Cookie Dough

Vanilla and chocolate purists can wince all they want at the multilayered flavors found in the ice cream case. Over-the-top varieties are here to stay and, judging by the number of brands available, one of the most popular has to be chocolate chip cookie dough. We gathered several brands. Our panel was looking for a creamy, rich vanilla base, close-to-homemade cookie-dough chunks and great-tasting chocolate. (Oddly, in most samples, the chips were not in the cookie dough, but instead were floating in the ice cream.

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have devoured raw cookie dough. At least that's how Vanessa Simmons sees it. "My friends and I used to buy a role of slice-and-bake and just eat spoonfuls of it during a breakup or crisis," said Simmons, a 23-year-old Johns Hopkins graduate who lives in Mount Vernon. Raw cookie dough may heal a broken heart, but it's not so hot for the rest of you. Last month, E. coli turned up in refrigerated Toll House cookie dough at Nestle's Danville, Va., plant.

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have devoured raw cookie dough. At least that's how Vanessa Simmons sees it. "My friends and I used to buy a role of slice-and-bake and just eat spoonfuls of it during a breakup or crisis," said Simmons, a 23-year-old Johns Hopkins graduate who lives in Mount Vernon. Raw cookie dough may heal a broken heart, but it's not so hot for the rest of you. Last month, E. coli turned up in refrigerated Toll House cookie dough at Nestle's Danville, Va., plant.

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have devoured raw cookie dough. At least that's how Vanessa Simmons sees it. "My friends and I used to buy a role of slice-and-bake and just eat spoonfuls of it during a breakup or crisis," said Simmons, a 23-year-old Johns Hopkins graduate who lives in Mount Vernon. Raw cookie dough may heal a broken heart, but it's not so hot for the rest of you. Last month, E. coli turned up in refrigerated Toll House cookie dough at Nestle's Danville, Va., plant.

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have devoured raw cookie dough. At least that's how Vanessa Simmons sees it. "My friends and I used to buy a role of slice-and-bake and just eat spoonfuls of it during a breakup or crisis," said Simmons, a 23-year-old Johns Hopkins graduate who lives in Mount Vernon. Raw cookie dough may heal a broken heart, but it's not so hot for the rest of you. Last month, E. coli turned up in refrigerated Toll House cookie dough at Nestle's Danville, Va., plant.

HOLIDAYS AT Jeanne and Bill Link's Westminster home were never complete without an all-out sloppy sugar cookie decorating session. Jeanne would whip up a dough to die for, and her sons, with several friends in tow, would decorate cookies, lick fingers and laugh until they had plates filled with sugary splendor.Now, about 20 years later, Jeanne has packaged that cookie dough and launched a business that has exploded during its first year. Jeanne, a former teacher, PTA president and legislative adviser, has test kitchens and 35 people making cookie dough 24 hours a day at a Catonsville plant.

The neat thing about pizza -- the savory kind -- is that each one can be tailored to individual taste in the toppings. Dessert pizzas are even more versatile: you can choose the crust, the "sauce" and the toppings, mixing and matching as you please. Remember, unlike a savory pizza where the ingredients are piled on, a sweet pizza needs a light touch. Spread the "sauce" lightly, don't overload with too many toppings, and merely drizzle with melted chocolate or preserves or top with shaved chocolate.

Like many of you who follow the O. J. Simpson trial, I am noexpert in criminal law.But I do know ice cream.I specifically know Ben & Jerry's ice cream, which has, of course, become central to the case. For years, it has been central to my life.Simpson's defense team has said the cops blew the entire investigation when they ignored a container of ice cream in Nicole Simpson's condo that could have proved O. J. to beinnocent. Here's their case: Ice cream, once removed from your regulation freezer, tends to melt.

A handy spoon for yogurt eatersIn the "why-didn't-somebody-think-of-this-before" category, Colombo has attached a snap-out plastic spoon in the lids of its 8-ounce yogurt containers. The two-piece spoon is easy to pop out and assemble, and extremely handy. No more frantically searching for a utensil.Being neighborly with zucchiniIf zucchini is taking over your garden and kitchen, help is on the way. Sunday is "Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night." Really. Thomas Roy, an avid gardener in Mount Gretna, Pa., started the celebration several years ago. Now, it's catching on around the country.

Shepherd's Staff, the cooperative ministry of Westminster churches, is plunging into the holiday season with its third annual fashion show, plus a new fund-raiser to help busy adults prepare for their entertaining.This year's "Fashions and Memories" show will recall pastChristmases as several generations of families model today's and yesterday's styles from Leggett's of Westminster."This is our event of the year, the biggest thing we do to raisefunds," said Kathy Brown, director. "We need the money.

Vanilla and chocolate purists can wince all they want at the multilayered flavors found in the ice cream case. Over-the-top varieties are here to stay and, judging by the number of brands available, one of the most popular has to be chocolate chip cookie dough. We gathered several brands. Our panel was looking for a creamy, rich vanilla base, close-to-homemade cookie-dough chunks and great-tasting chocolate. (Oddly, in most samples, the chips were not in the cookie dough, but instead were floating in the ice cream.

On an unseasonably hot afternoon at a private Annapolis school last week, a social studies teacher was taken away in handcuffs, charged by the student body with kidnapping the school's cookie baker -- a particularly scandalous offense in a place that reveres recess and snack time. The crime hinted of a teacher-orchestrated conspiracy. The warm chocolatey smells that students had come to expect to waft through the halls were missing. And no wonderful smells meant no cookies -- and no sweets to sell, bringing their fund-raising effort to a halt.

SPRING CLOSET cleaning has developed into a unique fund-raiser for Shiloh Middle School PTO. The PTO is asking residents and businesses to donate just-about-new items that will be placed in baskets for a Mothers Basket Bingo and Silent Auction party May 11. The group is looking for closet-kept items too treasured for yard sales. It will welcome donations of items such as well-intended gifts that didn't fit the home decor, or items purchased with good intentions that never saw the light of day. Any family theme is appropriate.

Holiday celebration, Victorian-style Samantha is a 9-year-old orphan being raised by her grandmother in the waning days of the Victorian era, the early 1900s. She couldn't be more excited about the Christmas holiday, and prepares by creating homemade gifts and readying the house for the guests who will soon arrive. Read more about adventures in "Samantha's Surprise: A Christmas Story," part of the American Girls book series. The Bel Air Branch Library takes cues from Samantha's story and celebrates Christmas Victorian-style Wednesday evening.

JoAnn Olsen of Perry Hall requested an Italian cookie recipe she called Chocolate Balls. She said the cookie contained cloves, cocoa, rum and orange flavoring and was iced with an orange-flavored confectioners'-sugar glaze. Her response came from Linda DellaRose of Parkville. She said the cookies, which she called Colonlino Cookies, were "our family recipe for the Italian cookies. Although it calls for whiskey, I'm sure rum could be substituted, as well as substituting orange for the lemon in our icing recipe."

Cookie dough logo contest could yield scholarship dough Jeanne's Gourmet Cookie Dough and Pretzels is offering a $1,000 scholarship to students 16 to 18 years old. Students must design an original character that depicts Jeanne's products or logo. The character will become the copyrighted property of Jeanne's Gourmet. In addition, the art department of the student's school will receive a $500 cash donation. Drawings must be submitted by May 30. Judging will take place in June, with the winner notified by July 15. Information: Jeanne's at 192 E. Main St., Westminster, or 410-751-2270or 800-665-2270.

wear summer in their hair,petals, rainwater, saltwater,lake water, hose spray,stray weeds, insects, smokeof roasting marshmallows;schedule them if you mustin the fall, winter, springbut let them dig their toesin sand, mud, grass, sleeplate, create libraries undertrees, on porches when shadebeckons, stick their handsin cookie dough, make messes,stretch out under the stars,pull the TV plug to maketheir own dramas, willy nillysilliness, plant seeds, biteinto tomatoes...

Cookie dough logo contest could yield scholarship dough Jeanne's Gourmet Cookie Dough and Pretzels is offering a $1,000 scholarship to students 16 to 18 years old. Students must design an original character that depicts Jeanne's products or logo. The character will become the copyrighted property of Jeanne's Gourmet. In addition, the art department of the student's school will receive a $500 cash donation. Drawings must be submitted by May 30. Judging will take place in June, with the winner notified by July 15. Information: Jeanne's at 192 E. Main St., Westminster, or 410-751-2270or 800-665-2270.

A handy spoon for yogurt eatersIn the "why-didn't-somebody-think-of-this-before" category, Colombo has attached a snap-out plastic spoon in the lids of its 8-ounce yogurt containers. The two-piece spoon is easy to pop out and assemble, and extremely handy. No more frantically searching for a utensil.Being neighborly with zucchiniIf zucchini is taking over your garden and kitchen, help is on the way. Sunday is "Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night." Really. Thomas Roy, an avid gardener in Mount Gretna, Pa., started the celebration several years ago. Now, it's catching on around the country.

On a healthy roll: organic cookiesSlice-and-bake cookies now have a healthy, home-grown touch - just in time for the holidays. Cooks can get the fresh-baked flavors of cookies made from all-natural, organic ingredients by former Baltimorean Maury Rubin, a graduate of Milford Mill High School and the University of Maryland, College Park.The cookies - sold by Rubin at the City Bakery in Manhattan - are available in refrigerated rolls called Maury's Cookie Dough at Fresh Fields in Mount Washington and other stores in the Mid-Atlantic region.