The offensive pink carpet (and a very cute dog)

It all started with the carpet. Our stairs and upstairs hallway has pink carpet. It’s horrific. And guess who picked it out? Me. Yup. When we moved here, we replaced the carpet in our bedroom and hallway. It made sense to make it all one color. The dusty pink is perfect in the bedroom which has a kind of English garden theme going on, plus you don’t really see much of the carpet in that room. But in the hall and on the stairs, it’s awful. It’s also gotten dirty and worn over the years.

Replacing that carpet has been on my wish list for several years. Last year we went and picked out replacement carpeting. We never got around to having someone come to measure, because the dominoes started to fall.

Before we replace the carpet, we really needed to paint the metal railing the runs along the upper hallway. We pondered if we should replace it and went to look at replacements which couldn’t hold a candle to this. It’s actually very pretty, with scrollwork, but over the years the paint has chipped and dogs have been known to rest their mouths on it. It needed to be painted. And it would need to be painted before we replaced the carpet.

We then  realized we needed to paint the baseboards in the hall to match the railing. And then we would need to do the doors in the hallway (4 bedroom doors and one bathroom – several of them have big chips and since the paint in this house is over 40 years old, nothing ever matched it for patching). But then what about the hallway downstairs? We have area rugs there that match the living room carpet. Replace those? Paint down there?

This was a project that kept expanding every time we talked about it.

Finally we found a painter and got an estimate for the upstairs and downstairs halls and the stairway. We ripped up the carpet so that he could do a thorough painting job. And in doing so, we remembered it’s all hardwood underneath the carpet. It was also at this point that I realized we would have hallway carpet that butts up against carpeting in several rooms – it would look like a patchwork of carpet, all different colors.

Maybe we should just put runners down and leave the hardwood to avoid this problem? The

Pre-paint railing

wood was in very good condition it seemed. So off we went to the store and picked out runners. Then we finished ripping up the carpet and discovered two major problems:

1. Some of the hardwood doesn’t quite make it to the walls, so we would need to add shoe molding

2. The strips of wood and tacks around the walls leave giant, awful holes in the hardwood when you remover them. There are also huge holes around the posts of the railings where carpet had

Imperfect hardwood

been tacked down. It was really awful looking.

So if we wanted to go with hardwood, we would need to have it repaired and refinished. We thought about this for a bit but then realized that all of the hardwood floors in this house run into each other. If we’re going to redo them, it would make sense to do them all at once. Suddenly the simple project of getting a small amount of new carpeting was expanding to a major remodel.

After painful financial calculations, we gave up and ended up where we started: we’re putting in carpet in the hall and stairs (waiting for it to come in – I’ll post pics when it is finally installed).  We had both halls and the stairway painted and we’re calling it a day. It’s not perfect, but at least I no longer have to look at that horrible pink carpet.

Do you have any home repair projects that take on a life of their own like this?

It all started with the carpet. Our stairs and upstairs hallway has pink carpet. It’s horrific. And guess who picked it out? Me. Yup. When we moved here, we replaced the carpet in our bedroom and hallway. It made sense to make it all one color. The dusty pink is perfect in the bedroom which … Read more →

Sometimes throwing something on the grill is the simplest way to get dinner together. But without a little kick, grilled meat can get pretty boring. Try this easy marinade to liven up your pork chops.

Molasses Marinated Pork Chops

 

Print

Ingredients

• ¼ cup molasses
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon dried mustard
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon bottle chili sauce
• ½ cup chicken broth
• ¼ teaspoon fresh ground horseradish
• 1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
• 4 pork chops

Instructions

1. Mix the ingredients together in a small bowl. Place your pork chops in a ziploc bag or glass dish. Pour the marinade over them, and marinate for at least an hour, turning the chops halfway through. Grill.

3.2.1230

Sometimes throwing something on the grill is the simplest way to get dinner together. But without a little kick, grilled meat can get pretty boring. Try this easy marinade to liven up your pork chops. Molasses Marinated Pork Chops   Print Ingredients ¼ cup molasses 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar ¼ teaspoon dried mustard ¼ … Read more →

Cactus leaves

A new store just opened up in our area, called Orchard Fresh. Owned by another area grocery chain, it seems like a Whole Foods reinvention. We decided to investigate and it was a lot of fun.

In the produce section I was happy to see everything was organic and they had some interesting things I can’t find locally, like cactus leaves, plantains, and tons of fresh herbs. I picked up some pea shoots

Fish

and ginger root (which has suddenly been absent from my usual store).

I hit the jackpot in the fish department though. Stone crab! I recently wrote about how to prepare these and mentioned they are non-existent in my neck of the woods. Now if I have a craving, I know where to find them. There was also a tank of live crayfish (which looked way too much like bugs for me to even imagine bringing them home). Then I stumbled on the fresh Hawaiian fish, which is flown in daily. What a treat to be able to bring some of this home. I get tired of salmon, sole, tuna, haddock

Fish for dinner

and mahi. We bought home hapuka and sunfish, which I made that same night. I grilled the hapuka, which is an oily fish, but with a mild flaky texture. I loved the sunfish which I breaded and panfried. It has a small white flake and is very mild. I find the best way to learn about a new fish is to make it very simply prepared, with just lemon on it. I would make the hapuka again, but it needs a sauce to balance its oiliness. The sunfish was perfect panfried. I might add a brown butter sauce with some sliced almonds if I wanted it to be a little fancier.

Other treats awaited us, such as a gelato bar, Sarabeth’s brand baked goods, a wide selection of different sea salts and even a very interesting sea salt block, which you are supposed to set right on your stove or grill and cook on top of.

I was a bit disappointed by the gluten free selection. There was an aisle marked “gluten free” but it didn’t have much. We then found GF items stuck in among other aisles. Some had

Game

gluten-free tags on the shelves, and some didn’t, making them very hard to find.

To match the seafood selection, there was also a great selection of game. Fresh frog legs, fresh bison, and quail eggs were in the butcher’s case. In the frozen section we found elk, camel (?), alligator, and high end beef.

It was fun to visit a new store and bring home some fun new foods to try.

A new store just opened up in our area, called Orchard Fresh. Owned by another area grocery chain, it seems like a Whole Foods reinvention. We decided to investigate and it was a lot of fun. In the produce section I was happy to see everything was organic and they had some interesting things I … Read more →

We recently had some painting done, which meant emptying out a room. We have baseboard forced water heaters in our house and I’ve never paid much attention to them, other than to dust them once in a while. While getting the room ready, we noticed the front of one of these had come loose. My husband removed it and was getting ready to put it back on when I happened to actually look inside. Horrific sight. The coils of the radiator were covered in dog fur (we have two golden retrievers). It never occurred to me that the covers might come off these and there might be nastiness lurking underneath. We vacuumed it out and then went on to do some other rooms. I’m hoping to do a few each weekend.

It’s sort of stunning to think you have a clean house and then discover hidden dirt in a place you never even thought to look! Where have you been horrified to discover dirt in your house?

We recently had some painting done, which meant emptying out a room. We have baseboard forced water heaters in our house and I’ve never paid much attention to them, other than to dust them once in a while. While getting the room ready, we noticed the front of one of these had come loose. My … Read more →

I have teamed up with some other bloggers to create this amazing, outrageous, and stupendous Great Mother’s Day Giveaway. ONE lucky winner is going to win ALL of the prizes listed below (and shown at the left). The prizes are outstanding – books, DVDs, a gift certificate, and a beading kit. This is quite a haul. I’m pretty envious of whoever wins, actually!

Entering is easy. Leave a comment on this post and you have one chance to win. Want to up your odds? You can also enter once at each of the blogs listed below which will increase your chances of winning. All the blogs are posting this giveaway today, April 22 and you can enter on those posts at any time. Enter now because you don’t want to miss out on this. The winner will be chosen the day after Mother’s Day. You don’t have to be a mother to enter, but this sure would be something lovely to be able to give your mom — or keep for yourself!

I highly recommend you click through to check out all of these blogs. They are all well-written and offer unique perspectives about food, marriage, friendship, travel, health, jewelry, movies, and parenting. I read them all regularly and learn so much from all of them.

*From Project: Happily Ever After

One copy of Project: Happily Ever After, by Alisa Bowman, a memoir of how the author saved her marriage. Partly tragic and partly humorous, the book will help you feel normal, give you helpful tools to try at home, and leave you with a pervading sense that you are not alone.

*From Belle Jewelry Designs:

One Bead Kit and Pattern to make Dainty Daisies Bracelet by Claudine Jalajas. Every year my children give me flowers for the garden for Mother’s Day. It’s one of my favorite gifts. This bracelet reminds me of Mother’s Day for that reason. This pattern and bead kit will provide you with everything you need to create this lovely bracelet. The design is created using a cross-weave technique which is great for anyone from never-touched-a-needle-thread-before to advanced weaver. Most people can create the bracelet in an hour. It is woven using 4mm and 6mm genuine Swarovski crystallized pearls for the flowers, TOHO seed beads for vines, and potato pearls to simulate leaves. The clasp is a lobster clasp. This design also makes a gorgeous anklet–just increase the size. Claudine’s bracelet design book, Wearable Art,  featuring more than 25 bracelet designs, will be released Fall 2014 by Running Press.

*From Attainable Sustainable:

One copy of  Off the Shelf: Homemade alternatives to the condiments, toppings, and snacks you love from Kris Bordessa who shares a collection of recipes that take your favorite condiments and pantry staples off the grocery store shelves and puts them right in your (very capable) hands. Make hummus, pesto, fresh salsa, and a Caesar ranch dressing that will knock your socks off. Whip up a batch of hot fudge sauce or chocolate pudding to indulge your sweet tooth. If you can chop, dice, and stir you (or your kids, mom!) can make any of these recipes and more right at home.

*From MyKidsEatSquid:

One $25 Gift Certificate for King Arthur Flour, from My KidsEatSquid.com, which offers cooking tips, tricks, and recipes to tempt your family’s taste buds.

*From: The Friendship Blog:

One copy of Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup With Your Best Friend by psychologist Irene S. Levine. On a recent appearance on CBS Sunday Morning, Rita Braver called Irene the “Dear Abby of Friendship.” Close friendships, which are essential to our well-being, can be challenged by motherhood. Having children often drains time and emotion from other relationships, and can create distance between mothers and child-free friends. Give yourself the gift of focusing on your female friendships this Mother’s Day.

*From PuttingItAllontheTable:

One signed copy of The Muffin Tin Cookbook: 200 Fast, Delicious Mini-Pies, Pasta Cups, Gourmet Pockets, Veggie Cakes, and More! By Brette Sember. Moms love muffin tin cooking because one cup equals one portion (no fooling yourself that you’ll have “just another bite”) and because kids automatically think anything made in a muffin cup is delicious and are willing to try new foods made this way.

And one copy of Cookie: A Love Story: Fun Facts, Delicious Stories, Fascinating History, Tasty Recipes, and More by Brette Sember, a glorious celebration of America’s favorite treat, a gleeful look at its history, impact, meaning, and deliciousness, filled with mouth-watering anecdotes and stories that will satisfy in a way no other book can. Special recipes, anecdotes, and everything you ever wanted to know about cookies are in its pages.

*From Christine Gross-Loh

One signed copy of Parenting without Borders:  Surprising Lessons Parents Around the World Can Teach Us to be released just in time for Mother’s Day. Parenting expert Christine Gross-Loh, a mother of four, takes readers on a multicultural tour of the world’s best parenting practices— from Finland, Sweden, and Germany to France, Japan, China, Italy, and beyond to examine how international parents successfully foster creativity, discipline, independence, resilience and academic excellence in their children. Revealing the surprising ways in which culture shapes accepted practices, Gross-Loh offers objective, science-based insight into what strategies are best for children — and why — in a book that is sure to spark new conversations among parents.  Ultimately, Parenting without Borders is both a call to action and an international handbook on how to build our own global village — one that will raise all of our children well.

*From MyItchyTravelFeet:

One copy of 65 Things to Do When You Retire. A total of 10,000 people turn 65 each day — and many of them who retire want to make the most of travel opportunities.  65 Things to Do When You Retire: Travel offers practical, inspiring advice about how to have the time of your life, whether traveling with a group, with a spouse or partner, or on your own.  More than 65 intrepid writers and travel experts reveal their own personal adventures and describe glorious getaways for retirees, including such exciting travel opportunities as international house-sitting, going to Italy for a writing workshop, volunteering to help communities in developing countries, doing archaeological digs, taking a retirement “gap year,” and chucking it all to see the world.

*From: StickingMyNeckOut

An autographed hard cover copy of The Business of Baby, by Jennifer Margulis, an explosive new book uncovering how corporations and for-profit medicine harm new moms and their babies. Award-winning midwife Ina May Gaskin calls the book, “a must-read for expectant mothers,” and Library Journal has said it’s “not just for parents to ponder.” Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGK6HFHHdZY Join the FB community: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Business-of-Baby/317063605077912?ref=hl

*From ReelLifewithJane:

6 DVDs. Every mom needs a distraction from life, whether it’s Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts on a scooter, Edie Falco as a wayward nurse, Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman as old friends, the classic boy from Neverland, Anna Wintour’s glitzy life, or America’s bully crisis. That’s why Reel Life With Jane’s prize pack in the great Mother’s Day Giveaway is a DVD/blu-ray six-pack extravaganza: “Larry Crowne,” “Nurse Jackie Season 4,” “The Switch,” “Peter Pan Diamond Edition,” “The September Issue,” and “Bully.” For more great giveaways, entertainment news, celebrity interviews and reviews, visit Reel Life With Jane.

RULES

One winner will win the ENTIRE package of prizes! You may enter by leaving a comment on this post. You may also enter once at each blog listed in the giveaway for more chances to win. You must enter by midnight ET on Sunday, May 12, 2013 (Mother’s Day). Each blog participating in the giveaway will randomly select one semifinalist from those who have entered on that blog.  One winner will then be randomly selected from those names and will win ALL the prizes. Sorry, offer limited to U.S. addresses only and entrants age 18 and up only. One entry per person per blog. Winner is notified by the email given when entering; not responsible for email transmission problems or postal delivery problems or failures. You are responsible for notifying us of your correct mailing address if you are selected as a winner. Contest closes at midnight Eastern time on 05/12/13. Prize is nontransferable and may not be redeemed for cash. We reserve the right to announce the name of the winner on the blogs. Each participating blog will be responsible for sending its own prize.

I have teamed up with some other bloggers to create this amazing, outrageous, and stupendous Great Mother’s Day Giveaway. ONE lucky winner is going to win ALL of the prizes listed below (and shown at the left). The prizes are outstanding – books, DVDs, a gift certificate, and a beading kit. This is quite a … Read more →

Photo Credit: Wally Amos

“The chocolate chip cookie is more American than apple pie.” – Wally Amos

What better way to wrap up Cookie Week than with the story of one of the most famous cookie bakers? Wally Amos is known for inventing Famous Amos cookies, but do you know his story? Read on and find out.

Wally Amos is famous for his cookies, but his real claim to fame was promotion. Wally was raised in Tallahassee Florida but moved at age twelve to New York City to live with his Aunt Della, who made the best chocolate chip cookies he had ever tasted. Wally told me he’s not sure what recipe she used, but suspects it was the Toll House recipe, and, as he says, “all chocolate cookies trace back to the mother recipe.” Wally started out attending a food science high school. He later joined the Air Force and went to school on the GI bill, working at the Saks stock room to stay afloat. From there, he made the jump to working in the William Morris Agency mailroom and eventually worked his way up to becoming their first black agent. He signed Simon and Garfunkel and worked with the Supremes and Marvin Gaye. Wally became a big shot in the world of show business. He eventually left William Morris and opened his own agency.

Wally’s trademark had long been chocolate chip cookies. He made his own, similar to his Aunt Della’s and brought them to people as gifts. I asked Wally how his cookies were different than Della’s. “I used more chocolate and more nuts and pure vanilla extract.” Wally had often thought of selling his cookies, when an investment by Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy made it possible.

The Celebrity Cookie

Wally didn’t just open a cookie shop, though. Wally took on the cookie as a celebrity client and promoted it as such. He wrote a biography for it and had a head shot taken. As far as Wally was concerned, the cookie deserved celebrity status. It’s no surprise that on March 10, 1975 when Wally opened The Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie Store on Sunset Boulevard and Formosa Avenue in LA that it was a big hit. Wally had hosted an opening party the night before for 2500 guests, many of them celebrities. The business earned $300,000 that year and had $12 million in revenue by 1982.

Wally worked hard to get gigs for the cookie. When he met with Bloomingdale’s to discuss having them carry the cookies, he showed up in a jump suit with a giant cookie on the back. Bloomingdale’s signed on and the press conference announcing the deal included a Famous Amos cookie placed on a satin pillow (like a precious jewel) in front of the Bloomie’s boardroom. The cookie later was carried by Neiman-Marcus – when that deal happened, Wally drove in on an armored truck with the cookies.

Wally adopted a Panama hat and gauze embroidered shirt as his official uniform and it appeared on the cookie packaging. In 1980, the Smithsonian accepted the hat and shirt into its American History collection.

The Cookie Philosophy

Wally told me that the secret to making a good cookie “is that there is no secret.” Everyone has their own secret he believes. Wally did reveal to me what the most important part of the cookie making process is. “I talk to my cookies. I tell them they have a great responsibility. They need to taste good. I tell ‘em I love ‘em.” He feels that talking to cookies improves their taste in the same way that talking to plants helps them grow better.

Tough Times

Wally’s initial success was short-lived. By 1985, revenue was down and the company lost money.  He lost his home. The company was sold to the Shansby Group and Wally remained as spokesperson for a year. After several sales, the company is now owned by Kellogg.

Wally tried to continue selling cookies as Wally Amos Presents, but Keebler sued, so he used the name Uncle NoName. He filed for bankruptcy in 1997. Soon after though, Keebler hired him to be the spokesperson for the brand again and cut a deal that allowed him to sell muffins on his own. Famous Amos is now owned by Kellogg’s and Wally is honest about his feelings about the cookies they sell under his name. “Kellogg’s is selling a brand. They’re selling a bag. You cannot eat the bag. What’s inside the bag is what matters and what they sell is not my cookie. What Kellogg’s is selling is not a cookie. It is a disgrace to cookies.”

Rebirth of Wally

Wally went on to own Chip & Cookie, a two-location cookie store in Hawaii, which sold a variety of chocolate chip cookies as well as their signature cookie dolls, but subsequently closed. Wally has a line of books and does motivational speaking and had a cameo on the TV show, The Office in 2012, as himself. Wally is just as passionate about his cookies today as he was when he first began selling them. “All of my cookies are made by hand. A human being touching a cookie makes a big difference.” His Chip & Cookie cookies were made with his original recipe, the one that made him famous, which he proudly told me was 33% chocolate. “To make a good cookie, you need the best ingredients and lots of them.”

Wally has many stories to tell – of people who tasted his cookies twenty-five years ago in Hawaii and who upon their return made his shop their first stop. He also proudly talks of people who came into his shop as children and then brought their own children in. “I am part of the cookie and the cookie is part of me,” he says. “I really love what I do.” The day I talked to him he had just gone for out-patient cataract surgery that morning. When he went to the surgery building, he brought bags of cookies for everyone who was working there that day.

Although Famous Amos cookies are now just another brand on the store shelves, Wally’s legacy remains. “You can’t name anyone more associated with chocolate chip cookies than me,” he points out. He was the one of the first true food personalities (only Colonel Sanders and Julia Child predate him) – to be followed by people like Emeril and Rachel Ray. Wally’s success with cookies may have paved the way for Mrs. Fields as well. Wally believes that Ruth Wakefield is famous because of him. He says that until he became famous, Nestle never credited her. It was only after Wally became a household name that Nestle made Ruth Wakefield a prominent part of their history. Wally regrets never having a chance to meet her. “It would have been like going to Mecca.”

If you enjoyed this tidbit, there are plenty more stories of famous cookie bakers (Ruth Wakefield who invented the Tollhouse Cookie, Margaret Rudkin the woman behind Pepperidge Farms cookies, and Debbie Fields who created the Mrs. Fields empire (and lost her husband in the process) in Cookie: A Love Story.

“The chocolate chip cookie is more American than apple pie.” – Wally Amos What better way to wrap up Cookie Week than with the story of one of the most famous cookie bakers? Wally Amos is known for inventing Famous Amos cookies, but do you know his story? Read on and find out. Wally Amos … Read more →

Biscochitos

This is day four in my week long series sharing some of the fun and intriguing info in my book Cookie: A Love Story. Today we’re talking about state cookies!

Your state has a state flower, state bird, state motto, state flag, state song, state poet, state fruit, state vegetable, and even in some states, a state meat pie and a state jelly, so why not a state cookie? Only two states have actually legislated an official state cookie, though:

Massachusetts: Chocolate Chip, adopted in 1997 (despite state Rep. Kay Khan who said “The tollhouse is a crummy alternative to the Fig Newton.”)

New Mexico: Biscochito (an anise flavored shortbread), adopted in 1989

Other states have tried to enact official cookies, but legislation has hit some snafus. It can be hard to agree as to which cookie really represents an entire state, not to mention the fact that taxpayers may believe there are more important issues to legislate. Some of the legislation has been initiated because school children proposed it as part of school projects focusing on government process.

There was a bill in Pennsylvania in 2003 seeking to name the chocolate chip cookie as its state cookie, but some legislators felt the Nazareth sugar cookie (a local specialty) was the right choice.

Michigan had a bill pending in 2004 naming the Michigan Treasure Cookie (a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips and dried cherries – the cherry is the state fruit) as its state cookie. That also did not pass. Maryland tried to pass a bill naming the apple-oatmeal cookie as their state cookie with no success. A 2006 Connecticut state movement to name the oatmeal chocolate drop cookie made with nutmeg (Connecticut is “the Nutmeg State”), conceived by an elementary class, petered out and was not placed before the legislature for a vote. Wyoming had a bill introduced in 2003 to name a state cookie – the chocolate chip cookie. The bill actually included the recipe for the state chocolate chip cookie. It did not pass because legislators could not agree and some felt that adding another state symbol simply diluted Wyoming’s image.

There is a petition in progress to seek to make the chocolate chunk cookie the state cookie of Delaware. So far there has been no legislative action. Would you like to have a state cookie? What would you choose for your state?

Michigan’s Unofficial State Treasure Cookie

Makes about three dozen cookies

– 1 ¾ cups of all purpose flour

– 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

– ½ teaspoon baking powder

– ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt

– 1 cup softened butter or margarine

– 1 cup Pioneer brand granulated sugar

– ½ cup packed Pioneer brand brown sugar

– 1 egg

– 1 teaspoon vanilla

– 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks

– 1 ½ cups Graceland Fruit brand dried cherries

– Additional granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; set aside. Beat butter, 1 cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl at medium speed of electric mixer until light and fluffy (about two minutes). Beat in egg and vanilla until well blended.  On low speed of mixer, gradually beat in 1/3 of flour mixture at a time, until all is used.  Scrape sides of bowl between additions of flour mixture.  Stir in chocolate chunks and cherries.  Refrigerate covered dough for at least one hour.

Roll chilled dough into golf-ball-sized balls.  Roll the balls in the additional granulated sugar.  Space three inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Gently press with bottom of glass to flatten.  Return remaining dough to the refrigerator until ready to use.

Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until cookies are set.  Cool cookies about five minutes on cookie sheets; transfer to wire racks.  Cool completely.

Variations:

– Substitute 1 ½ cups of Graceland Fruit brand dried blueberries instead of dried cherries.

– Add ½ cup chopped Michigan walnuts

Did you know there is an entire calendar of official days dedicated to different types of cookies? You can find that and much more in Cookie: A Love Story.

This is day four in my week long series sharing some of the fun and intriguing info in my book Cookie: A Love Story. Today we’re talking about state cookies! Your state has a state flower, state bird, state motto, state flag, state song, state poet, state fruit, state vegetable, and even in some states, … Read more →

Who doesn’t love Girl Scout cookies? Did you know the Girl Scouts have been selling these cookies for almost 100 years? Did you ever wonder how it started?

Girl Scouts have been selling cookies as a fundraiser since 1917, when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma baked and sold cookies in its high school cafeteria as a service project.

Scout cooking was a hot topic at the time – the 1918 book Camp Cookery: A Cookery and Equipment Handbook for Boy Scouts and Other Campers by Ava B. Milan, A. Grace Johnson, and Ruth McNary Smith contained a recipe for rolled oat cookies which were to be baked on a grill over an open fire. In 1922, The American Girl magazine (then published by the Girl Scout national headquarters) included a cookie recipe which estimated the cost of ingredients to be 26 to 36 cents for six or seven dozen cookies. It also suggested the cookies could be sold for 25 to 30 cents per dozen. Cookies sales became traditional for many troops in the 1920s and 30s with Girl Scouts baking sugar cookies at home and selling them door to door.

Published in 1922, this is the original recipe Girl Scouts used to make cookies at home for their sales:

Original Girl Scout Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar plus additional amount for topping (optional)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream butter and the cup of sugar; add well-beaten eggs, then milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Roll dough, cut into trefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired. Bake in a quick oven (375°) for approximately 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Makes six- to seven-dozen cookies.

There’s a lot more about the history and culture of Girl Scout cookies (and some neat photos the Girl Scouts gave me permission to use) in Cookie: A Love Story!

Who doesn’t love Girl Scout cookies? Did you know the Girl Scouts have been selling these cookies for almost 100 years? Did you ever wonder how it started? Girl Scouts have been selling cookies as a fundraiser since 1917, when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma baked and sold cookies in its high school cafeteria … Read more →

If you love to bake (and eat!) cookies, you’re probably always looking for tips on how to make them better. Here are a few suggestions to improve your cookie baking skills.

The Pastry Chef:

Chef and Professor Dieter Schorner of the Culinary Institute of America says that one of the biggest mistakes Americans make in baking cookies is overworking the dough (“fold it together,” he recommends, instead of mixing). Another comment he has is that Americans use too many flavors in one cookie. “The simplest is the best tasting,” Schorner suggests, “If there are too many ingredients, you can’t figure out what it is. Keep it flavorful and keep it simple.” Schorner believes American cookies tend to be underbaked. “A cookie,” he says, “should be crunchy, not chewy. Americans think if it is crunchy it is stale.” And lastly, he says, “The cookie is too grown up in this country. Everything is Texas sized. That’s a meal, not a cookie. I want to taste a little cookie.”

The TollHouse Secret:

If you’ve made chocolate chip cookies before, you might be surprised to see that this recipe dissolves the baking soda in hot water, chills the dough overnight and has the baker form the cookies by hand. This was all actually part of Wakefield’s original recipe but was not included by Nestle when it used her recipe. In her 1948 book, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, Wakefield says, ”At Toll House, we chill dough overnight.” Chilling the dough is actually a crucial step that improves the texture of the cookie. This time lapse allows the eggs to absorb the dry ingredients more fully, creating a drier and firmer cookie. This method has recently regained popularity, as demonstrated by a recent New York Times article, “Perfection? Hint: It’s Warm and Has a Secret” by David Leite (July 9, 2008). In the article, Leite interviews Maury Rubin, owner of City Bakery in New York City. Rubin discloses that not only does he chill his dough for 36 hours, but he makes his cookies six inches in diameter because this creates three distinct textures – a crispy outer ring, a chewy second ring and a soft center ring.

An important factor in the quality of a chocolate chip cookie rests on the quality of the chocolate itself. Most professional bakers use chocolate that is at least 60 percent cacao. Jacque Torres, owner of Jacques Torres Chocolate in New York City relies on couverture chocolate for his cookies – thin disks of coating chocolate which melt during the baking process and create layers of cookie and chocolate.

If you enjoyed these tidbits, you’ll find cookie recipes and techniques and more in Cookie: A Love Story.

If you love to bake (and eat!) cookies, you’re probably always looking for tips on how to make them better. Here are a few suggestions to improve your cookie baking skills. The Pastry Chef: Chef and Professor Dieter Schorner of the Culinary Institute of America says that one of the biggest mistakes Americans make in … Read more →

It’s cookie week here at Putting It All on the Table. Each day I’m going to share great cookie tidbits with you from my book Cookie: A Love Story. Today’s post showcases a cookie most of us enjoyed as kids – animal crackers! You probably played with the box and cookies just as I did as a kid, but did you ever wonder about their origin?

“Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?” – unknown

Barnum’s Animals and Nabisco are registered trademarks of Kraft Foods and used with permission.

Animal crackers are a favorite of children and a grocery store staple. Animal crackers did not, however, begin as an American cookie. In the late 1800s crackers called animals were imported from England. They were very popular among children and American bakers soon began to bake them here – the Dozier-Weyl Cracker Company and the Holmes and Coutts Company, both predecessors of the National Biscuit Company (which became Nabisco) and Stauffer Biscuit, which began making the cookie in 1871. The American made versions were called animals or circus crackers. Like today’s animal crackers, they were slightly sweet, crunchy cookies in the shape of animals. Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition in 1876 included animal shaped cookies called ‘zoologicals,’ which were made by baker Walter G. Wilson. Popularity of the crackers increased in England after P.T. Barnum’s circus appeared there in 1889, although his name was not applied to them yet.

If you enjoyed this small taste of cookie history, there’s lots more to be found in Cookie: A Love Story, where I trace the history of the cookie from its origins on hot rocks next to prehistoric fires to today’s highly processed and packaged versions.

An early recipe for the crackers appeared in Secrets of the Bakers and Confectioners’ Trade, a commercial cooking book written by J. D. Hounihan in 1883:

Animals or Menagerie
1 bbl flour, 40 lbs sugar, 16 lard, 12 oz soda, 8 ozs ammonia, 6 3/4 gals milk.

No instructions were included.

In 1902 the National Biscuit Company began selling the cookies nationally. The famous circus box was released for Christmas, 1902, at a price of 5 cents per box, and was designed to hang on a Christmas tree by the string handle (this design is still used today, although you can buy the cookies in zipper bags and tins as well).

The name Barnum’s Animal Crackers was first used in 1948. The cookie was named after the famous circus owner, P.T. Barnum, although he never was paid for the use of his name. Since the first box, there have been 53 different animals included at different times. Current boxes contain a variety of 22 different animals, including the koala which was voted in by consumers in 2002 for the 100^th anniversary of the cookie (beating out the penguin, cobra and walrus). Each box has 260 calories.

Today the cookies remain very much the same as they always have been. The ingredients remain the same. The manufacturing methods have slightly changed. Until 1958, the cookies were made in a sheet of dough and stamped out by a cutter. After that date, rotary dies, which are still used today, were implemented.  The cookies take only four minutes to bake. Over 40 million packages are sold per year.

Animal crackers are also sold by Austin (a division of Keebler) and Stauffer Biscuit (which uses some spices in their cookies). Cadbury’s makes chocolate covered animal crackers. Borden also made animal crackers until the 1970s. Two by Two Animal Biscuits are made by Artisan Biscuits in Derbyshire, England in the shape of animals from fables, such as the tortoise and the hare.

Animal crackers have spurred some artistic creativity. In 1971, Christopher Morley’s book The Philosopher Poet  included this poem:

“Animal crackers and cocoa to drink,

That is the finest of suppers I think;

When I am grown up and can have what I please’

I think I shall always insist upon these.”

The cookies have also inspired a song sung by Shirley Temple, “Animal Crackers in My Soup,” in the 1938 movie “Curly Top.”

If you enjoyed learning about animal crackers, there is an entire chapter in Cookie: A Love Story that tells the stories of different types of cookies.

It’s cookie week here at Putting It All on the Table. Each day I’m going to share great cookie tidbits with you from my book Cookie: A Love Story. Today’s post showcases a cookie most of us enjoyed as kids – animal crackers! You probably played with the box and cookies just as I did … Read more →