Me Want Cookie

No need to wait until Halloween to get your sweet fix; October is National Cookie Month! Whether your cookie of choice is the healthier kind, like Kashi's TLC Cookies, or you prefer to splurge on Grandma's Cookies from Frito-Lay, take these thirty-one days to enjoy chocolate chip, oatmeal, and peanut butter cookies…and everything in between! Pumpkin Spiced and Iced Cookies, anyone?

Think you know about cookies? Chew on these cookie facts:

• Since its introduction in 1902, Animal Crackers have featured 37 different mammals. Today, each box contains 22 crackers in 17 varieties: bears, bison, camels, cougars, elephants, giraffes, gorillas, hippopotami, hyenas, kangaroos, lions, monkeys, rhinoceros, seals, sheep, tigers, and zebras.
  
• Nabisco welcomed the Oreo in 1912.
  
• The sale of cookies as a way to finance Girl Scout troop activities began as early as 1917. In the 1920s and 1930s, Girl Scouts sold cookies door to door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen.
  
• The Toll House chocolate chip cookie was invented in 1933 by Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. Today, the chocolate chip cookie is the most popular kind of cookie in the U.S.
  
• Cookie sales top $3 billion annually. Each year, Americans consume roughly 2 billion cookies, and will eat about 35,000 cookies in a lifetime.
  
• Sesame Street's Cookie Monster wasn't always named Cookie Monster; the Muppet used to be named Sid. Arum num num num!

If you're seeking the best cookie recipes on the Internet, check out Mrs. Fields Secrets – tips and advice from the world's smartest cookie! Want to bake a better cookie? Take Domino Sugar's advice on preparing, baking, cooling, storing, and freezing cookies of all types.

This month, indulge on Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookies or go back to your childhood with Keebler Vienna Fingers. No matter how you choose to recognize National Cookie Month, be sure to celebrate in style!

Tell me, what's your favorite cookie? Leave a note, and don't be skimpy on the details!

How Sweet It Is

Did you know it's National Baking Week? Sponsored by Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit working to end child hunger in America, National Baking Week is a part of the Great American Bake Sale.

From August 29 to September 4, bakeries, restaurants, and freestanding and supermarket-based delis are encouraged to host bake sales, offer promotions, or donate a percentage of sales from the week to help make sure no child in this country goes hungry. Since 2003, the program has raised more than $6 million.

In honor of National Baking Week, I want to know: Which sweet treat is your pastry of choice?


*Note: Survey works best in Chrome.