Volunteer Award Nominations

In light of today's Academy Award nominations, we'd like to remind you of our council's own award nominations!

February 1 is the deadline for all volunteer award nominations, so take some time and look at the volunteers in your service units. Who has gone above and beyond their job descriptions? Who has helped girls reach our council goals? Who has had an impact on service to girls and adult volunteers. Who has not been recognized for their commitment of time, efforts and resources donated to the Girl Scout organization?

It's time to nominate these extraordinary volunteers.

Find the Adult Recognitions booklet on our website and match the award criteria with the accomplishments of the volunteers on your list. Then, complete the appropriate nominations form and secure the required number of endorsement letters. Mail, fax or e-mail the nominations to your local Girl Scout Center (Toledo, Lima, Dayton or Cincinnati).

Don't forget the deadline is February 1.

(Remember: click here for the link to the booklet).

Today is THE day! Girl Scout cookies are on sale!

Today is the day we've all been waiting for...

The 2011 Girl Scout Cookie Sale has officially started!

From now until February 8, Girl Scouts in Western Ohio will be setting sales goals, asking friends and family to buy all Super Six varities of cookies and best of all, they'll be developing essential life skills and having fun!

This year, Girl Scouts of Western Ohio is proud to be part of a pilot program with Little Brownie Bakers - the Super Six! Our Girl Scouts will be selling six delicious varieties of cookies - Thin Mints, Tagalongs, Samoas, Trefoils, Do-si-dos and Lemon Chalet Cremes.

Some 'fun facts' about this year's Girl Scout Cookies:
  • - Little Brownie Baker bakes more than 4.5 million Thin Mints PER DAY during peak baking times
  • - LBB makes their own caramel for Samoas - the old fashioned way in copper kettles
  • - Do-si-dos and Taglongs take 230,000 POUNDS of peanut butter. Per week.
  • - Peanut butter creme is deposited on Do-si-do cookies at the rate of 2,800 cookies per minute!
  • - A rotary die shapes Trefoils - there are 300 identical Trefoil shapes engraved in one rotary die. The die rotates 17 times a minute, equaling 5,100 cookies per minute!

And just in case you wanted to make a grocery list for a week's worth of baking Girl Scout Cookies...this is what you'd need:
  • 21 truckloads of flour (1,050,000 pounds)
  • 7 truckloads of shortening (300,000 pounds)
  • 50,000 lbs of cocoa
  • 500,000 lbs of chocolate coating
  • 14.5 truckloads of sugar (650,000 pounds)
  • 230,000 lbs of peanut butter
  • 75,000 lbs of toasted coconut
Initial order taking for Girl Scout Cookies is Jan. 21 - Feb. 8. Cookies will be delivered Feb. 26 - March 3. And starting March 4 - booth sales!

Don't forget - every cookie has a mission ... to help girls do great things!

Need Girl Scout Cookies? There's an app for that!


Girl Scouts of Western Ohio is excited to annouce that we are part of a pilot program with Little Brownie Bakers offering a new Cookie Locator Mobile app for iPhones and Android phones.

Today - January 13 - the iPhone app has launched!

You can download the app (FREE!) at the iPhone App Store or by calling **GSCOOKIES (**472665437) from your iPhone.

(The Android app is launching soon, as is a mobile website for BlackBerry users).

Once you download the app you can sign up for cookie sale e-mail alerts, and you can search by ZIP code for cookie sales (booth sales) in your area. You can also discover your "cookie personality" with an interactive quiz and share the results via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail!

If you have downloaded the app, let us know what you think by leaving a comment!

Get cooking with Girl Scout Cookies!

Recently, the staff at the Toledo Girl Scout Center had a 'bake off' with one requirement - the recipe had to include Girl Scout Cookies.
We're sharing the "top secret" recipe for Girl Scout Cookie Peanut  Butter Truffles from Regional Director Angela Tennaro and a "Thin Mint Cheesecake" recipe from Program Services Specialist Allison Demkowski. (More recipes will be shared in a later blog post). If you have any great recipes using Girl Scout Cookies, please share them in the comments!

Girl Scout Cookie Peanut Butter Truffle
(made with Tagalongs and Do-si-dos)

1/2 pkg. (4 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 box Do-si-dos, finely crushed and divided
1 box Tagalongs, finely crushed
2 pkgs (8 squares EACH) BAKER'S semi-sweet chocolate, melted

Crush Do-si-dos and set aside (using a food processor makes this easy!)
Crush Tagalongs

Mix cream cheese, Tagalongs and all but 1/4 cup of crushed Do-si-dos until well blended. Shape into 1 inch balls. Dip in melted chocolate, place on wax paper covered baking sheet. Sprikle with remaining cookie crumbs. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.

Store in tightly covered container in refrigerator.
Yields: approximately 36 truffles


Thin Mint Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust:
1 1/2 sleeves Thin Mint cookies
4 tbsp butter or margarine, melted

Grind Thin Mints in food processor until finely ground. Add melted butter and blend well. Press into bottom of springform pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool completely!

Filling:
4 8 oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
4 eggs
8 squares BAKER'S semi-sweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
1 sleeve Thin Mints, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 325. Beat cream cheese, sugar and both extracts in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs and mix until just blended. Stir in cooled, melted chocolate. Fold in Thin Mint chunks. Pour into cooled crust. Bake 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

Chef's note: This recipe can be made in a "regular" pie pan - just be sure to half the filling recipe so it doesn't overflow.

It's almost cookie time!

In a little more than a week, the 2011 Girl Scout Cookie Sale starts for Girl Scouts of Western Ohio.


We are proud to be a part of a pilot program with Little Brownie Bakers called the "Super Six." Our Girl Scouts will be selling six varieties of Girl Scout cookies - Thin Mints, Tagalongs, Samoas, Do-si-dos, Trefoils and Lemon Creme Chalets.

The 2011 Girl Scout Cookie Sale starts Friday, January 21!

(Graphic provided by Little Brownie Bakers)