Skip to main content

Operation Baking GALS


Several times over the last few months I've run across posts mentioning Operation Baking GALS. I'd even bookmarked the website. Well, a few weeks ago I stumbled onto this post from April at Wine Lover's Cooking Diary asking for people to join her team. I don't know April, or her brother, but something told me to sign up. I just had to.

Here is a little excerpt talking about what Operating Baking GALS is:

Baking GALS (GALS stands for Give A Little Support) is a group of volunteer bakers who bake and ship homemade goodies to our heroic troops that
are currently deployed. Each soldier is “Hosted” by a blogger, and potential bakers are “recruited” from the bloggers own site as well as the GALS site. Each Host recruits between 20-25 bakers, meaning LOTS of goodies get delivered to our soldier…so many, in fact that he or she has plenty to share with their fellow troops!


Why do we do it this way? Why not just ship to “Any Soldier”? Well, we don’t know “any soldier” – and “any soldier” doesn’t know us. And receiving baked goods from a stranger, while probably safe, is frowned upon and in many cases, those Any Soldier gifts could be thrown out. Baking GALS will introduce you to a soldier. You will know his name, a little bit about him, maybe even his favorite cookie…and he will know in advance that he will be on the receiving end of a cookie bombardment – so everyone is prepared. It is a safer way to treat our troops, and it helps them to know when to expect a barrage of goodies.


I was supposed to have everything mailed out yesterday, the 11th. Well, unforeseen circumstances preventing me from baking on Friday like I had planned, so I'm baking today -- chocolate chip cookies ramped up with pecans and coconut. Yum. I don't know if it was the outside temp (97'F) or my oven, but they didn't bake up quite has pretty as I was hoping for. Kade, my taste-tester approved though. (Hey! I have to make sure they are acceptable to send to our troops, right??)
My taste-tester. :)

Packed up in the containers...

Taped up and ready to go except for labels and forms! Hopefully they will arrive relatively unharmed. ;)

Enjoy!!

Comments

Christi said…
That is a great idea! I told Grayson about this and he said "How are they going to eat cookies while they are fighting" Missing the point here, buddy!

Popular posts from this blog

Thick and Chewy Snickerdoodles

I admit, I love snickerdoodles.   Cinnamon and vanilla?   Yes, please.   What’s funny is that I never really had them much as a kid, just occasionally in the school cafeteria.   I know, ew. Anyway, snickerdoodles were one of the first cookies that the Munchkin helped make when he was little.   He could help dump everything in the mixer (or “loud noise” as he would call it!) and then it was fun for him to roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar before putting them on the baking sheet. Even since then, my go-to recipe for snickerdoodles has been this one by Emeril.   It’s a great recipe, baking up a thin, crispy cookie (at least when I make them!).   However, I was looking for something different this time, something thicker and chewier.   I found this recipe from the blog How Sweet it Is .   I decided to try it, and while I did keep the ingredient list the same I changed up the method a bit to suit me better.  ...

Homemade Cinnamon Dolce Latte

I recently professed my love of coffee and fancy coffee drinks.  After the success of the Peppermint Mocha , I decided to tackle the Cinnamon Dolce Latte, another one of my favorites.  According to the Starbucks website, it has flavors of "cinnamon, butter and brown sugar".  Well, I covered the cinnamon and brown sugar components, but left out the butter.  And you know what, I think it turned out quite well, if I do say so myself!  I honestly wasn't sure if the cinnamon flavor in the syrup was going to be strong enough, but it was.  I will admit to being impatient and not letting it steep for very long, so the cinnamon flavor might develop more if you do actually let it sit and cool off first.  If you wanted it to be even stronger, you could always add a tiny bit of cinnamon oil to it as well.  But be careful -- a little of that goes a long way! How much to make depends on how much you'll actually use.  I just made a single batch this f...

Hello Dolly Cookie Bars

Several years ago, my mom gave me an old cookbook, it was hers but I'm not sure she ever used it, Favorite Recipes from Southern Kitchens:  Desserts .  I love this cookbook!  I thought it would be great to go through it and pick a recipe or two to use for this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats series.  For this week, I chose a super easy one, Hello Dolly Cookies.  I have absolutely no idea where the name came from.  I'm really not sure I've ever eaten one before, though the ladies I shared the finished product with knew about them!  I did an internet search too, and it seems they go by a lot of names, including Magic Layer Bars.  Honestly, they are so easy to make.  There's no mixing required.  Kids could absolutely help with these.  The cookies smelled divine while they were baking, and I barely waited for them to cool before trying one. At first I thought "these taste almost like German chocolate cake", then "or d...