My Cookie Story
Subscribe To The Joyful Food Life Blog
About me
Doesn't everyone love a good cookie story?
My path into the world of making cookies began in the way that it does for so many cooks and bakers ……. the memories and traditions from my childhood. Specifically, with my mom.
Here is a pretty good cartoon version of my mom back when I was growing up…. always bright-eyed and quick with a friendly smile. She is still this way today at age 87.
By the way, my name is Anne.
My mom was always making good things to eat.
Even now I think she would insist that she wasn’t a fancy cook, that her meals were pretty basic. And I guess that’s all true, but everything was always just really good. She cared about preparing good meals. She was forever scanning recipes in magazines, and clipping the good ones for safekeeping in her accordion style recipe binder. I do this, too.
My mom always had cookies in the cookie jar.
We had a cookie jar that sat on the counter right next to the kitchen doorway. It was a ruffled head of green cabbage with a bunny sitting on top of it. You had to grab the bunny to lift the lid.
This cookie jar was made in such a way that the lid had to be positioned in exactly the right place, or it wouldn’t close properly. Because it was made of ceramic, as you were trying to find the sweet spot where the lid fit perfectly, there would be the sound of those ceramic edges rubbing together. It was really difficult to not make a sound when you were doing that.
You might wonder, why would it matter whether or not you made any noise with the cookie jar?
Well, if you had some cookies or another dessert after dinner, and then later you wanted more cookies on top of that right before bed, it was something you tried to keep to yourself. And this scenario pretty much happened with me every night.
The cookies weren’t always homemade, but I’d have to say maybe 50% of the time they were. And of course, Chocolate Chip cookies were always a favorite.
Nothing compared to my mom's Christmas cookies.
The holiday baking marathon that my mom did year after year was nothing short of epic. I don’t know how she did it and got everything else done in time for Christmas.
The wide variety, the fun & deliciousness, and the sheer volume of what she produced was staggering.
I’m know there were more, but these are what I can remember……
Raspberry Thumbprints
Peanut Butter Kisses
Decorated Cut-Outs
Chocolate Coconut No-Bakes
Spritz Cookies
Date Bars
Peppermint Pinwheels
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
Butterscotch Haystacks
Gingerbread Men
Snowballs
Divinity
Gingersnaps
Almond Crescents
Cherry Vanilla Nut Drops
Maple Walnut Cookies
Peanut Brittle
Fudge
We lived far away from my mom’s parents and her family, so she would always mail several large boxes filled with tins of her cookies. I remember the shipping boxes and packing tape all over the kitchen floor when it came time to send them off.
Despite sending off this giant holiday cookie care package, there were still a massive amount of cookies left for us to enjoy, and to share with whoever visited our home during the holiday season. People looooved to visit our home during the holiday season. Now I know that these visitors were happy to see the members of our actual family, but I also know that they were extremely happy to feast on those cookies.
Once people had the experience of Christmas cookies at our house, they never forgot about it. We had a lot of repeat visitors.
Time for me to grow up.
Eventually the time came for me to head out into the world and become an adult. I moved far from home to a big city where I knew just one person. And that was really hard.
When that first holiday season started rolling around, I felt the lack of anything familiar to be overwhelming and sad. I knew I had to do something to try and push myself through it.
I asked my mom to send recipes for a few of the Christmas cookies that I really loved. I think I ended up making Gingersnaps and the Maple Nut Drops.
My kitchen was ridiculously tiny – just a nook in the corner of a small studio apartment. The stove was so small it seemed like a toy, but the oven did work and I managed to bake those cookies.
With each year, my holiday cookie baking grew more bigger and more elaborate. I loved making lists of the different varieties I planned to make each year, and also the lists for the necessary ingredients. I spent more money on cookie ingredients than I did on any other food that I brought home to cook.
By the time I turned 30, I was packing and shipping off my own slew of big cookie boxes to family and friends in far away places.
My career was all-consuming for many years, and the baking frenzy only kicked in around the holidays. I used to take a few vacation days in December so I could work 12 hours a day on the cookies without interruption.
I put that all-consuming career to the side once motherhood arrived, and of course the holiday cookies continued. I couldn’t take vacation days to bake any longer, but I figured out the new rhythm. And then I started to hear the inner voice saying …..
"You should start selling your cookies."
It remained a daydream for a very long time, and something fun to talk about with family and friends. It’s a huge thing to take things to the next step, at least it was for me. Especially since I knew absolutely nothing about turning a passion into an actual business.
There was really no rush, so it was a gradual start. Coming up with a business name was the first major task.
One word captured the spirit of what the cookies meant to me …….. Joyful.
I sold cookies for the first time at a school fundraiser. The dollars earned went to the school, but the experience of having people hand over money for something I made with my hands (and heart) was a big deal. Now it was real.
Over the years there have been countless school fundraisers, PTA carnivals and other community events where I’ve set up my cookie table. And after getting out there a bit, word of mouth took hold.
Initially the cookie buyers were friends who cared about me and wanted to encourage me, which was wonderful. And then slowly there were more random emails and calls from people I didn’t know who had heard about the cookies.
One day it was favors for a 3 year old’s birthday party…..
The next day it was a Big 5-0 for 100 people.
Then there are all the holidays. There is always a holiday right around the corner.
I absolutely love it when I run into kids in my town and they know me as “the cookie lady”. It’s not the job title I ever expected to have, but it’s one that I really love.
And now for the next cookie adventure ........
I have learned a tremendous amount about so many different cookie business topics over the past decade. I’ve had some wonderful experiences, and some lousy ones. The upside about the lousy experiences is that you learn a lot from them. In the end, the mistakes help you and make you stronger.
This website is a home for everything I’ve learned, to help others who are taking the leap of turning their baking passion into a business.
I’ve named it Joyful Food Life, since that is how it feels for me.
And I’ll share some of my own personal cookie work, just for fun and inspiration.
If you’ve made it all the way through to the end of this page, Thank You!!!
I hope you will continue on by clicking one of the buttons below and be part of my Joyful Food Life!!!