The Great Lemon Chalet Cookie Recall

Well, it's Girl Scout Cookie time again, and I am steamed. This year, some of the Little Brownie Bakery Lemon Chalet cookies have been recalled, not for safety issues but because some of them "tasted funny." It seems they used some rancid coconut oil or something in the baking process. This won't make you sick but rancid oil is not pleasant. I should know; I've accidentally cooked with rancid cooking oil before and actually SERVED the food before I realized. Fortunately the people that ate it thought it was marvelous and wanted to know how I got that unusual flavor. I ate some after the party to try to figure out what they were talking about and, EEWWW! So I never cook with oid now without checking it first, even though I don't think I got caught that time.

Well, they have recalled about 10 different lot numbers and it affects only 6.5 % of the LCC's (that's Girl Scout for Lemon Chalet Creme) nationwide. But of course MINE are all in one of the affected lot numbers and I suspect it's the same with my whole troop. So now I have to turn them all in (which amounts to close to 2 cases, or $84 worth) and get replacement cookies. The problem with this is that one of my big deliveries is tonight. The girls are going with us to the SCA business meeting and we are delivering about four or five cases of cookies (the SCA people are very generous and many are former scouts, so we have sold a good many to them). About four or five boxes of the LCCs are for the SCA people, so I won't be able to give them theirs and will have to either substitute something or get up with them later. Unfortunately I don't see some of these folks every month, so I expect I will be spending quite a lot in gas to put this right.

I have actually eaten (well, not me personally but my family, which means me in large part) two boxes of the LCCs and they were fine. Not as good as I remembered (and a customer who already ate hers says the same thing) but not rancid by any means. I would know the taste of rancid oil, seriously. Of course, without opening them I can't tell you about the other boxes I have.

Well, I have two boxes that belong to someone down the street who is a former leader on top of it. We made two attempts to deliver, IN uniform and on one attempt someone looked out the blinds (I saw the fingers) and did not open the door. It looked like a woman's hand, not a teen or kid. I also called and left a message and heard nothing, not even "I don't want them any more." Now they are recalled so I am trying to just return those. I can always fill the order out of my replacements IF I can even get the lady to take them, but it really ticks me off. We are on the hook for $7 of those cookies because they pre-ordered them. Not the troop, not the council--us personally. And this is one of our neighbors and former leaders. I know people are broke but really, can't she find a way to come up with $7 dollars? I would wait until payday, I really would. What is going on is: (1) someone ordered them without her permission and they don't need them but she doesn't want to tell us that; (2) they can't afford them because they are much harder up financially than anyone knows, but she doesn't want to tell us that either. Believe me, I am not very happy with her right now. If she would just call us back and tell us it was a mistake and they don't want them, or make up some reason like the recent recall, I would be fine with it. Just call us and tell us what to to with your frigging cookies!!! [Are we allowed to use this word on Blog.spot.com????]

One year we sold door to door in a neighborhood and sold about 60 boxes. When we went to deliver, there were at least 14 boxes that we could not deliver. One guy ordered 6 and then told us to come back later. We came back twice and no one was home. Two gave us numbers that turned out to be bad; one moved. Anyway, 14 boxes was more than a case, or about $47 worth. We were able to roll these over into a booth sale and sell them but I was really ticked off and I said that we would not sell door to door again unless it was on our street. But every year even on our street we have one "problem customer" who either doesn't pay or we can't get ahold of them or we have to make about 6 attempts. This year we only did part of the street, 6 houses and we STILL have one.

Lately the girls and I are selling most of our cookies to people in the SCA or at ALL Con. This is a convention for science fiction and fantasy fans, and the SCA is kindly allowing us to participate as part of our demo booth and sell cookies. We will probably sell over 100 boxes here if we do it for three or four hours. At least I hope so. The economy was bad last year and at regular booth sales we were selling maybe 20 per hour or 60 per door (like at a grocery store or something). At All Con we could sell 60 in about an hour and a half, even though they didn't sell as well as when the economy was good. This year the economy is worse though. I sure hope we can sell them, including the LCCs.

Recalls are funny. Last year there was a peanut butter recall that didn't affect the GS cookies (in that none were recalled). However, the people in the Western councils who sold earlier got stuck with a lot of Tagalongs and Do Si Dos due to the recall. Now I told my cookie mom to go light on the Do Si Dos and get the Tagalongs because the young singles and college students love those and they don't care much about recalls. We ended up overstocked on Tags and short on Do Si Dos. But a woman from Amarillo told me at All Con that she could have traded me cases of Do Si Dos for some Thin Mints because she was STILL overstocked on those!

On top of everthing, the cookie mom wants the money on March 10 and All Con is not until March 13. She doesn't really have to pay Council until the end of the month; she just wants to wind it up before Spring Break. I don't really know what to do. The cookies I need to pay her for cost over $800 (cash and checks only) and I just won't have all of that until we finish selling cookies at All Con. I can give her what I have (although I would like to keep some of the change back), but I can't give her money I don't have. I didn't know about this when I ordered the cookies or made the plans to sell at All Con so I am really in the soup right now. The other leader is going to talk to her and I can pay the other leader that evening after All Con (because I don't want the money in my house over Spring Break or in my bank account--I just want to turn it over so it doesn't accidentally get spent or something). I am not a happy camper right now. I am supposed to work the March 8 booth sale so I am hoping that if the troop doesn't have much in the way of cookies left to sell, maybe I can sell some of the personal ones there and just not have too many for All Con. They didn't sell well at my husband's office this year either. Everyone is just broke right now.

Well, now we have a recall. They are going to replace the cookies. But my question is, what if they still won't sell after the recall? I really don't want to be purchasing two cases of LCCs. I like them and everything but I don't need 24 boxes of them. That means that I will have to sell all my personal cookies instead to pay for the LCCs that I am getting stuck with.

Fortunately I still have plenty of Thin Mints. Liquid gold. I never met a thin mint I didn't like. They sell like hotcakes. They sell themselves. I have been way overstocked on them every year because I always go heavy on them (they can be easily traded to other troops for the other varieties which is why I do this). I have NEVER had any left over. Even Samoas, which are wonderful and sell well, sometimes sell slowly, but never the Thin Mints.

So wish me luck! If you want to buy some cookies and keep me from being in trouble with my cookie mom let me know. They offered me this job and I should have taken it because then I would control the payments and deposits and I wouldn't be in the soup like this. Just couldn't handle it with DI and Thinking Day and Gulf War and such all happening within the same three week period. My life is already a mess.

But I am really pissed off at Little Brownie Bakers this year for using the rancid oil. The Fort Worth Council, which uses another baker and sells a BETTER variety of lemon cookie, doesn't have this issue. Maybe it's time to move to Arlington.

Wish me luck on my crown today. My appointment is in 30 minutes and I still need to shower. I'm in denial. My husband was supposed to take me because of my dental fears but he had to go in to the office because his laptop wasn't working right and I have a really bad feeling that I will be trying to drive myself home in the rain by myself from this appointment, feeling really awful, and have an accident or something. It's not really that far like the root canal appointment but I am a terrible driver in the rain especially when I am all shaken up by something. And I sure hope his damn flexible spending card works today because I know I don't need THAT hassle either.

So I am really not a happy camper, just a neglected dental phobic today. Maybe I should just conveniently forget the appointment and reschedule for a different day. Seriously thinking about it.

Ok, after a brief delay I'm back. I did indeed cancel the appointment and reschedule for Weds. morning. My husband has to be here that day because we have to take Amelia for another endocrinology appointment on Weds after school (4:30 appointment downtown) and we have to deliver some GS cookies to an SCA person who is ill right now and can't come to business meeting.

Now that the appointment is cancelled I have gone back to what else I am doing today (making chicken soup with homemade stock, getting the most out of my $5 Wally World Chicken). Seriously, I bought a whole chicken for under $5 at Wally World and roasted it. We ate dinner and I ate at least two lunches, and my husband ate a lunch from this chicken (it was big and took about 90 minutes or so to roast). Then I made stock this morning from the carcass (four 750 ml containers). I used one, unstrained, for the soup today with the chicken pieces peeled from the carcass, which also would have made a nice dog snack (you can't give chicken bones to dogs; they splinter). Anyway, now I am making veggie/chicken soup with about $8 of veggies from Wally World and one container of chicken stock and some water, and I am boiling some pasta to put in it too so it will be chicken soup with noodles (so maybe the kids will eat it and some vegetables). My whole house smells yummy. I hope to go watch the exhibition ice skating which is taped from Sat (while I was cropping) and do some Gulf War sewing in my pjs and take a shower about 2 pm. Sounds like a great day here in Pleasant Valley instead of a dreaded dental day.

I think I also would like to curl up on the bed with the Arabian Nights to see if I can find an appropriate story for the kids to dramatize at Warlord. Oh, some days when I am here all by myself with just my computer and my kitchen and my stuff, I am as happy as a clam! Especially if I can put all that damn Cookie Mess out of my head. See, I really am not a frustrated former lawyer, but a domestic goddess.

Since I cancelled my dental appointment, now I don't have to go to Scouts and Business Meeting all doped up (good idea since the moms are supposed to handle the cookie money) and I can enjoy the mediterranean buffet at Dimassi's (folks in the DFW area, this is an all you can eat buffet for $12 and it is delicious. I do hope they charge less for the small fry though, because I really don't want us to pay $48 for dinner tonight).

Pleasant Valley Mom, thinking of relocating to Arlington for the Girl Scout Council and looking forward to a few blissful hours in front of the ice skating show, if I can forward past all the damned skiing.