick together.