Sunday, December 19, 2010

LES Girls Club Cookie Swap-The Results!

stuffed chocolate cookies

So, the cookie sale was yesterday and it was a great success!! Over $9,000 raised for the Lower Eastside Girls Club's culinary training program! And we seemed to have lots of satisfied customers (I had one adorable young boy who was a repeat customer), so hurrah! And to my great surprise, I won second place! But I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, so read on!

Packed cookies

These are just some of the cookies I brought (I was up preeeeetty late the night before) These are a variation on the Rolo cookies, except they're stuffed with caramel, coconut, and pecans instead of Rolos. Anyway, I got to Le Vie with no mishaps, found my table, and said hi to my neighbors (Michele and Susan, both of who were great company!), and then immediately left to get (my second) coffee. Le Vie is a nice space, but it's a lounge and it was pretty dark in there! So, I did not get any great photos, and only got a couple of "okay" photos. But this year I had the foresight to go around and buy cookies before the doors opened...because once they did, we were all super busy selling! Okay, I'm going to stop talking so much and post some more photos:

Polka Dots

Polka Dots, dairy free sesame cookies from Susan.

Chocolate Toffee Cranberry Deliciousness

Chocolate Toffee Cranberry Deliciousness, from my other neighbor, Michele. Love the name of this cookie!

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Gorgeous chocolate and candy cane cookies. Yeah, that's pretty much it for the photos that were actually taken AT the sale, but fortunately I did buy cookies and was able to take some better photos this morning:

The Loot!

Okay, now, I just have to say, this tin was for my brother, so I didn't get to taste everything. Well, hopefully he will report back!

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Just some of the selection available. The brownie in the center of the top row was the 3rd place winner (I did not manage to get a cookie from the winner! Boo!)

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A more detailed view. Aren't they all gorgeous? The judges walked around and sampled cookies and chatted with the bakers, which was great! I met Myriam Eberhardt (pastry chef at DBGB*, Sue Torres (chef/owner of Sueno), Nichelle Stephens of Cupcakes Take the Cake, Julie Christopher (from King Arthur Flour! Yay!), Jen Shelbo (pastry chef of Maialino), and Josh Ozersky, food writer/blogger/critic. At first I was deeply envious of their mission, but then I realized that they were going to be eating 25 cookies at one shot, and even if you only ate half of each cookie....that's still a WHOLE LOT OF SUGAR. Which might have done Josh in, because he mysteriously disappeared--I blame sugar crash.

Anyway, here's where I get self-indulgent--I don't think I've ever posted a photo of myself on this blog, but hey! I have to commemorate this somehow! So here's me with my gift basket prize!

I'm #2!

There is so much stuff in it, but I am most excited about the King Arthur Flour cookie book (and the prosecco, heh!)--can't wait to start trying out recipes from it!!! So, thank you to the Lower Eastside Girls Club for putting on an awesome event, thank you to the sponsors (Fiji Water, King Arthur Flour, Mionetto Prosecco and Green & Black Chocolate), and thanks to the judges, and thanks to my friends who came out!! I am not responsible for any weight gain :) Can't wait for next year!!

*Afterwards, we went to DBGB to get some sausages and beer and Myriam came out to say hi! And then she sent us a whole bunch of desserts! Totally unexpected, but so nice. Here is a really terrible photo of us. Also, here is a better photo of me and Julie Christopher--okay, time to go start reading my new cookie books!

8 comments:

Bentobird said...

Congrats Carol!!! I'm salivating over these jewel-like sweet morsels and sure I'm gaining weight loooking at them through some cookie lust osmosis...amazing!

Love the cute picture of you, the good cause served and all the awesome yummy inspiration. I'm seeing cookies with renewed wonder!

Megg said...

Congratulations on your win and for the fantastic cause! I would find it so hard to resist eating ALL of these tasty looking cookies.. wow! I agree with Jenn, such a cute photo of you! Cookies and prosecco.. what a win! ^_^

tofugirl said...

Thanks Jenn and Megg! I love this event, so nice to be with other people who are also into baking, hehe. I was happy I got to taste some of the other cookies this year, because by the time we had some time last year, everyone was sold out! Anyway, I need to make another batch to bring home for Christmas...after I get my kitchen clean again, hehe.

lady_mishegas said...

Oh wow, congratulations!! The cookies look delicious.

Kaimono888 said...

You must have enjoyed baking your cookies and happily seeing all of them sold out:) Congrats ^.~

Unknown said...

woo hoo! thanks for posting a picture of my cookies, neighbor! and congrats again on your win :) :)

xoxo
Michelle

tofugirl said...

Thanks Debra :D I wish I had gotten to taste more cookies!!

Kaimono, yes, I am always happy to see other people enjoying the things I bake :D And thank you :)

Michelle, hey! Your cookie was one of the few I got to taste, and it was super yummy! It was great meeting you :D

jason said...

That's a lot of cookies!