The Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies Lesson
December 7th, 2011 § 4 Comments
“Knock, knock, knock,” Abra said knocking her knuckles against an imaginary door.
Mandy reached out her hand to the imaginary doorknob on her side of the imaginary door and answered, “Hello?”
“Hi, my name is Abra. Would you like to buy some girl scout cookies?”
Both girls turned their head to face our Brownie leader, eyes questioning “was that good?”
“Okay, but let’s not kick people. You’re swinging your leg the entire time,” the group leader said and she mimicked Abra’s stance. Hands clasped behind her back, weight set on her left leg allowing her right leg to swing back and forth.
We all giggled like a group of 6-year-old girls — ’cause we were — at the start of our first Girl Scout Cookie Season. How to politely approach and talk to strangers was the first lesson in selling.
There would be many more fundraisers over the years — from pens to paper and chocolate bars to cookie dough. For most of them I can’t remember what we were raising funds for. At some point, years later and after I had convinced my parent’s to let me drop out of Brownies (turned out kindergarten was the high point), I was again in a group of kids — adolescents this time — receiving a lesson in selling.
“Ask your friends and family. Get your parents to take the sheets to work so that they can ask their co-workers,” they told us. “You don’t want to go door-to-door or ask strangers.” They weren’t teaching us how to behave out in the world anymore. It was a dangerous place and we didn’t have to go out there. If our parents (and their employers) were willing we didn’t even have to be responsible for selling.
Since these cookies were the only elementary fundraiser I participated in, I can’t say if others were given the same lessons in etiquette, but I like to think they were. If they weren’t then the first lessons my school peers would have received would have been the second. The one where we were told to stay away from others.
Working where I work and reading the annual horror story about Black Friday combined with ever so many other instances that have made the news have made me think of these lessons recently. About how it seems that kids are only taught that strangers are bad — to be feared, to be ignored. The parent’s who are teaching these lessons are forgetting the other one. I think this helps explain rudeness. It’s not computers or social media. It’s that people are taught and people believe that strangers are always bad.
Then you get the giggling school girl effect. One starts so the others can follow, one thing leads to another, and everything feeds off each other.
When you stop selling to the public you stop respecting. Selling and buying are both about getting as a result both are giving to the other. In the stranger danger world the motive behind the buying and selling changes: the seller is only interested in themselves and the buyer is only interested in themselves.
Assuming that strangers are always bad creates that me against them mentality. People are willing to treat strangers in a way they would never treat family or friends — I hope. Of course you would trample, hurt, and pepper spray someone so that you can buy whatever because you and yours deserve it. That other person doesn’t because they’re a stranger.
I’m proud of my new theory because it is applicable to many situations — not just consumerism. Don’t worry I’ve decided to get off my soap box and step away from my pulpit. Today’s post revealed my preachy side — I realize this is not always the most appealing side. Please accept these cookies in return.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Post Punk Kitchen’s Punk Rock Cookie Jar Mixes
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup cocoa powder
large pinch ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground flax seed
little less than ½ cup oatmeal (optional – it was an experiment)
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup chocolate chips
⅓ cup vegetable oil (technically I used canola – I think)
¼ cup non-dairy milk (This is supposed to be a vegan cookie. I used almond milk ’cause that’s my favorite non-dairy milk.)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine together all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add in the remaining ingredients. Heat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Take spoonfuls of the dough and smoosh into a ball. Place on the baking sheet, flattening each ball into a fat disc. They don’t really spread so they can be placed fairly close together.
Bake for — according to the recipe — about 10 minutes. Being a chocolate cookie it’s hard to tell when it has achieved the browned appearance you are typically looking for in a cookie. I don’t have a different suggestion — you just have to make a judgment call. I slightly burnt one batch.
These are great first thing out of the oven.
It’s the Leftover Milk Conundrum with the Chocolate Gravy Solution
August 24th, 2011 § 2 Comments
Here’s the situation: One day you get a hankering for cereal. You pick out your favorite chocolate, sugary goodness. Wait, what? How did those words appear. I mean… You pick out your favorite fortified bran cereal located on the far opposite side of the cereal aisle. And milk.
Shake, shake. Pour, glug. Munch, munch, crunch, crunch. Clank.
Then you’re out of milk. Humph. That’s fine. Another trip to the store procures one more carton of milk.
Pour, shake. Shake. Humph. You’re out of cereal. But remaining in your fridge, about to be lost in a back corner, is a nearly full carton of milk.
Glug. Munch, crunch. Clank.
Cereal isn’t really a staple in your household. It’s more a craving. Just like milk. This is when you enter the Leftover Milk Conundrum.
This is a real conundrum. You aren’t quite ready to forego the chocolate as part of the breakfast routine. Who keeps writing these things? Having just finished your box of no frills cereal you are deserving of something such as chocolate gravy. (You are also exhausted after hurdling the Cereal Dilemma — adult or kid…adult or kid…adult or kid?)
For the skeptical refusing to believe in the Leftover Milk Conundrum I would like to illustrate other examples. Not confined to milk this also affects jalapenos, egg whites and yolks, zested lemons, shampoo, paint, rice…
Fortunately for all of us there is the Chocolate Gravy Solution. Being a Solution means that the ingredients for this are all household staples. Yip, yip, hooray. We may all awake another morning knowing that breakfast awaits and another Conundrum has been successfully negotiated.
This was not something I’d heard of prior to a couple months ago. My own little poll showed no one else has heard of this either. Even so recipes are thick and plentiful (Cooks.com, Saveur, Homesick Texan, VegWeb, and so many more*) differing in amounts (and generally telling the same story). According to the webisphere this is supposedly a southern tradition. I’m skeptical but not about to argue with the Chocolate Gravy Solution. Chocolate Gravy is very familiar though. I have not yet placed my taste bud memory, but it feels like conundrum free childhood.♣
The webisphere declares this should be served with biscuits (though I suspect it would be delicious atop almost anything). There is a lot of debate…vehement declarations about proper southern buttermilk biscuits. I liked the ones posted here. They were easy, I was impressed with myself. Good job Brynne. Experiencing a Leftover Milk Conundrum I did not have buttermilk (though also a leftover conundrum). However, my fridge is also having a zested lemon conundrum and fake buttermilk was created.
As long as we are in a vehement declaration about proper southern cooking I should admit that this was all made with almond milk instead of dairy milk. Because when solving the Leftover Cereal Conundrum there was a Milk Dilemma — which is akin to the Cereal Dilemma mentioned above.
Chocolate Gravy*
scant ¾ cup sugar
¼ cup flour
heaping ¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ancho chili powder
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt and ancho chili powder in a medium pot. Stir in the milk. Place over low-medium heat. Stir constantly. At first you will be worried about lumps, but don’t because it will all smooth out. However, do stir constantly. (If you get tired of this and decide you really do need to double check recommended amounts of vanilla and then get distracted by facebook don’t be surprised if your gravy has formed a skin on top.) Cook until thickened. It is done when you can draw bas relief styled images on the top.
Remove from heat.
Stir in the vanilla (and butter if using). Eat immediately.
*Adapt the ingredients or choose the recipe according to your tastes. I went extra on the chocolate and even considered making it with chocolate milk because I have an insatiable chocolate spot. Many of these recipes have less. I used lots of milk because the milk needed to be used up. And I under-filled each ¼ cup measure of sugar because I prefer less sweetness. The butter is optional here because after adding the two tablespoons I couldn’t really see the point of it. Perhaps it just needed more.
♣ Pudding!
