24- You get more flies with honey than vinegar

The post-it reads “Killing the coworkers with carbs/kindness.”

This made me laugh when I re-read it.

This is another Cookie Thursday is a Thing story.

I did not start the behemoth that is Cookie Thursday is a Thing to kill my coworkers. We started it because a coworker had told us in the lounge that they’d never had a homemade cookie. Many pearls were clutched as we all inhaled in indignation.

However, not everyone is privileged enough to have someone who can bake or money to buy ingredients. This is a fact that was not lost on us. However, righting this wrong absolutely could happen. And did, every week for 10 years.

I had this brand new pretty kitchen that I was itching to use. Why not make homemade cookies, weekly for 10 years.

The new kitchen was put in during the entire year of 2014 and the countertops, which were back ordered for a month were installed in November. But that is a story all on its own.

I am not sure that my coworkers know the hows of CTIAT, yes that is the acronym I use. It has to fit in with all the other acronyms in the OR and there are many.

The entire thing is done on my and my husband’s dime. We earn the money to buy the ingredients that I use. We earn the money to buy the utilities that I use. That’s it.

Well, that isn’t entirely accurate. I have had a couple of pinch hitters when I was away or sick. I also have received $55 and a bag of flour over the course of those 10 years.

My sister would ask why I don’t charge a fee. She made me charge a drive-the-detachment fee for gas when I was in university and the only person in the detachment with access to a big enough car. We had to go between 2 universities for Air Force training. Funnily enough, they stopped asking me for rides when she did that. And the relationships cooled mightily.

I don’t want to charge a fee for people to eat the CTIAT cookies. It is not in the spirit of the thing. I have seen surgeons ask for repeats of certain cookies. I have also had people ask for specific cookies for their birthdays or last days. I happily made them all.

Kindness begets kindness, no matter how or why or who.

Being self-funded makes me feel better about experimenting on my coworkers with new cookies. I have had some real success. And a couple of duds. If I asked for money, I fear that I would lose some of the control. I set the schedule and decide on the monthly themes.

Imagine what it would be like if that had to happen by committee?

Cookie Thursday 12/19/24- glazed ricotta cookies

This cookie doesn’t really fit with the Holiday theme but there is a story behind it that is very Christmassy.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was working as a CNA on a skilled nursing unit of a local hospital. There were all sorts of patients, short-timers, post-total hip or knee patients who would be going home after physical therapy, and even a long, long-timer who had been there for 10 years.

This was a unit that some patients came to after extensive surgery, often from other hospitals. This story is about Gertrude, not her name and I don’t normally add names to my posts but I felt that she needed a name.

Gertrude was from Northern Italy and she had had major abdominal surgery in San Francisco. She had been admitted to our unit to gain additional strength before she went home to her little bungalow.

She needed a lot of assistance when she first came to us, walking to the bathroom, repositioning in bed, and having her drains emptied twice a day. This was a task that was delegated to me.

Gertrude was admitted to the unit in September, with an eye to go home before Christmas. Step by step she became stronger. Step by step her drain was putting less and less fluid. As the months passed, she got stronger and stronger.

In late November she was given a discharge date of December 6th.

As the CNA on the unit, I spent a lot of time with her. She was a very educated woman who delighted in talking literature or the college classes she used to teach. I really enjoyed talking to her.

She would regale me with stories of growing up in Northern Italy as I walked with her to the bathroom and to physical therapy and she talked about her favorite ricotta cookies. I can’t describe the accent she put on ricotta but she swallowed the o sound and made the t’s sharp. She informed me that when she got home she was going to make me her favorite Christmas cookies. I told her she didn’t need to but she insisted she would return.

She was discharged home with her friends on December 6th. Unit life after she left was a little flatter without our daily talks. It was December and December sucks in the hospital. It just does.

Right before Christmas, she made a triumphant return. Her drains had been removed, she was dressed in street clothing and she was all smiles. She was also bearing a box of the ricotta Christmas cookies for the unit nursing staff. With sprinkles. To make them festive.

Those were the most meaningful Christmas cookies that we received that year. But even better was to see her looking happy and healthy as she returned to life outside of the hospital.

That is why I made these glazed ricotta cookies for the December theme.

No sprinkles though. I was out.

Cookie Thursday 12/12/24-rosemary thumbprint cookies with white chocolate ganache

In Hamlet Ophelia gave Laertes Rosemary, reminding him that it was for remembrance.

I think that is a striking part of the play when she moves around the stage giving flowers to people. Rosemary for remembrance, pansies for thoughts, and fennel, and columbines, and rue. She ends with the daisies and violets that withered when her father died.

Today rosemary is for remembrance. And because the bush is loosely associated with the holidays as it is evergreen, even in the depths of winter.

I saw this recipe and immediately knew that I wanted to make it. I informed the recipe’s creator that I was going to make it for Cookie Thursday is a Thing and she encouraged me and told me to report back.

A dispatch I can do.

Reading the recipe I was concerned that there were not enough wet stuff for all the dry stuff. The recipe only calls for 14 tablespoons of butter (about 1 and 3/4 sticks) and 2 3/4 cups of dry stuff. The dry ingredients are cornstarch, flour, and sugar. This ratio seemed way off. The other recipes that I use for shortbread have a bit more wet stuff. The recipe also calls for 5 tablespoons of rosemary, chopped fine.

This is a very dry dough, crumbly even. The recipe says to use your fingers to mold it into a cohesive dough. And then rest it for 20 minutes.

I used smaller dough balls than called for. My dough balls were about 1 to 1 1/2 inch thick. I formed the thumbprints prior to baking. I did use a spoon to re-thumbprint them after baking.

I did not use white chocolate and heavy cream to make the ganache. I used straight up candiquik. Not sorry. These baked up easily and cooled quickly, which is good because I was on deadline for cookie delivery and I worked last night.

The delicateness of the rosemary shortbread with just a touch of white chocolate to smooth the taste out is divine.

I will 100% make these again. Perhaps, next time, with a savory thumbprint. I am wondering what goes well with rosemary. .

I wonder what else is in my spice cabinet that can be made using this recipe as a base.

Cookie Thursday 11/21/24- sweet potato cookies

Yeah, this is the same recipe that I used two weeks ago for the pumpkin cookies.

Cookie Thursday is a Thing is nothing but exploratory. That means I experiment on my coworkers. They get cookies, I get to experiment in the kitchen. It’s all good fun.

I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin, I like the milder sweet potato.

The pumpkin cookies that I made two weeks ago were very popular. And since this month’s theme is Fall (so original, I know) I wanted to make two of the popular Fall “vegetables” into cookies.

The pumpkin ones went great, although the recipe was a snickerdoodle in disguise.

I just used the same technique on sweet potato, without the fiddly sugar dip in cinnamon sugar step. I was going to use ginger and sugar but I had a meeting that was starting in 15 minutes and the sugar dipping took so long and was so messy last time I just skipped that step. I think ginger sugar dipping would be delightful and I will stow that idea away for use in an upcoming Cookie Thursday is a Thing.

Without the sugar dip these cookies still turned out. They were soft and cakey (in a good way) and delicious.

This is one experiment that I wil have no problem replicating. Unless I change another variable.

Experiments for life.

Edit to add that I added the chocolate chips that I felt were lacking in the pumpkin cookies to half of the batch. Yep, the pumpkin cookies definitely needed chocolate chips.

Cookie Thursday 11/7/24-soft pumpkin cookies

The Cookie Thursday is a Thing theme for November 2025 is Fall.

I asked my boss and someone else who happened to be in their office which cookie screams fall to them. They looked at each other and answered, “Pumpkin.”

I opened my Fall page on my Pinterest Cookie Thursday is a Thing board and looked up pumpkin cookies. One recipe caught my eye and it was for a soft pumpkin cookie, with no frosting.

Sold, I thought.

Until was making it and realized that it was a pumpkin Snickerdoodle recipe. Ugh. I hate making Snickerdoodles and this is probably the second time in CTIAT’s 9 years and 11 months that I made one.

I will recognize that the cookies are soft.

Apparently, this is because I decreased the canned pumpkin’s water content. I thought that would make the cookies drier. Not so. I put the canned pumpkin on paper towels and let the moisture seep out. This completely changed the consistency of the canned pumpkin.

Color me surprised and impressed.

The cookies did bake up super soft and it intensified the pumpkin flavor. Who knew?

I still hated dredging each dough ball in cinnamon sugar before baking. I will try that trick when I am making sweet potato cookies.

Cookie Thursdai 10/31/21- Trick or Treat?

This is my favoritest cookie Thursday of the year. This is the Thursday that I make homemade candies instead of cookies.

This is themed trick or treat because you never know if you are getting a trick or a treat.

In years past I made red hots, and sour patch kids, and itty brownie cauldrons with green frosting foam. I’ve made sea foam and, for the health conscious, I drew faces on clementines.

This month I only made 4 candies. I was going to candy Cheetos but I did not decide to make those in the last minute. It was a grave side decision. (joke)

I’ve made chocolate cracker toffee for Halloween and Christmas with various crackers and then I saw a recipe for cornflake chocolate toffee. After following the recipe I ended up with too much toffee and too little cornflakes. There is definitely something off about the proportions. Tasted good though. I wonder if I can make candy/cookies with grapenuts.

The next candy was just a tinted candy coating over a marshmallow. What made these fun is that the colors were that of candy corn. Cute but I’m not sure that large marshmallows are the way to go here.

A bit of a trick was the Monster muffins. These were green. Okay, these were spinach, banana, oat mini muffins. Of course I forgot to add the chocolate chip faces before I baked them. Cute, will do again, will add the chocolate chip faces next time.

The last candy I am the proudest of. Cookie Thursday is a Thing is about experimentation on my coworkers. This last one was definitely that. I was looking at buttermint candies, you know the ones, the ones that are served at weddings and baby showers. They can be molded or colored to match any theme. These are traditionally made with butter, powdered sugar, and peppermint oil/flavoring. Hence the buttermint. I wondered if another flavoring would work. And I just happened to have cinnamon oil. It totally works. These are sweet, but not too sweet, cinnamon bombs. I will definitely have to explore other extracts and have a little fun.

Cookie Thursday is a Thing Halloween Trick or Treat edition is over for the year.

What should I make next year?

Cookie Thursday 10/10/24- I’ve got my eye on you chocolate cookie

I have broken one of my hard and fast rules for Cookie Thursday is a Thing.

I have made a chocolate cookie.

I don’t enjoy making chocolate cookies. So I don’t.

However, since the theme of the month is This is Halloween, and the makes have chocolate in them and I had eyeball candies, I decided to make an exception.

Because those white eyes need to pop!

I made chocolate cookie dough and added the eyeballs, which I have to point out I have used before in other baked goods. Drop them onto the baking sheets and bake 10 minutes. Easy peasy.

Except, this time, for some unknown reason, the eyeballs melted!

I thought this was going to be a cute cookie, with the contrast between chocolate cookie and white eyeballs. But no.

What I am left with is a chocolate cookie with random toffee bits, instead of candy eyeballs.

Rude.

However, par for the course because the base of Cookie Thursday is a Thing has been experimentation. This is one experiment that I will not do again.

The cookies are fudgy and crisp and chewy and I wouldn’t kick them out of the cookie jar. But not what I had in mind.