Food & Family

The 80-20 Rule (or, Why It is Okay to Have Cookies Some of the Time)

By Karen Kolp

When I was growing up, we usually ate regular cereal for breakfast – Chex, Wheaties, and Crispix were the biggies in our house. But some of the time, maybe once every few months, my Mom would give us carte blanche at the grocery store, and woohoo! We'd choose Cocoa Puffs, or Lucky Charms, or even Cookie Crisp , cereal shaped like tiny chocolate chip cookies. Since any morning that included chocolate and/or marshmallows was an automatic celebration, these buying sprees were frequent enough to keep us kids satisfied. But they didn't happen so often that we took them for granted.

By doing the cereal-buying this way, my Mom kept us healthy and let us indulge once in a while; this is how I feel, now that I'm the Mom, about food. We adhere to the 80-20 rule: eighty percent of the time, the kids eat well, getting plenty of fruit, vegetables, and protein each day. Which leaves the other twenty percent of the boys' food intake up to them; suffice it to say that cookies make up quite a bit of that twenty percent!

The 80-20 rule isn't billed that way to my nine-and-five-year-olds, of course. For them, it means that after a day, or week, that included lots of good-for-you food (much of which they really like anyway), they enjoy cookies for dessert, or cookies and milk as an afternoon snack. When they help with the baking, so much the better – they gain valuable cooking skills and we share in some family time as well.

That's why cookie-baking around the holidays is such a treat. It's family time combined with indulgence, and it does not happen every day. Make the most of it with your favorite cookie recipes, or give one of the recipes listed here a try!

Next month: Peanut-Butter Pad Thai, King of Comfort Food

Gingerbread Cookies Like You've NEVER Had Before

This recipe, from my sister-in-law, bears absolutely no resemblance to the hard, dry gingerbread cookies you may have tried in the past. These are more like soft, chewy little pumpkin-spice gems; once you try them, you won't feel the same way about gingerbread again!

Makes 4-6 dozen (depending on how big you roll them)

2 cups sugar

1-½ cups softened butter

½-cup molasses

2 eggs

4-½ cups flour

3 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp salt

½ – 1 cup sugar

Cream the butter and sugar well either with a hand mixer or a wire whisk; mix in the next nine ingredients, molasses through salt, in order. When well-combined and smooth, chill the dough for one hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls; roll each ball in the sugar and place on a cookie sheet, making sure they are a few inches apart.

Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes, or until the cookies are just baked and still soft in the middle – do not over bake! You may want to run a test-batch of a few cookies to be sure that they are done to your liking. Cool on layers of newspaper under a sheet of parchment paper, or on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container or freeze for up to several weeks.

No-Chill Sugar Cookies

This recipe, from the back of a Wilton stencil set I got years ago, makes the best, quickest sugar cookies that we have tried. If you're tired of plain sugar cookies, try my chocolate variation – or make a batch of both!

1 cup butter, softened

1-½ cups sugar

1 egg

1-½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract

2-¾ flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Chocolate variation: substitute ½-cup of cocoa powder for ½-cup flour, bring the sugar up to 2 cups, and omit the almond extract.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, using either a hand mixer or a wire whisk. Beat in egg and extracts. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt; add to the creamed mixture about one cup at a time, stirring well after each addition.

Don't chill the dough.

Divide it into two balls; set one aside and roll the other into a 12-inch circle that is about 1/8-inch thick. Using your favorite clean, dry, and dipped-in-flour-cookie cutters, make the cookies and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Roll up the scraps into a ball, roll it out, and repeat until you've used up all the dough. Repeat with the other ball of dough.

Bake at 400 for 6-7 minutes or until the cookies are slightly browned. Allow to cool on layers of newspaper under a sheet of parchment paper, or on a wire rack.

 Read about Karen's adventures in homeschooling at http://stoneagetechie.blogspot.com/