It’s that time again.  Every year around February/March there is that knock at the door from those sweet little neighbor girls.  “Would you like to buy some cookies?”  Silly question.  Of course I would like to buy some cookies.  I think we all know who and what I am talking about but just for clarification – it’s Girl Scout cookie time.  Curiously, no little solicitors knocked on my door this year.  Panic set in!  What would I do without my yearly fix of GSC?  Fortunately for me, current day sales tactics include more than just door to door sales.  It seems every corner you turn there are squads of girls with those beaming smiles and badge filled vests pleading in that “how can you resist me” voice.  Well, the answer is – I can’t!

My need to track down and hunt cookie sellers is a rather peculiar phenomenon.  Truth be told, for the most part I don’t really care much for Girl Scout cookies.  I know – blasphemy, right?  It’s not that they don’t have their place among notable cookies, it’s just that if I’m going to eat a cookie I would rather it be home baked.  So why, oh why do I feel so compelled to buy boxES of them every year.  Simple answer.  Nostalgia.  Yep.  That’s it.  Once a year I have the opportunity to return to memories of my own childhood when the knock would come and a delivery soon to follow.

Today’s recipe sprang forth from a memory I have of GSC from when I was little.  My mom was prone to hiding our stash of cookies when they would get delivered.  Not because she was stingy or a hoarder, but because she was preserving them so that everyone would get their share.  Turn ten kids loose on a few boxes of cookies and mayhem ensues.  Fortunately for me, I knew my mother’s hiding place.  Way up high in a cabinet over the sink the red, yellow, green and orange boxes called to me – “come and get us”.  Not to be deterred by the possible consequences of my actions, I pulled a chair to the counter, climbed up, and balancing on the edge of the sink I pried open the cabinet door.  Try to guess which box I reached for.  From the photographs I’m sure you already know.  Do-Si-Dos!  Nirvana!

I have no memory of being caught or reprimanded for my crime of cookie petty theft and to this day I have no idea why that memory has stuck with me.  It might be because in that sweet sublime moment nothing else existed; just my Do-Si-Dos and me – no siblings and no sharing.

Sadly, today’s version of that cookie doesn’t stand up to my memory’s version so I decided to create  one that could.  Oats would be the key ingredient.  (Yes, Do-Si-Dos have oats in them.)  Although I could not discern it then, I now believe that oats is the secret ingredient that for me set Do-Si-Dos apart from the average peanut butter cookie.  Oats provide the extra crunch and chew that in my eyes elevates this cookie.  Combined with a generous amount of creamy “peanutty” filling and I had my cookie.  Sorry Girl Scouts but next year I think I will only be buying the green box.