Girl Scout Cookies Rule

Ah, the quintessential all-American cookies are out in full force again--at least in my part of the country.

I bought one box each of Figgy's favorites--Tagalongs, aka Peanut Butter Patties, and Samoas--from the Scouts outside church on Sunday [one sweet reward for making it to Mass]. Then I came upon a troop peddling their treats outside the supermarket--so I bought the all-time classic, Thin Mints. The cost this year: $4 per box.

But honey, they shrunk the Thin Mints box over the last couple years. It contains 9 ounces, or seven servings of 4 innocent, slender, dark, alluring little cookies [hah--160 calories per serving and 25 percent of daily saturated fat]. But those classics still rule. They contain peppermint oil and are particularly good frozen. Unlike the Samoa, which packs 150 calories in two little fudge-drizzled coconut rings, at least you get 4 cookies for the calories. If you don't eat them stacked together as doubles, as someone I know might do.

My sister and I were Girl Scouts too. I remember the envelope with the pictures of the cookies on it, and going to the green house across the street to sell some, after asking my mother first. I had never met the lady there before but she invited me in and ordered a few boxes. I didn't know her like I knew Mrs. K. next door, or Mrs. I. down the street. She appeared at one other pivotal time too--via my Dad, she sent me a tiny cotton-candy-pink sweater she had crocheted for Fig when she was born. I hadn't seen the lady in years. Punch & Judy also wore that lacy little cardigan, 12 years later.

I barely knew this neighbor, and what saddens me is we heard, after she moved away, that she ran into some sticky issues in life. Things that would be hard for any mother to deal with. So wherever you are, Mrs. -- from the green house, I hope you are faring okay. Thanks for buying the cookies, and crocheting the beautiful mini sweater. [BTW, can you possibly make one in my size? I love pink.]

When I was slimmer, and on Weight Watchers, I sometimes bought a few boxes of Thin Mints and gave them away, to my Dad or I think once to someone homeless on the street. I've always marveled at my friend and neighbor, Jean, who has six children [a couple at college now] and cooks dinner every night. One Sunday, I stopped over when the family was about to have dessert. That night, dessert was a box of Thin Mints. All eight shared it. That is why Jean and her husband and kids are slim, and I am not. I don't know if I could successfully share a box with seven other people. :)

When I was a Girl Scout leader for Figgy and friends [for five years, steering the troop with other adults], I became a bit of a fanatic, even finding a recipe online that used Thin Mints [I think it was from one of the commercial bakeries that make them]. We whipped up some layered chocolate pudding with minty cookie crumbs and fluffy cream at our next meeting.

I'm just grateful that these cookies are still around. To me, they rank right up there with other classics like Jell-O, Marshmallow Fluff, and My-T-Fine pudding [whoever came up with a name like that?].

Long live the Thin Mint, and the little girls who sell her.

P.S. Why haven't I ever toured a Nabisco factory? H., Fig and I passed a building with "NABISCO" lit up in lights tonight on our way to L's singing performance.