One Cookie and you’ll be Hooked

One day Sal and I happened to catch an episode of Hawaii Five-O on television. It was the episode that featured a murderer who was killing police officers. It was based on the original 1973 Hawaii Five-O episode called “Hook Man” that featured a double amputee as the murderer. I remember watching the original show with my father, and being amazed at what the man accomplished with his hooks. Unlike the recent episode, the original show featured J.J. Armes, a double amputee, who was a private investigator in real life. It was of special interest to us because my father was an amputee.

In February of 1955, when I was four years-old, my father was in an industrial accident that resulted in having his left arm amputated just below the elbow. He was 44 years-old at the time. He truly was an amazing man; he never considered himself disabled. He used a working man’s hook that allowed him to be a welder on submarines; paint and hang wallpaper; do mechanic work on our cars and he could tie his shoelaces with one hand. My father also had a prosthetic hand, which looked real, but did not have the capabilities of his hook. The hand was covered by a lifelike glove, which would sometimes rip, so Dad would cover the rip with a band aide.

One day a friend had come to ask my father to “lend him a hand” on some project. My father whispered to me to go upstairs and get his hand out of the bureau drawer, which he then offered to his friend. I can still see the look on that man’s face! My father was so capable that people forgot he was an amputee. He often made me his accomplice in his tricks.

For instance, he would place a dollar bill in his hook and then offer the dollar to some child with the caveat that it was theirs if they could remove it without it tearing. No matter how hard they tried, they never could retrieve the dollar. Then I, “little Miss Innocent” would pluck the dollar right out of the hook, with just a little release of pressure from Dad!

Whenever children saw him, they would point and whisper to their parents, “look, there’s Captain Hook!” He never tried to scare them and often would show them how the hook operated. Since, I never thought of my father as different, I never mentioned to new friends that he was an amputee. So when a new boy came to pick me up for a date, and my father didn’t like his looks, he would greet him by reaching out with his left hook instead of his right hand. You can imagine the effect it had on the guy! So for this trip down memory lane, I am going to share a recipe for one of Dad’s favorite cookies. They are called “Thief Boys” and they are so good you just have to steal them as soon as they are baked.

Thief Boys

1 ½ pkg. yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

¼ cup warm water

1 ½ cup butter

2 ⅓ cup sugar

¾ cup hot milk

5 cups flour

3 eggs, beaten

1 ½ cups finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350° Mix yeast, sugar and warm water together. Combine ½ cup butter and ½ cup sugar add hot milk and stir until butter is melted. Combine with the yeast mixture. Add in 2 cups flour and beat until smooth; then beat in eggs, adding remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Place in greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Divide dough into fourths. Shape each fourth into 12 inch rolls. Divide each roll into 12 pieces, and shape each piece into a 7 inch rope.

Dip each into melted butter, then sugar, then butter, then chopped nuts. Fold each rope into half; twist to make a braid.

Place on greased baking sheet and cover. Let rise until double, about 20 minutes. Bake for 15-20 minutes. This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies.