You're baking me crazy!

So as some (most) of you know, I am the mother of a teenager who loves to cook and bake, a lot -- specifically gluten-free, dairy-free, and, often, sugar-free goodies. Combine that love of baking with a raft of school closings and two-hour delays the last week or so, et voila! Our kitchen has become a bakery.

First it was croissants and pains au chocolate (aka chocolate-filled croissants)...

Which took a few days to polish off. (Hey, man -- and woman -- cannot live by croissants alone.)

Then the teenager made peanut butter cookies with homemade dark chocolate kisses (what she called "peanut butter blossoms"), as she wanted to try out her new chocolate kiss mold...

Sadly, most of the peanut butter chocolate cookies were packed up and taken to school (as are all of her baked goods), to be enjoyed by the teenager's friends and teachers. Sniff.

[Interestingly, the teenager rarely eats her own baked goods, except on special occasions. The spouse and I, however, do not have that much willpower, and often serve as taste testers. A rough job, I know.]

Then this morning I came downstairs at 6:45 to find her whipping up a batch of chocolate meringue cookies... for tonight's Thrive Tribe potluck supper, for which she'll also be making her felafel... (Though the spouse did manage to sneak one of the chocolate meringue cookies for breakfast.)

If this keeps up, we may start charging her a facilities fee. (And will need to go on diets come spring.) But I guess there are far worse hobbies. And, as the teenager constantly reminds us, all of her baked goods are healthy.  :-)

Here's a money-making idea for the Girl Scouts: How about Maui Wowie cookies?

Times are tough all over these days, even for the Girl Scouts. Apparently, sales of Girl Scout cookies have been down across the country, so the Girl Scouts announced this week that they are extending cookie sales until March 29.

But if the Girl Scouts really want to make more dough (or sell it), perhaps they should try a different strategy. Instead of trying to sell more cookies, maybe they should offer a little something extra with (or in) each box, like these three enterprising souls did. They could even use a special name for these special orders, like Maui Wowies.

And I have the perfect celebrity pitch man, Michael Phelps.

THIS JUST IN: Requests for the new cookies are already pouring in from the State of Michigan! Apparently, not only do the new cookies taste yummy, they're medicinal.