BigCookiesBigFun.com

‘Tis The Season (Well, less than 24 hours)

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:11:50 -0500

‘Tis The Season (Well, less than 24 hours)

We Encourage All Kinds of Cookie Behavior !!

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:50:25 -0500

We Encourage All Kinds of Cookie Behavior !!

You Know You Want One …or Twelve.

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:40:10 -0500

You Know You Want One …or Twelve.

And The Winner of 20 Free Cookies is......

Fri, 20 May 2011 22:12:37 -0400

As promised, here is the video of the winner of our 20 fee cookies drawing for May 20th. Thanks for participating!

Our Winner of 20 Cookies Celebrating our 20 Years in Business!

Fri, 20 May 2011 22:10:41 -0400

Our Winner of 20 Cookies Celebrating our 20 Years in Business!

Time to celebrate! 20 years ago in April we started in our home...

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:23:18 -0400

Time to celebrate! 20 years ago in April we started in our home certified kitchen as Brookie’s Cookies.

This Time I'm Really Gonna Do It!

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:13:07 -0400

I have been threatening to paint our dull, dingy family room for quite some time now, but certain members of the family like the status quo, and I like certain family members; hence the long-standing stand-off on the delicate subject of painting.

But now I am casting off the restraining restraint of status and his partner in crime, quo to bask in the glorious freedom of making a unilateral, uninformed, independent decision. Not totally uninformed; I have some colors in mind. But I am not sure where to put which colors, and so will decide by experimentation and possibly, the luck of the draw.

I love doing it this way; you choose a wall and then, wearing a good, sturdy blindfold (actually this part is optional) you mix up all of your paint cans and then choose one randomly. This becomes the color you put on your first wall. Proceeding from there, the room becomes a one-of-a-kind, creatively conceived imaginarium!

Ok, I confess, that is not really how I intend to do it. But it still sounds like a good plan, when you don’t yet have a plan in place, since you’ve been using the family room as a sick room for a week, and that’s what you are, sick of the color of the very paint in this room that has suddenly become unimaginably boring and dull!

But I digress; I ventured out to Walmart and just “happened” to be looking at paint chips. I found the most luscious color combinations, and decided then and there that I was going to take the plunge and update the tired old color scheme of our family room.

So—who wants to help me paint?

For Sale: Furnished Toothpick House. Great Price!

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:03:33 -0400

For Sale: Furnished Toothpick House. Great Price!

New Addition to our Procedure Manual

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:58:07 -0400

New Addition to our Procedure Manual

Some Sick Thoughts (I'm sick, not my thoughts...)

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:45:00 -0400

It is again late and I am feeling chatty. But since everyone in my house (“everyone” having dwindled down to just 3 people) except me is sleeping, I will have to tell my secrets to you.

Not secrets, really. Just the thoughts rumbling along the back roads of my tired mind. Thoughts like, I wonder why my chicken noodle soup looks like vomit. I only cooked it for 3 hours, then stuck it in the freezer, thawed it 4 days later, and cooked it (boiled it, actually) for a couple of hours while I watched a movie, forgetting about it entirely as I sat staring zombie-eyed at the Odessa Files. Good movie, by the way. But not good for my soup, simmering there unattended for a bit too long. I discovered, however, that you cannot ruin chicken noodle soup. It may have looked disintegrated, but it tasted fabulous. Especially when you’re sick and not feeling like eating anything too sophisticated. Just needed a couple shakes each of salt and pepper, and it was delish. I actually ate two whole bowls of it. I just tried not to look at it.

Another thought: When sick in bed, the best sound in the world is the laughter of 4 teen-age girls giggling over peanut butter sandwiches. Hearing one of my daughters friends ask, “Do you have any milk?”; my daughter answering in the affirmative, then a loud, “Expiration date February 17?! Uh, never mind!” Finding out later that they DID find the unexpired milk without any help from yours truly, and loving the fact that my daughter has such good friends.

World-shaking thoughts like these vie for expression, and if not deliberately set free will find some other way to trickle out at unexpected moments. I think I need to spend more time with my women friends, just talking and getting those random, mundane, profound, brain-fart thoughts out of the way so I have room for the really important stuff, like why do we have 8 freezers FULL of cookies but no candy in this house?!

We Know You Want to Feel Good

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:27:34 -0500

We Know You Want to Feel Good

I Miss My Mind...Wait...What?!

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

I really didn’t expect this.

It’s not supposed to happen this way. You are supposed to go from one phase to another, graciously and with dignity. Or so it has always seemed to me. Nobody told me it was possible to enter another phase while still in the previous phase, going back and forth, not like a metronome, which at least would have some sense of regularity to it, but like a crazed fruit fly stuck between the window and the curtain, able to see but not attain merciful freedom.

It’s worse than I thought it would be. I got up this morning. I usually get up, being ashamed to stay in bed when most sane folks are up working and energetically plowing through life; although some mornings lethargy out-maneuvers shame with some sly excuse, keeping the pillow to my ear just a little longer than necessary. Be that as it may, I got up and wandered around the house a bit, trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I noticed that my daughter was also up, which gave my sense of responsibility a little kick in the pants and prompted me to get both of us moving.

So while she started on her school work (being a home schooled child of long standing) I again tried to come up with some productive plans. And this is the frustration I am addressing: I am experiencing some of the symptoms of the so-called “change of life” but not the ones I was hoping to be experiencing right about now! Yes, folks, you heard it here first. It is possible to have all of the symptoms of menopause (except the cessation of the menses after which menopause was named) and still experience all of the joys of the monthly period. All of the usual suspects line up like clockwork every 28 days, but now they bring along some other shady characters heretofore not invited to the party.

What I am talking about is weight gain around the mid-section, bouts of crying, weird physical symptoms, and, the granddaddy of them all, the losing of the mind.

It’s true. Pieces of my mind disappear daily, taking up their little backpacks and venturing off into the unknown, never to return. This morning I discovered that although there were many things I could be doing, something always stood in the way of my ability to actually do them.

For instance, I could have loaded the dishwasher if only it were not already full of dishes. They were clean and dry, and there they sat, thwarting my efforts to maintain a clean kitchen.

I could have emptied the overflowing recycling bin, but alas, I was wearing no shoes so could therefore not go outside. When I related this to my husband, he, being a wonderful problem-solver, suggested that I could have gone outside barefoot; to which I replied with chagrin that I indeed could not have done that, as I was wearing socks!

Fortunately for me, I suddenly realized the absolute ridiculousness of my plight and, instead of wallowing in self-pity, I began to laugh uproariously at myself. Of course, the pieces of my mind came tumbling back, attracted as they were to the self-acceptance contained in my unexpected mirth. My previously unproductive day abruptly turned on it’s heel and presented me with 3 or 4 easily do-able projects, which I completed without further ennui.

I’m kind of glad they didn’t tell me this would happen, or I might have missed out on the incredible feeling of relief and freedom found in simply surrendering many of my unrealistic expectations for life at 50 and beyond. I get to cut myself some slack. I get to have a bad day and not beat myself up for it. And I get to slow down and spend time in the moment.

I really DIDN’T expect this!

Late Night Revelations (Which May Not Make Sense in the Light of Day)

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:26:00 -0500

Here it is, 12:24 in the morning and I am still up messing around with all of my various social media options. I really consider myself more of a communicator than a computer person, but I suppose that since computers are here to stay that I really need to become more proficient in utilizing this amazing resource.

Back when I was in school, nobody had computers; we didn’t even have a typewriter. But we did have fairly decent handwriting. At least some of us did! And even though I lived in such a stone-aged lack of technology, I never felt the least bit disadvantaged. Imagine that.

So anyway, I don’t have any earth-shattering stuff to share, just some musings on the subject of friendship. It really is true that to have a friend, you need to be a friend. But the face of friendship seems to have morphed into something I am not quite sure I am prepared for. I am not sure, for example, about Facebook “friends”. Most sane individuals would never call even their CLOSEST of friends to inform them of the status of, say, their bowel movements, but Facebook friends tell all using a creative array of descriptors: “I just plopped a big one and I am naming it the Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Now, I ask you, who really needs to know this kind of detail about your daily life? *Oh, yeah, I forgot; my Facebook friends!* And the FUNNY thing is that somewhere in the vicinity of a thousand people, some of whom you barely know or have never even MET, will post a congratulatory note expressing amazement at your astonishing(?) feat! I admit to congratulating my TWO-year old on his or her prowess in depositing bodily waste in the potty but I’m not really that impressed when GROWN-UPS manage it!

I will admit that there is a real element of friendship that exists in the social media, and I am not knocking it’s ability to keep us out of the seat of the uninformed on some very important matters. Like when my friend’s child was missing for a brief but terrifying couple of hours and I didn’t want to call and tie up her phone it was nice to post a quick, “Hey, we are praying like crazy!” to her Facebook page. When, thankfully, the child was found and brought home, it was a wonderful way to get the word out that all was well.

And I know that my daughter has met some amazing people through Twitter. It suits her; she owns a coffee shop (Downtown Grounds in Medford) and uses her snatches of time to keep in touch with the outside world. My husband and I are starting to get into Twitter as a way to advertise our business, make connections in the community, and maybe enhance our own social life in the process. So I am definitely not against social media!

But there is still in me a strong desire to sit face to face with a close friend or loved one, to hear the inflections in her voice, to see the joy or the pain or the disappointment reflected in his eyes, and to KNOW and experience that profound connection that happens when two souls discover that beautiful, ingenious, healing thing called Friendship.

So, wanna get a coffee with me sometime soon? I know just the place to go…

We Deliver

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:12:35 -0500

We Deliver

About Us

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:31:00 -0500

We began as Brookie’s Cookies in the 1980’s. We wanted to teach our children how to earn money for toys or treats, so we baked cookies and then sold them door to door in offices, stores and work places. Eventually some stores wanted to carry the cookies so we certified our home kitchen with the Department of Agriculture in 1991.

Our bakery produces thousands of cookies each week and we have sold millions of cookies over the years. We produce giant, Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin and Peanut Butter cookies along with Brownies each week. Each one of our five children has worked in our business in some way. In 1996 we added Baby Brookie’s Cookies to our product line, a smaller cookie for those that may be overwhelmed by our “regular” quarter pound, 5 inch diameter cookies!

We started working out of our home in Central Point, Oregon; in 1998 we finally moved out of our home into a commercial building, but our cookies are still made the same “Homemade Way” with no artificial foods or preservatives. In 2010 we eliminated trans fat and chose more natural ingredients. We believe the freshness, the high quality ingredients and our secret recipe (make ‘em bigger and richer) contribute to the great taste. We all still love and eat our cookies after all these years, so we know they’re good!

Our advertising method is simple and highly effective. We give away cookies to some lucky person, sharing our story and telling them where the cookies can be purchased. Of course, we ask them to tell everyone that they are Brookie’s Cookies!

In 2007 we incorporated as Oregon Cookies, Inc. and began distributing throughout the Northwest. Currently, via our web page, we are reaching the entire US including our military anywhere overseas! With our expanded vision and corresponding growth, we enlarged our slogan from “Sweetening Southern Oregon One Cookie at a Time” to “Sweetening the Universe One Cookie at a Time” and are in the process of changing our name from Brookie’s Cookies to www.OregonCookies.com.

We are grateful to the many people that have told our story and encouraged people to buy Brookie’s Cookies.

Thank you!

Tom and Susan Szczesniak
www.OregonCookies.com / Brookie’s Cookies

PS: Yes, we do have a daughter named Brooke!