Cookies

[memories evoked by the Weekend Wordsmith prompt "Oreo"]

When I was a kid, there were usually two kinds of cookies in the house: Vanilla Wafers, and Fig Newtons. Since I wasn't really fond of figs, even if they were sweet, I pretty much ignored the Fig Newtons unless there weren't any Vanilla wafers. I think my younger brother was perfectly fine with that arrangement.

My mom didn't do much baking that I recall. I think when we wanted cookies, Mom would pick up a roll of cookie dough from the refrigerator case at the grocery store. We would slice it up into thick rounds, which then were sliced into quarters and arranged on a cookie sheet.

My dad, on the other hand, was always game to try his hand at cooking pretty much everything. He was a good cook, too. But I don't remember many cookie experiments except for making Mandelbrot (think Jewish almond biscotti). But since I'm more fond of the chewy cookies (and yes, I know that Fig Newtons are chewy!) I didn't really grow fond of these twice-baked and crunchy cookies until I was an adult. The fact that I don't drink coffee and therefore didn't dunk them might have had something to do with that. And I hate crumbs in my tea.

I don't remember much in the way of cookie baking at grandma's house, either. They were more the cake or pie types. I do remember that Grandma used to buy a package of gingersnaps, really crunchy ones. But she liked soft cookies (wonder if it is genetic...) so she'd put them in a big cookie jar with a lid. And in with the cookies she would put half an apple, sliced side up. After about a day or so, the moisture from the apple would have worked its way into the "snaps" and they wouldn't have so much snap to them any more.

I do remember a particular birthday party when my friend "K" turned 10. A bunch of us has a sleepover party at her grandmother's house. K's grandmother had mixed double batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and left it in the refrigerator to be baked the next day. She told us that if we wanted a little of the dough to eat raw, it was OK with her.

We did typical 10-year-old girl things. We played games and combed each other's hair. We were loud. We played board games and did jigsaw puzzles. We danced to 45's (we were especially fond of "The Loco-Motion") and we tried very hard to hypnotize each other. One was either very suggestible, or she was a good sport and tried to pretend she was hypnotized. We tried to get her to each a children's multivitamin tablet, but she wouldn't do it.

Anyway, about the cookie dough. A couple of us at a time would go into the kitchen and pull out the large bowl and get a spoonful of the sweet dough. We really didn't keep track any more than we kept track of what time it was. At long last we were exhausted and we all went to sleep in our sleeping bags, spread all over the large family room on the east side of the house. That meant that we woke up relatively early since the sun streamed into that room first.

I don't recall much about the morning (too tired, I'm sure) except how amazed, or was that dismayed, K's grandmother was at the quantity of cookie dough missing from the large bowl. I am pretty sure she got one full cookie sheet of them baked that morning, and just a few more.

Now I am pretty happy to eat nearly any kind of cookies - there are few I don't like, and I often crave one kind or another. I can be fickle, but right now I'd say that Snickerdoodles sound best. If I ask nicely, maybe my wife will bake me some this weekend.