The Cookie Jar by June Hannay Kosier

This piece was written in the Spring of 2020

“People have got to learn: if they don’t have cookies in the cookie jar, they can’t eat cookies.”
—Suze Orman

My Dad always said that there are good and bad things about everything. It is hard to think that there are any good things about the Covid-19 Pandemic, but there are.Besides all the good people are doing to help each other, there are some other good things such as all the sorting, purging and cleaning that is getting done. Women are running out of things to do while sitting at home for weeks. Since it is Spring, a lot of Spring cleaning is being accomplished. I am not domestic, so I am doing my Spring cleaning for 1993. For instance, I threw out all my VHS tapes. I am being very thorough since I have an exorbitant amount of time and this morning, I cleaned out my yellow teapot shaped cookie jar.

I bet you thought I was going to say I ate all the cookies. Now, you will recall that I am not very domestic. There were no cookies in the cookie jar. There were about ten small pieces of paper including my father’s secret recipe for chicken barb-b-que sauce, a list of projects I would like to have done to the house if I ever win the lottery and a list of garden projects. I put them back in the cookie jar. I threw out the unlabeled measurements of something and the name of a night cream my dermatologist recommended (It cost $100 for a small tube and I never bought it.) There was also an empty bag of Wise Dipsy Doodles, barb-b-queued corn chips. I liked them and wanted to remember to buy them again, but never have. I wonder if they still make them? I threw the bag out. I kept the ceramic lid for a teapot in the hopes that I will find the bottom as I continue my sorting. I also found about sixty packets of silica gel desiccant. The internet suggested a use for them. It said to empty the packets into a salt cellar from the $1 store and put it under your kitchen sink to absorb moisture. Deciding not to go to the $1 Store, I used a small mesh jewelry bag. The results remain to be seen. The cookie jar also contained address labels. Since I pay my bills on line and communicate via email and face book, I will probably rarely use the address labels, but put them back “just in case”. I found a blank recipe card for writing a favorite recipe on and giving it to a friend. The way I cook, I could only share a recipe of mine with an enemy. Oh, well. I also found the directions to make poached eggs in a gadget I couldn’t resist buying, but can’t find now. There was a recipe for Dutch cookies on what looked like a bookmark. I put that back in the cookie jar. I will never make them, but, after all, there should be something cookie related in a cookie jar. Without the silica gel desiccant, who knows how long the pieces of paper will last, however.

I would share my father’s chicken Barb-b-que recipe with you, but I can only share it with family. My father made me promise. However, I am including it in the appendix of my memoir about my Dad. So, buy my memoir (that is, if it ever gets published).

My car is loaded with nonperishable food and clothes to go to the church food bank, bric-a-brac to go to the Salvation Army and books, magazines and tapes to go to the library. The trunk is now lower than the engine. Hopefully, those places will open soon. However, I will be driving to Price Chopper to see if they have Dipsy Doodles in the next few days.