cookies

C is for cookie

/ SallyJBrz / 1 Comment

It’s here.

The moment I’ve been waiting for all year.  Forget Christmas, my birthday, even election day.  They all pale in comparison to this day.

Because today is Girl Scout Cookie Day.

Perfection.

I was a girl scout for seven years, and I loved every minute of it.  Our troop was a bit rag-tag; on a particularly memorable camping trip in our troop leader’s backyard, it rained so much that the tent collapsed on me and Rachie in the middle of the night.  Usually, we did lots of arts and crafts, investigated our town and family history, had “lock-ins” at the YMCA.

And sold those cookies.

When I studied abroad in London, I eagerly awaited the package from my mom that contained that year’s cookies.  When they arrived, I tested a few and then brought them to my afternoon study group in place of the usual Twix we had with our tea.

Me: Here, I brought you Girl Scout cookies!  This is the kind we call “thin mints.”
Brits: Oh, mint cookies.  Yum.
Me: No, no.  These are special.  They are Girl Scout cookies.
Brits: What makes them so special?
Me: You can only buy them once a year, and then you just long for them the rest of the time.
Brits: So all the Girl Scouts make cookies at once.
Me: No… all the cookies are made by a few central bakeries around the country.  There are no girls involved.
Brits: Then why do they call them Girl Scout cookies?
Me: Because Girl Scouts walk around town and sell the cookies to pay for camp, and new books, and badges and things.
Brits: Ok.  So let’s get this straight.  Once a year, little girls get dressed up and wander around door to door, selling cookies that they didn’t bake, so pay for things that have nothing to do with cookies.  And they only sell them for a few weeks each time… and no one else is allowed to make a similar cookie.
Me: Yeah, basically.  Aren’t they good?

The next week, we went back to Twix.  But let me tell you, I enjoyed the heck out of the rest of that box.

[PS:  I bought my box in the Porter Square T stop, get ’em while they’re around!  Last year I saw a guy sprint through traffic to get to an ATM to get the last box of Tagalongs before the girls packed up.  This is serious business.]

ETA: Use this website to find out when and where you can pick up your own Girl Scout Cookies!

The icing on the cookie

/ SallyJBrz / Leave a comment

When life called for icing, I pulled out good old Betty Crocker to get some advice.  The only problem: the recipe was waaay too big for the mini-batches I had planned to make.

So, I used the same ingredients and mixed and matched until I got the perfect consistency for spreading, sticking, and eating.

  1. Warm up 1 tsp or less of button until melted.
  2. Add 1 tsp milk
  3. Add a dash vanilla (1/4 tsp or so)
  4. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar.
  5. Stir until creamy – then add more powdered sugar, stir, and adjust as needed.

The basic idea is to add a small amount of everything, then add powdered sugar until it ends up the consistency you’re looking for – overshoot a little if you’re not sure.  If you want cake frosting, use less powdered sugar overall.  But this mix, which ended up having about 1.5 cups of unpacked powdered sugar in it total, was perfect for frosting cookies.  It was easy to work with, didn’t harden up too soon, and tastes delicious, even days later.

If you get here in the next ten minutes, you can fight me for the last of this batch!  I’ll even throw in a cuppa tea!