On an unfortunate day in the 1970s, a couple of young lads were led into temptation by their love of shortbread. They stole a 5-gallon can of cookies from the Kailua High School cafeteria, which may have seemed a harmless prank, but not to Edith Ichimasa, the cafeteria manager.
Welcome to the criminal justice system, boys.
"We reported it to the police, and they discovered them eating the cookies outside," Ichimasa said.
Later, in court, "the judge asked if I would want the cookies back, and I said, ‘No, absolutely not. But you can have them if you’d like.’"
The students (or their parents, probably) were ordered to pay restitution, which Ichimasa remembers was more than $100. An expensive lesson, but the risk they took is one that many of us public school survivors can understand.
Cafeteria shortbread cookies were simply the best. I remember roving bands of boys at my school, swiping the precious bars off plates. I once threatened one of them with a fork. Thugs.
I receive frequent requests for school-lunch recipes, with the uniting thread being shortbread. Many readers remember volunteering for cafeteria duty because they’d get extra.
Ichimasa, now 91, retired in 1982 but still has the cookie recipe they used at Kailua High throughout her tenure. The key to the cookie’s deliciousness: loads of butter, which would seem an extravagance. "Those days, we received cases of butter from the federal government," she said. "So it was no problem."
| TALES FROM THE CAFETERIA
If you are a former cafeteria manager whose career began in the 1930s through the ’70s, I’m interested in your stories and recipes. There’s a cookbook in this, I’m sure. Please get in touch. The contact information is at the end of this column. Don’t be shy.
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Federal government surplus, or "commodity food," was the impetus for many cafeteria meals that have become classics — canned luncheon meat, sliced and baked; American cheese, layered in baked spaghetti and lasagna; bulgur wheat, used to stretch meatloaf; rice and canned tomatoes, the basis of that cafeteria staple Spanish rice.
Ichimasa lived all of that. "They allot so many pounds and we had to use them."
She started at Kekaha School on Kauai just before World War II, after graduating from McKinley High School. Her career continued on Oahu, at Lunalilo, Kalihi Kai and Kailua elementary schools, then Kailua Intermediate and finally the high school starting in the early ’60s.
She had wanted to become a teacher but couldn’t afford college. "I thought, oh well, cafeteria manager was the closest thing to teaching in school."
Shortbread was baked nearly every day at the high school, Ichimasa said, and they kept several 5-gallon cans full. Cookies were sold as an add-on to the 25-cent daily lunch, four for a dime. Sometimes they added nuts, she said, but the kids preferred their shortbread plain.
Years after her retirement, Ichimasa’s former students still carry a torch for those cookies. "I was in the hospital, and one of the nurses recognized me. She asked if I ever share the recipe."
Yes, she does.
KAILUA HIGH SCHOOL SHORTBREAD COOKIES
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
2-1/3 cups sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease a 9-inch baking pan or line with baking parchment.
Cream butter. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Work in flour and salt with fingertips until well combined and crumbly. Press evenly into baking pan. Prick all over with fork. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool slightly, then cut into bars.
Nutritional information unavailable.
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Write "By Request," Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813. Call 529-4768 or email bshimabukuro@ staradvertiser.com.
Correction: Two sticks of butter is about 1 cup. An earlier version of this story said it was 1/2 a cup.
