Life: far too short to bake the cookie dough.
Don't look at me like that. You know it's true. Why, why, WHY do people insist on turning soft, sugary lumps of heaven into hard, dry, sandy desert-discs? It's an outrage.
Salmonella? Pffftt. Salmonella that doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
Oh, cookie dough. I love you so. I can taste all your ingredients individually - butter, brown sugar, white sugar, salmonella. You dance on my tongue, you make me smile, you release serotonin . . .
Excuse me. I need a cigarette. And I don't even smoke.
You people call it cookie dough.
I call it crack.
Because psstt . . . come over here. I'll tell you a secret. When I was a kid? I stole stuff. Oh yes, I did. I stole cookie dough, cake mix, icing, and maybe Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs shut up right out from under my mother's and grandmother's noses.
Little cookie crackhead.
It all started with the cookie dough that I stole from the fridge. Even little thieving-thug-crackheads know that cookie dough spoils, so I snarfed it down immediately after lifting it. A few times, I got away with it. But eventually, my mother caught on. I have no idea why.
So I had to get a little more diabolical with my crime. I turned to cake mix. Straight, no chaser, out of the box, with a spoon. This too I lifted from Mom and Grandma. They didn't make cakes often, so they never seemed to remember if they had any on hand, allowing me ample opportunity to grab a box, a spoon and run to my room. Wonderful child.
Do not judge me.
Cake mix was fantastic, because cake mix? Doesn't spoil. Even little thieving-thug-crackheads know that. And after eating the quarter of a box it took to place me in a
Verily, I shall burn in hell. For Duncan Hines yellow cake.
Little sugar crackhead.
Cocky from cake mix success, I started eyeing the box of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs my Grandma bought for Easter each year. These were the EGGS, people. Far larger, far more awesome than the measly little Reese's cups, and I drooled and begged each year when she brought home the orange and yellow carton. Grandma knew I was a little sugar crackhead addict, and she hid the box on the steps leading to the attic.
Methinks you underestimate me, Gran.
I waited until she was on the phone, snuck up the attic steps, and loaded my pockets with Reese's eggs. I crept back down, parked myself on the floor in front of the couch and commenced snarfing. Then, I stuffed the wrappers under the sofa.
Gran: "Dawn, what happened to all the Reese's eggs?"
It was a gott-dang Scooby Doo mystery! Clearly, I was a genius.
But unlike my mom, Gran was anal about her spring cleaning. Gran pulled out her couch a few weeks later.
Gran busted me. Methinks I underestimated Gran.
And so, lo those many years ago, my life of crime came to an end. I mended my ways, confessed in church, tried to live a good life.
Until I had kids. Kids who want cookies. Little cookie crackhead kids.
Now I have to buy cookie dough, which comes with this warning:
Do not consume raw cookie dough?
Yeah, right. Just you try and stop me.
Methinks you underestimate me, Pillsbury.
_____________________________________________________
Hope you didn't mind a little re-post, as I try to think of a subject for the 50th essay of my book.
I'm so close to my goal! And blocked. And panicked. Send cookie dough. Or cake mix. I mean, I am not picky!
Here's an untitled excerpt, one about life with a teenage daughter:
"Princess!" I yell up the stairs.
*Crickets*
"Oh, PRINCESSS!"
*More crickets*
She's not here right now, of course. She's seldom here. She's 16 - and a half. I really haven't seen her for six months.
When she is home, she's in her room almost constantly, very busy with her social life, her iPhone, her three-hour grooming process. Only yesterday, she was this raggedy little monkey who had to be bribed into the tub with candy, but now she drains Lake Erie with her showers. If you hear the blow dryer, you know she's home, and you'll find her upstairs, waving a Conair around her head in an urgent, determined fashion.
I don't hear a blow dryer today, and I don't feel like yelling to an empty room anymore. So I give up and decide to send her a text - our main method of communication these days.
"Exactly where the hell is my GOOD BLUSH?" I write, in a patient, motherly way.
"Oh sorry!" she texts back. "I borrowed it. It's in my room. Sorry!"
Imagine that. I figured it was up there, right beside, no doubt, my powder, my hairspray and my eyeliner . . .
Stay tuned!
I asked my mom, and she says you're going to get worms.
ReplyDeleteThat is all.
:-)
Pearl
Loved the pics and the photoshop of the candy and cookies on it. Much luck on the brain working again on numero 50!! "If you write it, they will come." That sounds dirty. Nevermind.
ReplyDeleteOne day at my grandmother's (she made us call her "Grandmother"), while she was out tending her garden, I sneaked into the package of those vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies. I pulled apart about a dozen of those babies and licked the icing completely off. Then I put the little yellow and brown bookends back together and slipped them back into the package. Sly, right?
ReplyDeleteWell, come dinnertime, I skip into the kitchen to find 12 dry yellow and brown cookies with no icing arranged in a circle on my plate. "That's your dinner, you little thief," she said. Oh, and I got one glass of milk to force them down. Suffice to say, I hate those friggin' cookies to this day.
Judge you? I wish we lived next door to each other as kids and grown ups. My sibs and I were amateurs. We ate jello mix (pure sugar) straight out of the box. We weren't bold or hip enough to go for raw cookie dough. Now, it doesn't stand a chance of making it into the oven in my care.
ReplyDeleteDamn the block that happens when we can see the finish line. I'm there too - close to the end of my first draft, and pushing through writer's block. Power on. You're almost there.
Be well, Dawn.
xoRobyn
Pearl - Well then, I guess I'll die happy! ;)
ReplyDeleteStacey - You say, "That sounds dirty" like it's a bad thing.
Tanya - Ha! Methinks you underestimated "Grandmother."
Robyn - I am pushing and pushing and pushing - and still - no baby! I kind of knew this would happen at the end. I think it's stage fright. The weather isn't helping either. Ugh. Thanks, lady. :)
I like a re-post as much as I do being re-gifted. But, glad to see you around and keep working on that book.
ReplyDeleteRon
I like a re-post as much as I do being re-gifted. But, glad to see you around and keep working on that book.
ReplyDeleteRon
LOL! You little cookie-dough ho, you. ;)
ReplyDeleteSo glad to know that we are a secret society of childhood(ish) food hoarders!!
ReplyDeleteI smuggled more Snickers wrappers under my parents furniture than I care to talk about.
Glad to have found your blog!! Good luck on the book!
Ron - I know, I know - I'm almost finished, though. I'll be back!
ReplyDeleteLinda - I am. I am a cookie dough ho.
Mama - Oh, thank God I'm not the only one, with the wrappers under the couch!
Gran was anal about spring cleaning?
ReplyDeleteGood heavens!!!
Most people use a mop.
I used to eat the cookie dough too. Also moved on to the extra cookies mom always froze for later. Some things are better cold and frozen calories don't count.
ReplyDeleteOur "horse" used to indulge a little too freely with the sugar cubes Mum had hidden in the cupboard.
ReplyDeleteMilo always had a shelf life of about 2.5 weeks in our house - no matter what size. We (and by we, I mean I and I have my doubts about one or both of my siblings) would go hard the first week - warm up the first two days with an illicit teaspoon while getting the milk out and a bit extra on top, to stuffing your mouth full to asphyxiation level days 3 through 6. On the seventh day, sudden realisation would hit like a sharp comment from Dad (sometimes even initiated by a sharp comment from Dad) that there was less than half a container of milo (no matter what size) and it was beginning to be noticeable. A fairly even rate of usage would resume days 8 - 10, and that last half-teaspoon of the chocolatey-goodness - the red can with added malt was the goods.