By Allrecipes Allstar, Sonja D
I live in a suburb of the poorest city in the nation, Reading, Pennsylvania.
People in the city are without work, without opportunity and largely without hope. Reading is rife with gangs and drugs — everything that you can think of happens here. Our crime rate rivals much larger cities. It is a rough place. Many suburbanites like myself won’t even go into the city. Unless they’re headed to work or to score dope, most would rather drive out of their way than into Reading. I, however, am headed specifically to the city Monday.
During the holidays, I feel that it’s especially important to do things for others who have less. The culture surrounding the winter holidays, no matter the race or religion, is one of good will toward others. This year, I am participating in Cookies Across America. It seems rather weird to me that I have never even heard of this event. I mean, it’s right up my alley! I can’t knit blankets or infant caps for maternity wards; I can’t run a marathon to raise money for cancer research, but I can bake my little pants off!
Cookies Across America is a national event in which independent home bakers volunteer to donate cookies to charities of their choice. I decided to bake for The Opportunity House, an organization that offers shelter, education and support for families in struggling on their path to independence in Reading. They do lots of great work for the residents of the city and it was my first choice. Bonus: the charity is not affiliated with any religious organization, a definite plus for me. After mailing to confirm that they could accept a homemade donation, I set out with a plan.
There was an “official” cookie donation day on December 10th, but I wanted to give my friends a chance to participate. For this reason, I waited until yesterday to start baking my cookies. I made a Facebook event and invited some folks over to help make and decorate cookies. It ended up being just my mother and I. That’s okay. I know that the holidays are busy for everyone. The extra hands would have been nice, though! I made 30 dozen cookies over the course of two days, and mom came over to help decorate eight dozen of these, which were sugar cookies.
Because I knew that I would be short on help, I decided to make the majority of my cookies in a way that would negate decorating. Making and baking is relatively quick, after all. The time consuming part is drawing, painting and sprinkling. I made seven dozen white chip chocolate cookies, six dozen chocolate chip, two dozen play dough cookies, three dozen peanut butter blossoms, four dozen raspberry thumbprints and the eight dozen sugar cookies I mentioned. I even made three dozen oatmeal raisin cookies just for Colin, not to be donated. So I really made 33 dozen!
I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position), and I'm not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertisers are only used for experienced-based reviews. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of Sonja D.
People in the city are without work, without opportunity and largely without hope. Reading is rife with gangs and drugs — everything that you can think of happens here. Our crime rate rivals much larger cities. It is a rough place. Many suburbanites like myself won’t even go into the city. Unless they’re headed to work or to score dope, most would rather drive out of their way than into Reading. I, however, am headed specifically to the city Monday.
During the holidays, I feel that it’s especially important to do things for others who have less. The culture surrounding the winter holidays, no matter the race or religion, is one of good will toward others. This year, I am participating in Cookies Across America. It seems rather weird to me that I have never even heard of this event. I mean, it’s right up my alley! I can’t knit blankets or infant caps for maternity wards; I can’t run a marathon to raise money for cancer research, but I can bake my little pants off!
Cookies Across America is a national event in which independent home bakers volunteer to donate cookies to charities of their choice. I decided to bake for The Opportunity House, an organization that offers shelter, education and support for families in struggling on their path to independence in Reading. They do lots of great work for the residents of the city and it was my first choice. Bonus: the charity is not affiliated with any religious organization, a definite plus for me. After mailing to confirm that they could accept a homemade donation, I set out with a plan.
There was an “official” cookie donation day on December 10th, but I wanted to give my friends a chance to participate. For this reason, I waited until yesterday to start baking my cookies. I made a Facebook event and invited some folks over to help make and decorate cookies. It ended up being just my mother and I. That’s okay. I know that the holidays are busy for everyone. The extra hands would have been nice, though! I made 30 dozen cookies over the course of two days, and mom came over to help decorate eight dozen of these, which were sugar cookies.
Because I knew that I would be short on help, I decided to make the majority of my cookies in a way that would negate decorating. Making and baking is relatively quick, after all. The time consuming part is drawing, painting and sprinkling. I made seven dozen white chip chocolate cookies, six dozen chocolate chip, two dozen play dough cookies, three dozen peanut butter blossoms, four dozen raspberry thumbprints and the eight dozen sugar cookies I mentioned. I even made three dozen oatmeal raisin cookies just for Colin, not to be donated. So I really made 33 dozen!
These are the white chip and chocolate chip cookies.
Play Dough Cookies
Raspberry Thumbprints
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Kaelyn helped my mother and I decorate cookies. Chocolate chips, sprinkles and gummi snacks. Notice the nice holes she made with my food writer markers.
We sipped Colonial Hot Buttered Rum while we decorated. Mmm...
Okay, so we're not Picasso. But the effort was made; the cookies were decorated, and they will go to families in need this year. I'm sure they won't mind that our snowmen look like kindergarten craft activities!
I'll come back to post a picture of the trays when I put them together on Monday!
December isn't over! You can still bake a dozen cookies or two and donate them to charity. Will you take the Cookies Across America pledge and make a difference for someone in need this year?
I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position), and I'm not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertisers are only used for experienced-based reviews. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of Sonja D.
