Food for Thought: Cookie Exchange - Policies and Procedures

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Cookie Exchange - Policies and Procedures

My sister is attending a cookie exchange today and has provided me with all the rules and regulations. The bottom line is that she has made 15 dozen shortbread cookies, iced and decorated; she will return from the party with 15 dozen different varieties of cookies.

All I can say is, this is beyond my organizational capabilities.

Instructions for those of you brave enough to try The Christmas Cookie Exchange.......

The host decides when to hold the party and sends out invitations to friends and co-workers who they know enjoy baking, along with the details of the exchange; this requires an ‘RSVP’.

The host should:
- limit the number of attendees,
- pick a date close to the Christmas holiday, so that the cookies will remain fresh.
- ask people to tell the group what type of cookie they are making, so that participants do not end up with several dozen of the same type of cookie.

If 10 people are attending, each person agrees to bake 10 dozen, 12 people are attending, each person agrees to bake 12 dozen, and so on… of their favourite Christmas cookies. They can include cut-out cookies, drop cookies, bar cookies, and the host can set standards (no toll house chocolate chip cookies, no more than 2 types of shortbread)

Cookies must be homemade. If a problem occurs, bake shop cookies may be substituted, however no grocery-store cookies.

Participants bake and package their cookies (fresh within days of baking, or frozen) with one dozen per paper or plastic plate, in a ziplock bag, or well covered with plastic wrap.

Participants include a copy of their recipe in each dozen.

The host has enough large flat boxes for the number of guests, and when each guest arrives, they put one plate of cookies in each box. If a staircase is available, one box can be placed on each stair step, and then easily filled when participants arrive. Or one room can be set aside for the boxes.

Participants then each leave with a great variety of delicious homemade cookies.

Participants are often asked to bring another few (no more than half dozen) cookies to put on a cookie tray to have samples while the group mingles. The host provides refreshments – coffee, tea, mulled cider, eggnog, wine and some snacks.

Participants are often asked to wear Christmas attire, and a prize can be given for the best Christmas outfit. Party games or a gift exchange can also take place. A “vote” can take be taken for prettiest cookie, most unusual cookie ingredient, best chocolate cookie…etc.

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'To Cut the Mustard'

Meaning: To succeed; to come up to expectations.

Origin: Why cutting mustard was chosen as an example of high quality is unclear. Some possibilities allude to the literal difficulty of cutting mustard;for example: - Mustard seed, which is hard to cut with a knife on account of being small and shiny. - Mustard plants, which are tough and stringy and grow densely. - Culinary mustard, which is cut (diluted) and made more palatable by the addition of vinegar. - Dried mustard paste, which was reputedly used to coat meat and then dried to form a crust.

The love of olive oil...

I finally figured it out...why I love olive oil so much. It was the television programming I was exposed to as a child. See the following description, from the online Encylclopedia Britanica, of a character I admired. I lusted after the large boxes of chocolates she would consume in one sitting.

Tall, gangly, big-footed Olive Oyl, whose black hair was almost always tied back in a bun, first co-starred with her brother, Castor Oyl, in 1919 in the newspaper comic strip Thimble Theatre. For the strip’s first 10 years, she was the girlfriend of Castor’s layabout pal, Ham Gravy, and her jealousy over his wandering eye fueled many comedic episodes. However, soon after the introduction of Popeye in 1929, Ham was written out of the strip as Olive found true love with the salty sailor. In this coupling, she was the more fickle character, as from time to time she became drawn to suitors with more education and refinement than the scrappy, wisecracking Popeye, though he always won her back. Popeye rescued Olive Oyl hundreds of times from the nefarious bully Bluto.

A Funky Review of a Funky Cookbook by a Funky Girl

“Bite me speaks to more than your stomach,” reads an excerpt on one of the first pages of the newly released cookbook, Bite me, by sassy sisters Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat. From the tongue in cheek, retro photographs that grace many of the pages to the aptly chosen, often perfectly crude quotations; Bite me is a cookbook that also speaks to your sense of humour and playfulness.
The book is decidedly un-pretentious, which is exactly what the sisters had in mind when creating the book, and exactly what appeals to me as a twenty something with not much experience in the kitchen. At the book’s launch on October 6th at an Indigo location in Toronto, Julie was the first to boast that many of the props in the self-published book came from the dollar store. The price- perfect. The look- genius. The props convey just the right amount of kitsch and comedy.
Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo and famous as Heather of ‘Heather’s Picks’ obviously saw the same genius in these first time authors. The book is now the first cookbook to ever be chosen as a ‘Heather’s Pick’ at Chapters and Indigo stores nationwide.
I personally know Julie Albert, as I tutor her adorable, charming son Benjy, here in Toronto, Ontario. Julie is most often seen looking flawless, but approachable- laid back in jeans or yoga pants, shuffling her kids from one activity to another. She is exactly the involved Mom who wants delicious, easy, home cooking with a twist, to feed to her family. That was the goal for the sisters- no mushroom foam, no truffle scented this or that. Just fun, easy variations on your favourites- using simple ingredients with a dash of wit, and some of Lisa and Julie’s own kitchen secrets. Oh- and a man with his head stuffed down a woman’s shirt. You have to buy the book to take a look at that last one.
I am buying the book for all the cooks in my family this Christmas. Even for a cook with many books, this one is a standout- almost more coffee table material than shelved with other cookery bibles.
If you need a giggle- go buy it. If you need a recipe for pecan crusted lime chicken- buy it. To the self-professedly “not so sweet, tiny-bit salty” sisters- great job. I forkin’ love it.

Jessie Bass-West

Link to Bite me http://www.bitemecookbook.com/

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Cookie Exchange - Policies and Procedures

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