Shopping, Cooking, Baking

Here’s The Original Girl Scout Cookie Recipe (circa 1922)

February 27, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 1 Comment

Thin Mints may account for 25% of Girl Scout cookie sales, but the thin chocolate wafers bear little resemblance (other than being cookies) to the original girl scout cookies.

The first Girl Scout troop was organized over a hundred years ago (March 12, 1912) in Savannah, Georgia. Selling cookies — a way to finance troop activities — began as early as 1917 when they were sold in an Oklahoma high school cafeteria as a service project.

Girl Scout cookies were originally baked in home kitchens with moms as the “technical advisers.” In July 1922, The American Girl Magazine, which was published by Girl Scout national headquarters, printed a cookie recipe that had been distributed to the Council’s 2,000 Girl Scouts. The approximate cost of ingredients for six- to seven-dozen cookies was estimated at 26 to 36 cents; the suggested sale price was 25 or 30 cents for a dozen.

In the 20s and 30s the simple sugar cookies baked by Girl Scouts and their mothers were packaged in waxed paper bags, sealed with stickers, and sold door to door.

Girl Scout Cookie Recipe (circa 1922, from GirlScouts.org)

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

Additional sugar for topping (optional)

2 eggs

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream butter and the cup of sugar; add well-beaten eggs, then milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Roll dough, cut into trefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired.

Bake in a quick oven (375°) for approximately 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Makes six- to seven-dozen cookies.

Present Day Recipes

For present day cookie recipes, check out the websites of the two licensed Girl Scout cookie bakers: ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers, and on www.pinterest.com/GSUSA. For a list of specific cookie ingredients go to Meet the Cookies.

The cookies, all of which are kosher, are sold by weight, not quantity. The size and number of cookies in the package varies with the baker, but is displayed on every package. The cookies are sold for different prices in different areas of the country with each of the 112 Girl Scout councils setting its own price based on its needs and its familiarity with the local market.

Love Pie? Did You Know There’s A Huge Variation In Calories?

February 16, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 2 Comments

George Washington: “I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it [the cherry tree] with my little hatchet.”

It’s President’s Day weekend in the US and in honor of George Washington, cherry trees, cherries, and the pie you can make with cherries – why not take a look at pies. What a segue!

Pies are anytime food – they come sweet and savory – but for many of us, “pie” conjures up sweet filling piled on top of – or in — a crust.

Some Pie History

Pie shells were originally just containers used for baking, storage, and serving — the crust was often too hard to actually eat. The first pies were savory meat pies, called “coffins” or “coffyns,” with tall, straight sides and sealed bottoms and lids. There were also open-crust pies, or “traps,” which served as casseroles for meat and sauce.

Early forms of pies, or galettes (essentially rustic free-form pies), can loosely be traced back to circa 9500 BC Neolithic Egyptians.

The ancient Greeks, who are thought to have been the originators of pie pastry, made a flour-water paste they wrapped around meat to seal in the juices as it cooked. After they conquered Greece, the Romans brought home pie recipes. From there, the idea and practicality of pie spread throughout Europe with different cultures creating pies that suited their customs and local food.

Pie Comes To The Colonies

In the 1600s, the Pilgrims brought English-style, meat-based pies to the colonies. Crusty pie tops helped to both preserve food and to keep fillings fresh and colonists cooked lots of pies, both sweet and savory, using local ingredients along with berries, fruit, cinnamon, pepper, and nutmeg.

As settlers moved westward, more pies with regional flavors and ingredients were developed using fruit, berries but vegetables and game discovered with the help of Indians. Pies were delicious and practical — they required less flour than bread and could be more easily and cheaply baked. Apple trees produced fruit that was easy to dry and store in barrels during the winter, and apple pie became a mainstay: “As American as apple pie.”

What’ll ya have? A cuppa joe and a piece of pie.

Today, no matter where you get your pie: the bakery, the local diner, or straight from your oven, the sweet treat can carry a big caloric punch. There is a huge difference in calories (and nutrition) between different kinds of pie.

To help you “have your pie and eat it, too” shown below are the calories in different kinds of pie. If you want to save a few calories:

choose the type of pie that has fewer calories than another kind.
Be aware of the size of the slice – some are huge, some are slivers
How many crusts, one or two – there are a lot more calories in a two crust pie
How much od the piece are you eating? No one says you have to eat all of a gargantuan piece and no one says you have to eat all of the crust.
What’s in the filling? Some pies have way more calories than others. Recipes vary significantly – the average numbers shown below can give you an idea of good, better, and best pie choices — not in terms of flavor or the artistry of the baker, but for a general comparison of calories. You’re going to be surprised!.

Pie Crust Facts (1/8 of a pie)

Tulip 60 calories
Ginger snaps 60 calories
Graham cracker 100 calories
Ready-made 120 calories
Homemade 149 calories

Average Calories in Popular Pies

Apple, commercially prepared, 1/8 of 9” pie: 296 calories
Apple, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 411 calories
Banana cream, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9″ pie: 387 calories
Blueberry, commercially prepared, 1/8 of 9” pie: 290 calories
Blueberry, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 360 calories
Cherry, commercially prepared, 1/8 of 9” pie: 325 calories
Cherry, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 486 calories
Chocolate creme, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 344 calories
Coconut custard, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 270 calories
Lemon meringue, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 303 calories
Lemon meringue, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 362 calories
Mince, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 477 calories
Peach, 1/6 of 8” pie: 261 calories
Pecan, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 452 calories
Pecan, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 503 calories
Pumpkin, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 229 calories
Pumpkin, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 316
Vanilla cream, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 350 calories

What To Eat For Good Luck In The New Year — And What To Avoid!

December 30, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Pork products, fish, beans, cakes with coins, grapes, and pickled herring?

Food and symbolism play important roles in celebrations around the world. On special occasions different countries use certain foods not just to celebrate but often as a symbol of luck, wealth, and health.

What Not To Eat (Hint: Don’t Look Or Move Back)

Different cultures have foods that are supposed to be eaten at the stroke of midnight or sometime on January 1 to bring luck, fortune, and plenty (both money and food).

There are also foods not to eat. Things that move or scratch backwards — like lobsters, chickens, and turkeys — are to be avoided because they symbolize moving backward instead of progressing forward. To avoid any looking back, setbacks, or past struggles only things that move forward should be eaten.

In some cultures, a little food should be left on the table or on your plate to guarantee – or at least to hedge your bets – that you’ll have a well-stocked kitchen during the coming year.

Why Tempt Fate — Some Lucky Foods To Consider

There are many New Year’s foods and traditions — far too numerous to list – that are honored by people all around the world. Wouldn’t you want to consider piling some luck on your plate on January 1? Why tempt fate?

Here are some of the more common groups of good luck foods:

Round foods shaped like coins, like beans, black eyed peas, and legumes, symbolize financial prosperity, as do greens, which resemble paper money. Examples are cabbage, collard greens, and kale. Golden colored foods like corn bread also symbolize financial rewards in the New Year. Examples of round good luck foods are: lentils in Italy and Brazil, pancakes in Germany, round fruit in the Philippines, and black-eyed peas in the Southern US. Green leafy vegetables that symbolize paper money are collard greens in the Southern US and kale in Denmark.
Pork symbolizes abundance, plenty of food, and the fat of the land (think pork barrel legislation). It’s a sign of prosperity and the pig symbolizes plentiful food in the New Year. The pig is considered an animal of progress because it moves forward as it roots around for food. Pork products appear in many ways – ham, sausage, ham hocks, pork ribs, and even pig’s knuckles. Years ago, if your family had a pig you were doing well! Some examples of good luck pork products are roast suckling pig with a four leaf clover in its mouth in Hungary; pork sausage with lentils in Italy; and pork with sauerkraut in Germany.

In some countries, having food on your table and/or plates at the stroke of midnight is a sign that you’ll have food throughout the year.

Seafood, with the exception of the backward swimming lobster, symbolizes abundance and plenty and is a symbol of good luck. Fish also symbolize fertility because they produce multiple eggs at a time. It’s important that a fish be served whole, with the head and tail intact to symbolize a good beginning and a good end. Examples are herring and carp in Germany, pickled herring in Poland, boiled cod in Denmark, dried salted cod in Italy, red snapper in Japan, and carp in Vietnam.

Eating sweet food in order to have a sweet year is common in a number of countries. In Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador, and Peru 12 sweet grapes, one for each month of the year, are eaten at midnight in hope of having 12 sweet months. The order and sweetness of the grape is important – for instance, if the fifth grape is a bit sour, May might be a bit rocky. In some places the goal is to eat all of the grapes before the last stroke of midnight and some countries eat a 13th grape just for good measure. There seems to be an awful lot of hedging of bets all around the world.

Another symbol for good luck involves eating food that’s in a ring shape – like doughnuts or ring shaped cakes. This represents coming full circle to successfully complete the year. Examples are Rosca de Reyes in Mexico and Olie Bollen (doughnuts) in the Netherlands.

Long noodles signify a long life. The Japanese use long Buckwheat Soba noodles – but you shouldn’t cut or break them because that could shorten life.

Sweets are symbolic of a sweet year and/or good luck. Cakes and breads with coins or trinkets baked into them are common in many countries. Greeks have a round cake called Vasilopita – made with a coin baked inside — which is cut after midnight. Whoever gets the coin is lucky throughout the year. Jews use apples dipped in honey on the Jewish New Year, Norwegians use rice pudding with an almond inside, Koreans use sweet fruits, and Egyptians have candy for children.

So fill your plate with a serving of luck. Don’t overlook resolutions. They’re not quite as tasty as most (not all) food traditions, but they do have longevity — they date back 4000 years to the ancient Babylonians!

Material in this article is taken (with the author’s permission) from “Symbolic Foods Eaten Around the World for New Years,” originally published on http://MamaLisa.com. Visit Mama Lisa’s World, which features the internet’s largest collection of international children’s songs and a lively blog focused on parenthood and world culture.

For more interesting tips about food and eating visit the iTunes store to get Eat Out Eat Well digital magazine for your iPad or iPhone.

Holiday Eating Worries? If You’re Going To Indulge, Make It Special

December 9, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Is holiday food everywhere? Are you tempted to eat everything?

Here are a couple of helpful hints:

Say “no thank you” to the rolls, the mashed potatoes, and the ice cream. You can have them any time of the year. Spend your extra calories on something special that’s specific to the holidays. Also say “no thank you” to the food pushers who persist in trying to get you to eat more. Have some polite excuses ready to use.

Keep in mind that a holiday is 24 hours — just like any other day, except that you’ll most likely encounter more food challenges. Be selective. Pass on the muffins at breakfast and save your indulgences for the big meal. Try not to eat a separate meal while you’re preparing “the meal” — it’s all too easy to taste hundreds of calories while you’re cooking (and cleaning up)!

For more helpful hints download my book from Amazon: 30 Ways To Eat Your Holiday Favorites And Still Get Into Your Jeans.

And

New from iTunes: Eat Out Eat Well magazine for iPhones and iPads. Head on over and take a look!

A Holiday Gift

December 7, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Just in time for the crunch of the holiday season —

My new book — 30 Ways to Eat Your Holiday Favorites and Still Get Into Your Jeans — is available as a free download for your kindle or kindle reader this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (12/7 – 12/9).

The book is filled with useful and practical tips and info to help you navigate your way through the holiday season with your waistline intact and your belly happy.

Head on over to Amazon to download your free gift — and please share this info with anyone else who might be interested.

I hope you enjoy the book. I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave a review on Amazon.