Pat Tanner

By: centraljersey.com
Explaining the origin of this holiday column takes some doing, so bear with me.
For the last several years I have taken a group cardio exercise class at Princeton Fitness & Wellness on Route 206. The class is called Ramping and I’d bet good money that you’ve never heard of it. It’s like Step, which you probably are familiar with, only it’s low-impact: Instead of stepping up onto a flat surface, you step onto a semi-circle that is tilted at a 45-degree angle. (For people with bad knees, like me, this is ideal.) The ramp’s angle is achieved via three feet, with the middle foot being higher than the two end feet. The stepping surface is divided into three colored wedges: Green, blue, and purple.
The first December that I was in the class I was surprised and tickled when, just before Christmas, our instructor, Rita Haake, handed each of us students a homemade sugar cookie in the shape of a ramp. She had cleverly used sugar crystals in the exact shades of green, blue, and purple and in just the right places and proportions to recreate our equipment in miniature. It turns out Ms. Haake does this every year, distributing about 75 to those in her morning and evening classes.
Ms. Haake, who lives in Montgomery Woods and who appears much younger than the 50 she has just turned, first came to the fitness center as a member.
"That was in October of 2003," she recalls. "I loved the gym so much that I was always there, particularly for the classes." So much so that one day her husband, Walter, a part-time musician who has since retired from his job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, suggested she look into what it would take to become an instructor. "Two months later, I was certified and teaching Ramping classes," says this mother of one, who is a red belt in Tae Kwon Do and who also teaches Group Groove classes.
Fitness apparently runs in the family. The Haakes’ son Robyn, a Montgomery High graduate who is in his junior year at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, recently earned his Army Airborne wings. He is majoring in military and political science.
Rita Haake loves to bake – artisan breads are a specialty – which is why Christina Baker, group fitness director at Princeton Fitness & Wellness Center, says, "Not only is Rita a skilled instructor, loyal friend, and committed team player, but she happens to be a darn good baker. We all look forward to her famous holiday cookie tin."
It didn’t occur to Ms. Haake to make ramp-shaped cookies when she first decided she wanted to give a small gift to each of her students, who every year chip in for a surprise gift for her. "Everybody was so nice to me, but there are so many of them," she remembers thinking. "I was considering making ornaments, so my first stop was Michael’s, the craft store. Because I like to bake, I always hit the Wilton (bakeware) aisle," she explains. "There I saw colored sugars in the exact ramp colors and thought, ‘sugar cookies!’"
Then as now she uses the cookie recipe from Sunset magazine, printed below. After she decided on these she had to come up with the ideal cookie cutter for making the hemispheric shape. "It was inspired by my favorite cocktail: a martini glass!" she says, laughing.
She cuts the resulting 4-1/2-inch circle in half and, voila! a perfect ramp-shaped wedge results. After baking, she spreads the surface with royal icing and dips the cookie into corresponding wedges of colored sugar crystals.
"The first cookie I made, I had done this backwards, so the green and purple were in the reverse positions," she chuckles.
Ms. Haake acknowledges the irony in providing butter-and-sugar-laden treats to exercisers, so every year she playfully instructs us to do "finger ramping" on the cookies before we eat them. Year in and year out, the cookies remain a big hit, as do her well-attended classes at the center.
"Ramping targets muscles in the back of your legs, including thighs, hips, and buttocks, and this is the combination most women are looking for," she says of her mostly female, mostly Baby Boomer students. The reason Ramping didn’t catch on nationwide, Ms. Haake believes, is that the original program, developed by fitness expert Gin Miller, specified recorded music accompaniment in six-eight time, like that of waltzes.
"I changed to music in four-four time," she says, which includes virtually all rock-and-roll. "Upbeat music is such a big part of the class!"
Students such as myself and Brenda Fallon of Rocky Hill agree. Ms. Fallon says, "I always tell my friends that Rita’s classes – her smile and her energy – provide a wonderful start to the day."
Once a year, they also come with a sweet homemade surprise.
SUGAR COOKIES Sunset Magazine
3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Decorative sugar
1. In large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and the 1 cup sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
2. In another bowl, stir together flour, baking power, and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, blending thoroughly, to form a soft dough. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (at least 1 hour) or for up to 3 days.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured board, roll out dough, a portion at a time, to thickness of 1/8-inch (keep remaining portions refrigerated). Cut out with cookie cutters (about 2-1/2-inches in diameter) and place slightly apart on ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle generously with sugar.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Transfer to racks and let cool completely before handling. Store airtight.
Makes about 4 dozen.
ROYAL ICING Sunset Magazine
In small bowl of an electric mixer, beat 1 egg white with 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar and a dash of salt for 1 minute at high speed. Add 2 cups sifted powdered sugar and beat slowly until blended; then beat at high speed until very stiff (3 to 5 minutes).