Life as a food blogger is so hard…

Yeah right!  When Shannon invited me to her cookie swap, I was so excited that I practically yelled at my computer screen.  I had never been to a cookie swap before and the thought of attending one with local food bloggers was enough to make me jump for joy.  I immediately replied yes to Shannon’s email (after all, she can’t hear me yelling through my computer) and began my search for the ultimate cookie recipe.

Image Credit – newenglandcoaching.com

But finding the ultimate cookie just wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated.  Do you know how many recipes there are out there?  Holy moly!  And because my blog is called ‘healthychow’, I wasn’t sure if I should make a recipe that was ‘guilt-free-esque’ or if I should just throw that idea out the window and make a cookie that was fully indulgent, fully fattening and chock full of calories.  I didn’t want to stress over this little matter, but I also wanted my first cookie swap recipe to be pretty darn good.  But then I realized, cookies are cookies and the whole point of a cookie swap is to be able to taste a vast array of these baked goods and to see and appreciate all kinds of recipes.  So, I just went with my gut (lame pun intended) and baked the cookie that sounded the best to me.

Finally, the day had arrived!  I was so happy all day Sunday before the swap.  I’m not sure if it was because I just love a good party or if it was in anticipation of all the yummy treats I was going to be consuming.  Whichever the case was, I was psyched by the time I reached Shannon’s door.  Shannon’s home was cute and cozy and so inviting.  Because Shannon literally lives down the street from me, I was able to burn off a few calories while taking my brisk walk over to her house.  I felt that if I could burn a few calories before consuming a few thousand, it was better than nothing.  Right?

Image Credit – foundation.wchob.org

I can’t believe the amount of cookies!  There were a total of 10 guests at the party, meaning there were going to be 10 different kinds of cookies and each guests was going to be taking home about 3 – 4 cookies of each.  Ummm, that meant we were all going to be taking home a shiz-nit load of cookies!  Oh.em.gee!  Among the guests were Shannon (obvi), Adrienne, Mary-Kate, Elina, Tina, Kerstin, Kelly, Rebecca (Shannon’s friend who was also present at my apple picking adventure), Bridget and me (another obvi).  I was so impressed!  Each of the cookies present were so unique and had their own individual flare, much like the guests and their respective blogs.  I was in blogger and cookie heaven!

Cookies galore!

And so we wouldn’t go into an immediate cookie coma, Shannon, being the wonderful host that she is, provided us with some delicious snacks.  After all, it wouldn’t be appropriate to just eat cookies all afternoon…or would it ?  We all slowly nibbled on the savory finger foods in order to prep our bellies for the main event.  Everything was so tasty and I wanted so much to eat more of the snacks, but I knew I had to save room.  It’s a good thing I wasn’t wearing a baggy pair of stretchy sweat pants!

Salmon mousse with crackers and cucumber slices

Coconut-chai almonds (made by Shannon – so good!), smokey bacon potato chips (brought by Elina), mini pear, walnut and Gorgonzola quiches (made by Shannon – loved the sweet and savory combo!)

The guests of honor:

Cookie Dough Truffles by Kelly and Chocolate Crinkle Cookies by Elina

Lime Meltaways by Adrienne

Maple Toffee Bacon Cookies by Shannon

Break-up Bars (Chocolate Caramel Bars) by Rebecca

Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Bars by Tina

Black and White cookies by Mary-Kate

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars by Kerstin

Lemon Almond Cranberry Crescents by Me

After we devoured sampled all the various types of cookies and packed up the rest to take home, we let our sugar highs slowly come down by playing a round of Foodie Fight.  This was a Trivial Pursuit type of game that only involved questions about food.  How perfect!  We took turns reading off questions and answering them until we were able to fill all the ‘pies’ (hahaha!).  I couldn’t believe how tough some of the questions were, but even more so, I couldn’t believe the party guests actually knew the right answers.  Needless to say, we laughed a lot and learned a bunch and fortunately, we didn’t eat anymore cookies!

Mary-Kate and Kerstin

Shannon reading some trivia questions

Bridget, Tina and Kelly

Kerstin, Adrienne and Elina

If you couldn’t already tell, I had a blast at my first cookie swap.  Shannon gave a great get-together (that’s a lot of ‘G’s’!) and was a gracious host (one more ‘G’).  I had so much chatting it up with the ladies and of course, tasting all of their heavenly creations.  Even though this was a cookie swap, we also traded laughs, smiles and stories that I’ll be sure to remember for quite some time.  And while I may have eaten more cookies than any normal person should on one given day, I would never swap this good time for anything else.

My loot

I’m having a serious sugar overload at the moment (oh yes, I had more cookies today!).  Do you have any tips to help me snap out of this? I think I am going to drink some hot water with lemon…

Namasté,
Nicole