The Cookie Index

Week before last, I ran into a co-worker at Kroger. As I said hello, she was scanning some foil-wrapped chocolates at self-checkout. She started to explain that German tradition requires a celebration of St. Nicholas Day on December 6. I told her my kids' school was hosting a German Christmas market on Saturday, and that she should come. She knew about it already and said she would be there.

The Christmas market is hosted by the parent organization representing the families of the kids in the German track at the school; some of the families are German, and others, like us, just have children who study German at the school. Over the years, we've done different things to help out. One year we did crafts with the kids of the volunteers working at the market, and a few years ago I made an angel costume that was worn by a student who posed with small children for Christmas photos (like having pictures taken with Santa, in the United States). Last year I made cookies for sale by the parents' group at the market.

When I signed up to make cookies last year, I think I expected that I would - I don't know - make one batch of chocolate chip cookies using the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag, and that would be it. So I was somewhat surprised to be assigned one of 7 traditional German Christmas cookie recipes and to be told I needed to make three batches of them. The kids helped and we rolled and cut and baked cookies one evening, packed them into the required cookie tins (the detailed instructions specified storage and transport in cookie tins, not in plastic containers), and turned them in a day or two before the Christmas market. There they were combined with cookies made by other families and packaged on a small paper plate, wrapped with cellophane and tied with ribbon, and sold at the market for $5. I bought two or three packages of them last year; I think we gave one package away and ate the rest of them. They were very good, and a nice variety, even if there weren't any chocolate chip cookies.

But last year, as I recall there were a lot of cookies that went unsold - I think they might have ended up in the teachers' lounge at the school. So I thought that this massive cookie-making effort might be scaled back a little this year, to try to come closer to matching supply and demand. But I was wrong - when the instructions came, they were planning an even larger cookie-making effort, and had plans to package some of the cookies in tins that would sell for more than the small packages that had been sold before. This seemed highly optimistic to me, but I just did as I was instructed.

So I was up til 1 a.m. one night the week before last, making cookies. They got combined with all the other cookies and packaged up at a massive cookie-packaging-event the morning before the market, and were for sale at the event last Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful afternoon. There was the photo station, with a girl in the angel costume and this year with Santa too, and little kids posing for photos. There was grilled bratwurst and potato salad, and the German church had desserts of various sorts. A German bakery had stollen, and there were lots of stalls with other things for sale, too.

We ate bratwurst off styrofoam plates and Iain stood in line with other kids at the table where the desserts were for sale. I saw my co-worker who I'd run into a Kroger. Tom and I looked at the used books (in German) and browsed the crafts for sale. By the time I made it back to the table where our cookies were for sale, the small packages were all gone. I bought a tin for $15, and I'm glad a didn't wait any longer, because it wasn't much later that the cookies had been sold.

I don't know who made the decision to make more cookies this year, but they were right and I was wrong. Of course, I haven't seen any foreclosure signs in the neighborhood for a while and there's a new restaurant about to open in Caramba's old location on North Highland (okay, it's yet another burger place, but still...).

Finally, things may be getting better. It's about time.