From time to time, people have approached me and asked why we cover most other arts, entertainment, hobby and enjoyment-related beats in the arts and entertainment section we call Enjoy. We have done features on new restaurants, award-winning chefs, and we even print book reviews including new batches of cookbooks.

But when it comes to presenting recipes simply for the enjoyment of cooking at home, The Newtown Bee has been running without a regular food column for a number of years now.

That is about to change.

We would like to extend an invitation to the community to help me with a column that will be called "Favorite Recipes of Friends & Family." It will run once or twice a month, depending on the number of submissions received and the interest it generates.

We would like to hear from you, our readers. Send (or email or fax) a note with your favorite recipe, and what makes it so special to you. Is it a family recipe that has been passed down to you? Are there photographs of you and/or your ancestors that could be printed along with the recipe and its story? Send them all in! We will take care of your treasured photographs and return them in the same condition they arrived.

Does your aunt always make a particular cake every time you visit? Have you always loved making a special salad that was introduced to you years ago by a co-worker; now every time you make this salad you think of your dear friend?

Do you make special cookies for your children?

Is your father the main cook in the house, and does he have special recipes you enjoy more than others?

If you have a recipe and there is a reason it is special to you, those are the stories we are looking for.

Send your recipes, stories, and photos (if available) to Shannon Hicks, The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470. If you want to send everything by email, it can go to shannon@thebee.com. If you want to fax your recipe and story and send the photo separately (faxed photos will not work), the number is 426-5169.

I'll get the ball rolling with a story of my own.

Hope to see you in the kitchen soon.

When I think of my grandmother, I envision her in the kitchen, whether in the kitchen of the farmhouse she and my grandfather lived in while living in one corner of East Lebanon, Me., during the early 70s, or in the small kitchen of the mobile home across town they later moved into. Even now that they are in their own apartment in Sanford, Me., I generally think of her sitting at the kitchen table preparing ingredients for something or shuffling back and forth from the oven to the table.

There were afternoons when I would visit her and she would have me peeling carrots for dinner. Or I would be asked to use my hands to mix the dough of the oatmeal cookie recipe my family laughingly refers to as Aggression Cookies — "by mixing by hand, you can take your aggressions out on the cookies" we all recite. With Grandma things are done from scratch whenever possible.

When I was growing up, I never understood the significance behind the simple shortbread cookies my grandmother baked. Tiny cookies these are, usually not much larger than a half-dollar, and so flaky they melt into your mouth at the first bite. Grandma and Grandpa both get dreamy looks in their eyes every now and then when they are eating them.

Years ago I learned the meaning of these delicious little cookies.

When my grandparents were married in October 1941, as I have been told, neither of their families had a lot of money and so a large church wedding was out of the question. Besides, there was a war going on. A large wedding was an impractical use of money during that historic time of scrimping and saving every penny.

My grandfather's family, the Perleys, was firmly ensconced along Lane Street in Huntington, and my grandmother's family, the Rehnborgs, lived nearby. The meeting by chance encounter of Ken Perley and Elizabeth (Betty) Rehnborg is another wonderful story, but for the purpose of this column we will skip straight to the wedding day.

When Grandma and Grandpa decided to get married, they chose a small church in upstate Connecticut for their wedding. Only the immediate family, two friends, and two attendants attended.

My grandparents had planned to leave immediately after the ceremony for New Hampshire, where they honeymooned. The others were all going back home, with plans to stop for dinner along the way.

But the minister's wife had other plans for the newlyweds and their small gathering. Before everyone could leave, the minister's wife invited the party into the church's rectory for a gathering with refreshments and coffee, and among the refreshments were cookies the wife identified as Scotch Shortbread.

We have only a few photographs of my grandparents from that wedding day nearly six decades ago. In one of them the young couple is standing on the front steps of the church. Grandpa, so handsome, looks happy and very proud to have won the heart of the beautiful woman who is still at his side, and Grandma is actually biting her lip, the nervous bride! But in their eyes is a dreamy look of love, which has lasted 59-plus years and countless batches of that wonderful shortbread.

Scotch Shortbread

From the kitchen of Grandma Perley,

via Mrs McKenzie ("the minister's wife")

2 cups butter (no substitute)

1 cup brown sugar

4 cups flour, sifted twice

Put butter in a mixing bowl and let stand until it is soft enough to work with. Cream the brown sugar into it, then work in the flour.

Pat out the dough on a lightly floured board to about a ¼-inch thickness (a little thicker is okay), and cut the dough into any shape. Prick the top of each cookie with a fork, then place on an ungreased cookie sheet about one inch apart.

Bake in a 325° oven until light brown (approximately ten minutes). Cool slightly before removing from pan to rack for complete cooking.

(Recipe yields 40 small cookies, each about 1½ to 2 inches.)