Cookie Day in Cameroon

Given the fact that everyday is accompanied by sweltering heat, it really hasn’t felt much like Christmas for me here in Sanguéré-Paul.  So I decided to bring a little Bennett family tradition (and possibly the most important tradition) to my house here in the village:  Cookie Day. 

Every December for as long as I can remember, my Mom and I would choose one day to ignore everything else in life and just make Christmas cookies.  All. Day. Long.  She’d take a day off of work, I’d take a day off of school (shhh…), and if my brothers were home, we’d banish them from the kitchen and send them off to go bowling.

We’d start the day no later than 8AM, and we’d have a tight schedule right up until dinnertime or beyond.  After all, Cookie Day is serious business.  We’re talkin’ chocolate chip cookies, Hershey kiss cookies, Pennsylvania dutch chocolate cookies, zebra cookies, buckeyes, pizelles, peppermint bark, peppermint pinwheels, seven layer bars, toffee bars…gosh, the list just goes on and on!  We would make cookies until we just couldn’t stand it anymore, and by the end of the night our counters would be lined by little bundles of happiness and every tupperware and tin would be stuffed full of joy.

Well, when I heard that this year I was being replaced by my brother Mike (UGH!), I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I HAD to have a Cookie Day of my own.  I decided to set up the Dutch oven, put on some Christmas music, and bake cookies all day long.

To make an oven when all you've got is a little rinkydink stove top, you need a big giant pot like this one.

Then you put in some sand and little tin cans like this to prop up your baking dish.  (Luckily for me, mine was already set up by the last volunteer.  All I had to do was brush aside the lizards that had made it their home).  Next, I put my cookies in a 9-inch cake pan, put the cake pan in the "oven", cover it, and wait!

Unfortunately with this method, you can only make about 7 small cookies at a time, so cakes are probably easier to deal with.  Which is why I made one of those too.  (Can never have enough dessert!!)

Voila!  Now I have about 150 chocolate chip cookies ready to be delivered on Christmas!

It certainly wasn’t the same without my Mom (or without the convenience of a modern oven and a fully stocked pantry), but I never expected that I could feel so much Christmas spirit here in Cameroon!  I topped the day off by opening one of my Christmas presents early: a make your own reindeer kit! 

Ages 6+, yeah right!  Assembling this thing was HARD!  But he looks darn good standing next to that tree and all those presents!

Tomorrow, I will be going fête-hopping – visiting the families that I have become close with, and delivering cookies on my way.  My first Christmas away from home, but I think it will be just fine!  (As long as Santa can still find me here in Cameroon!)