The Cookie Castle News
About Banana Trees And To Bomb Or Not To Bomb
IN THE JUNE 21, 2025 ISSUE
Royal Greetings From The Cozy Castle Kitchen
Food For Thought
Laugh of the Week
Product Review
— Solar Bird Bath Fountain
Household Hint
Recipe Of The Week
— Refrigerator Apricot Jam
A View From The Castle (News Commentary Blog)
— To Bomb Or Not To Bomb? That Is The Question
CookieQueen Entertainment
Cookie Queen Cookies & Cakes
Cookie Queen Cookbooks
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ROYAL GREETINGS FROM THE COZY CASTLE KITCHEN
One year ago I bought a banana tree. Yes — a banana tree. It is a hybrid dwarf Cavendish. It wasn’t supposed to get tall or wide. It did.
And it took up a very large space in my dining room since last September.
The description from FastGrowingTrees.com said I would (could) get bananas in 15 months if I kept it watered, fed and away from frost for 15 months.
It grew nicely in the sun on my back patio last summer but come fall I had to bring it into the dining room so that it wouldn’t get frozen and still have lots of light. I kept several grow lights on it until this week when it was time for it to go back outside so that the tree would have a chance to produce bananas.
This is how it should look in a couple of months. I am expecting to be picking bananas in September or October.
The bananas allegedly taste just like the ones we buy at the grocery store but will be smaller which is fine by me — I always look for smaller bananas.
After the bananas grow and ripen and are harvested I will cut the tree back to about 10” in height and wait until 15 months before I get to pick more bananas. And it will have to come back inside come fall where it will take up another huge amount of space in my dining room which is not all the big to begin with.
Why did I think this would be a good thing to buy? Fifteen months is practically an eternity. A moment of weakness.
But I have reconciled myself to being happy if I can get just one crop of bananas. After that ….remains to be seen.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
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LAUGH OF THE WEEK
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PRODUCT REVIEW
I got this solar bird bath fountain to use as a “water mover" to keep water active in my birdbath as I do not want mosquitoes anywhere near me or my dog.
It was so easy to install and after being in the sun for a few hours it began operating perfectly. The water spray is not so high as to splash out which means I do not have to be constantly refilling the bird bath. The birds are also not afraid of it. They took to it immediately. It is quite lovely at night when the lights can be seen in the dark.
There is a backup battery - but the bird bath really must be located in the sun. And you should choose a spot you ca see from your house. It really is beautiful at night.
Be sure to remove the sponge filter at least once a and rinse it out. It’s easy to do and takes very little time.
I also like that it operates in total silence. No noise to disturb me … or the birds.
The manufacturer says should last three years,
$30 amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F23BMKF4?th=1
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HOUSEHOLD HINT
Are you in the market for new outdoor cushions? Many stores and on line shopping sites have them on sale now. But avoid going for the more expensive cushions - the ones with the double piped edge with cording. While those appear to be more substantial they wear out the quickest and show the wear on the cording. And they are impossible to repair.
The less expensive cushions have a knife or box edge. When those start to show signs of wear you can easily rejuvenate them by removing the cover and making the seam a little bigger to hide the worn material.
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Other helpful household hints can be found in the second edition of my book "Never Scrub Another Toilet- The Cookie Queen Tells you How to Keep your Castle Clean and Other Ways To Live Like Royalty."
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RECIPE OF THE WEEK
I bought some fresh apricots which looked perfectly wonderful — they were golden, tinged with a pink blush. I sniffed the package — they smelled like ripe apricots. They were not. They were dry and tasteless. Bummer. I was not about to eat them but didn’t want to throw them away either — food is so expensive. So I found this great recipe to make apricot jam. It took about half an hour — time well spent. This apricot jam is wonderful and has no yucky preservatives or artificial colors like the jams we buy in the supermarket. It is wonderful on toast or you can use it as a glaze on chicken, salmon or pork chops.
Ingredients
2 cups fresh apricots
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 Tbsps. lemon juice
1 tsp. butter
1/4 tsp. crushesd red pepper (optional)
1 Tbsp. Peach chnapps (optional)
How To Make It
* Remove stems and cut apricots in half. Remove the seeds. Leave the skins on. Use a mini chopper to break them down a bit.
* In a small saucepan combine the chopped apricots with the sugar, lemon juice and butter. I added some crushed red pepper as I like spicy jam.
* Bring to a boil and continue stirring until sugar completely dissolves.
* Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens. This takes about 20-25 minutes.
* I also stirred in a little Peach Schnapps and then jarred and refrigerated it. It thickened up nicely overnight.
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A VIEW FROM THE CASTLE (News Commentary Blog)
To Bomb Or Not To Bomb? That Is The Question
I love Israel and the Jewish people but they have to fight their own battles. We are not going to get involved in these skirmishes that have been going on for centuries.
If Israel wants to make sure Iran isn’t going to attack them then they need to take care of that themselves. Do not drag us into another one of those Middle East forever wars.
If you want to send your own kids to fight and die … fine by me. Do not ask my nephews to help. They have other things to do. We Americans are no longer in the business of saving the word from themselves.
Israel says it just wants to borrow two of our bombers to take out FORDOW which they claim will end Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Really? Is that true? How do they know that? We Americans (hopefully) have learned our lesson. If you say there are weapons of mass destruction in the mountains of some hell hole country you better be showing us the proof.
(FYI: FORDOW is an Iranian underground uranium enrichment facility located 20 miles north of the Iranian city of Qom.)
Israel claims Iran is just weeks away from developing a nuclear bomb. Does anyone recall how Israel has been saying this for the past 20 years?
Israel claims we should want to do this because Iran tried to assassinated our president Donald Trump. Really? Show me the proof and maybe then I will get my panties in a knot over this. Prove it. Prove it. Irrefutably prove it.
We no longer just believe stuff people — people with an agenda — tell us.
Now Israel and some war-happy Americans (mostly Republicans) not only want to end Iran’s nuclear program they want “regime change” there. Ohhhhhh noooooooo —not again. Never again. It is not our business who is the president of or the ayatollah of some land not one of us can find on a map if our lives depended on it.
So if we do help with the bombing you know damn well Iran is going to attack one or more of our military bases in the Middle East. American soldiers could/might/probably will die. That means all out war. That is not why we elected Donald Trump to lead this country. We voted for no more foreign intervention in never-ending Middle East squabbles.
Yes — I know Iran keeps shouting “Death to Israel and death to America.” They have been saying that for as long as I can remember. All Iran has to do is FAFO (and if you do to know what those letters mean, look it up on the internet).
We can protect ourselves and they will definitely find out if they “f’ around.
I want us to go back to stop talking about war in the Middle East and Ukraine. Let these countries figure it out for themselves. Act like adults and find a way to work it out.
So if we agree to the bomb thing and it does knock out their nuclear capabilities the next thing is they are going to want American taxpayers to fund the restoration of their shit-hole countries. And while Israel is not a shit-hole country they also will be seeking American money to rebuild their bombed out hospitals, roads and houses. Yesterday Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine will need $40 billion per year from Western allies to ensure that it can keep up the fight against Russia. No. No! NO! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Until the street in front of my house is paved my tax dollars will no longer be spent on fixing up other countries.
My advice to Donald Trump to ward off possible attacks from Iran is that he impose sanctions on them. If that makes them toe the line, great. If not we can try something else that does not include bombs, guns, death and rubble.
To bomb or not to bomb? My vote is NO. No bombing. No shooting. No guns. No fighting. No US boots on the ground.
Any country that wants to fight somebody else — have at it. Leave us — as in the US — out of it.
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COOKIE QUEEN ENTERTAINMENT
The Original Class Act has been entertaining audiences for the past 33 years. We sing. We dance. We act. We'll make you laugh and some times there will be a tear or two as well as we perform music loved by mostly older folks.
The Original Class Act is available for both daytime and evening performances. We come with our own sound system. All we need from you is an audience, a space to perform and a nearby room to change costumes.
Just like the old movie story - a group of friends got together to “put on a show” for the church fun fair way back in 1992. We presented an entire program of Cole Porter music.
The three-day gig stretched into 33 years as the phone never stops ringing. Everyone wants to book our group for a retirement home, nursing home, church dinner, a women’s club or lodge meeting, family gathering. We perform for political rallies and just like the late Bob Hope, we even do benefits to raise thousands of dollars for worthy causes and we often do benefit shows at the VA in Aspinwall.
The Original Class Act performs throughout the tri-state area for groups from 10 to 3,000.
The group’s extensive repertoire features more than 2,000 songs including Broadway hits, country-music tunes, religious favorites, movie themes, Disney songs, patriotic anthems, inspirational hymns, and holiday favorites for just about every holiday - Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Fourth of July, Oktoberfest and Thanksgiving.
All shows are choreographed and costumed with members of the group making most of our outfits. This is a very talented bunch - at least that’s what audiences tell us after giving us rousing standing ovations.
You can book us for a date by phoning 724-339-0920 or e mail us at cookiequ@verizon.net.
Here is a list of our current programs. You may request a song list for any program:
* American Salute - Features patriotic songs, music from the Big Band era, Rock ‘n’ Roll hits from the 50s - music Americans love to hear.
* Best of Broadway - Have a favorite show tune? It’s probably in this program which features hits from dozens of Broadway shows.
* Classic Cole Porter - You’ll hum or sing along on every number. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll reminisce.
* Disney on Parade - Features songs near and dear to the young and the young at heart from all your favorite Disney movies.
* Everything’s Coming Up Flowers - In 2018 we developed this program for a show we did at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. All of the songs mention blossoms of some kind - roses, daffodils, lilies, hyacinths, crocuses. Come “Tiptoe through the Tulips” with us as we celebrate the beauty and musicality of flowers.
* In The Good Old Summertime - A joyous celebration of summer with lots of familiar tunes.
* Irish Festival of Song and Dance - featuring traditional Irish favorites and some sing-along numbers too. We have new Irish costumes this year and can't wait to show them off.
* Love Changes Everything - Love songs from movies and musicals. As Cole Porter says, “Let’s Do It.” Time for romance and some song and dance.
* Lullaby of Bird Land - all songs that mention birds ….. blue birds, robins, doves, eagles, turkeys. A great program for springtime.
* Music From the Movies - Pick a movie - pick your favorite song. It’s probably in this show. Everyone’s welcome to sing along too.
* Oktoberfest - Get out your dancing shoes & warm up your pipes for a visit to old Germany. We bring the music, you bring the beer.
* One Woman, 20 Songs - A Tour de Force - Sometimes not all of our members are available for the date you want. Never fear - one of our members will be there. Pat - recently received rave reviews for her one-woman show. She sings, dances and presents a fashion show of costumes while performing her solos from each of the group’s programs. One attendee asked her, “Are you from Broadway?” Another told her, “I’d be willing to pay to see this show in Pittsburgh.”
* O Solo Mio - A Concert of Our Favorite Solos” - Members of The Original Class Act (and sometimes a guest performer too) have chosen their favorite solos to sing for you. There are songs from movies, Broadway, holidays and some inspirational music too. Maybe one of their favorites is one of your favorites.
* Showtime Showcase - This program features two dozen of our favorite numbers from all of the shows that we have done in the past 29 years.
* Let Us Lift You Up - Traditional hymns and inspirational songs from Broadway and movies - including You Raise Me Up, El Shaddai, Scarlet Ribbons, To Where You Are, Roads, Lord of All Hopefulness, God of Our Fathers, The Lord's Prayer, O America, In God We Still Trust, All God's Creatures, Child of Peace, Hallelujah and songs from Sister Act, The Sound of Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell and The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
* December Holiday Festival - The show features traditional holiday music, some sing-alongs and lots of glitz and glamour in the many costumes changes.
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COOKIE QUEEN COOKIES
Current Cookie List As of 1/25
Amaretti $7
Amaretti (filled) $9
Apricot Delight $9
Biscotti $7 (frosted white with red/green drizzle)
vanilla
almond
lemon
anise
Brownies $15
Chocolate Chip $7
Cho Chip/Nuts $8
Chipettes $7
Cho Mac $7
Coconut Mac $7
Cowboy Cookies $8
Fudge Dusters $7
Ginger Snaps $6
Gingerbread Cutouts $7
Gobs, Cho $8
Gobs, Pkin $7
Ladylocks $9 (8 oz)
LemonTarts $9
Molasses Oatmeal $6
Molasses Raisin $9
Nutrolls $9
Oatmeal:
cho chip $6
plain $5
pecan/cc $8
apricot $8
cherry $8
raisin $6
Orange or Lemon frosted $7
PB OF $5
PB Cups $8
PB Kisses $8 (with my ganache, not Hershey Kisses)
PB Cho.Chip $8. (New this year)
Pecan Tassies $9
Pizzelles - Anise $6/18
Pizzelles - Vanilla $6/18
Pizzelles - Filled $8
Pumpkin Cho Chip $9
Pumpkin Gems $7
Snickerdoodles $8
Snowballs $9
Sugar - Ch Chip $6
Sugar - Pecan $7
Sugar- Almond (Van frost with Toasted Almonds) $8
Sugar -Trees $7 (red/green frost)
Jewish stars $7 (blue/white frost)
Thumbprints $9
Chocolate
Apricot
Lemon Cream
Raspberry Cream
Vanilla Cream (can be tinted in your colors)
Triple Cho Chews 8
Weecakes $6
I also do Buckeyes - which are candy, not cookies. $9/12 (Dark or milk cho)
For Thanksgiving:
Pumpkin/Cream Cheese Pie (must return MY pie pans)
Pumpkin Roll
Carrot Cake
Cookies. Cookies. Cookies. It’s one of the necessities when planning a wedding here in Western Pennsylvania. But not so in other parts of the country. I often deal with chefs at restaurants that hail from Southern and Western states and they ask me, “What’s with this cookie table at weddings?”
The custom is old world. European. Italian. Slovak. Cookies are expected. Back in the old country when a bride and groom would greet their guests to “collect” their gifts, they gave in exchange a small plate of cookies to take home. Many of these people who immigrated to the United States and mostly to the Eastern United States brought this custom with them.
You’ve probably wondered why little old ladies will stuff cookies in their purse before leaving a wedding reception. Now you know.
Anyway - it’s a nice custom and most area brides want cookies at their weddings. But how many should there be and what kind?
You know your guests better than I do. Are they cookie eaters or not? Are most of the guests in their 20s - these people usually are watching their weight. Are most of the guests men? Men like chocolate anything and they don’t like those dainty fussy cookies like Peaches. They want a brownie or a gob.
Are some of your guests children? They like smaller cookies - but lots of them.
Does the guest list include elderly women? They want the old-fashioned cookies like nutrolls, kolachi, pizzelles. And they want to take some home.
So - my stock answer is this: If you are having a sit-down meal and cake - then figure on a minimum of four cookies per person. Though - if you are Italian - you know in your heart it’s better to have too many than not enough, then figure on six per person. My cookies can be frozen IF there are any left over. If the cookies will be out before the appetizers are served, guests coming from the church will be hungry and will snarf down every cookie in sight and fill up and then they won’t eat the expensive meal. Try to discourage having the cookies out before dinner is served.
How many different kinds should you have? Not too too many because, when the nutrolls get raves and people start talking them up and then someone goes in search of a nutroll and there are none left - - bummer. It’s better to have fewer varieties and more of each cookie.
Here are some other questions often asked by prospective brides:
1. Do you tray cookies? Yes - but that costs extra for the trays and my time. I have spent six and seven hours traying cookies for big weddings. And you should ask at the reception hall. Some venues want to use their own trays for the cookies ... and they will charge you for this service. I prefer to tray them myself because sometimes folks who don’t know beans about cookies will put things on trays that just don’t go together.
For example, they will put anise pizzelles on a tray with other cookies. Once you put anise anything on the tray - all of the cookies taste like anise. Or they will put soft and crisp cookies together which means soon they all will be soft as the crisp ones absorb moisture from the soft ones. And then they all taste bad. And then there was the time that some dopey country club demanded that I have the cookies there on Friday morning for a Saturday evening wedding. As chance would have it, my singing group had a show at the same country club on Friday evening. Nosey as I am, I walked into the room where the wedding was to be held the following day and there were my wonderful cookies - already on uncovered trays with flies buzzing all over them.
2. Do you do “cookie favors” for the guests? Yes - and they are really nice. It’s a small box of six cookies. On the top of the box there is a pretty note thanking the guests for sharing this special day and then the name of the couple and the date of the wedding. These little boxes are usually a huge hit. One mother of the bride called me to say, “Those cookie boxes are all that people could talk about the next day at the post-wedding barbecue. Our out of town guests took them to their hotel rooms and enjoyed them late at night. Everyone raved about the cookies.” But I don’t do cookie bouquets? To get cookies to stay on a stick like that they have to be pretty darn hard. I don’t make hard tasteless cookies.
3. Do you make Peaches? No. No. Definitely no. I do not make anything that takes longer to make it than it does to eat it. Besides, have you ever seen how many of those half-eaten things get thrown out?
4. Do you make sugar cutout cookies? Yes - but only trees, stars and dog bones. My sugar cookies are so tender. If you want something with an appendage like a turkey neck or legs or arms they will break. Not doing those.
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COOKIE QUEEN CAKES
It is most important that your wedding cake taste good. You want guests leaving your reception to say, “That is the best wedding cake I have ever tasted.” That is why you have chosen THE Cookie Queen to bake the cake for your Special Day. My cakes taste really good. I do not specialize in elaborate decorations.
I specialize in making “one of a kind” cakes. I do not have a portfolio of cake photos because I simply refuse to do any cake design twice. Each cake is unique and is designed for YOU alone. If you have a photo of what you would like your cake to look like, please bring it to our initial consultation or Email it to me (cookiequ@verizon.net) prior to your consultation to save time.
Here is a selection of the most popular Cookie Queen wedding cake ideas:
1. A two-tiered “show” cake with the 10” bottom to be cut at the reception and served at the head table and the 7” top to be frozen for the First Anniversary. Undecorated double-layer sheet cakes are served to the other guests from the kitchen. This way everybody gets icing. There are no center cuts.
2. Filled cupcakes and Weecakes (mini cupcakes) are ideal because your guests can choose their favorite flavor of cake and frosting. The tiered cupcake stands are very expensive and I have found them to be unstable - so I no longer use them. If you choose cupcakes, I recommend still having a small two-tiered “show” cake to cut at the reception.
3. A selection of 9” cakes in many different flavors: You can choose the usual chocolate, vanilla, marble or anything else you might want to have: carrot, spice, chocolate-cherry, chocolate- raspberry, German chocolate, rum cream, lemon cream, pineapple cream, peanutbutter-chocolate or a choice of your own. Cakes are on display where guests can select their favorite and cut their own slice.
4. 8” cakes on each table - so the guests can serve themselves at each table. This provides dessert and eliminates the expense of table centerpieces. But - there sometimes is wasted cake with this method. However - any leftover cake can be frozen for use at a later time.
Prices: based on the batter, filling, frosting and number of servings you will need.
Floral Decoration: I will coordinate with your florist and have them design the flowers or I will work with your colors and design the flower decorations myself.
Frosting: I do butter cream or whipped cream only. If you wish a smooth rolled fondant finish, please select another baker. The fondant may look nice but tastes terrible. Also I do not use “white” chocolate. There is no such thing and “white chocolate” has a strange after-taste. (FYI: White chocolate contains no chocolate liquor. It is a mix of cocoa butter, sugar, lecithin, milk solids and vanilla. Chocolate liquor is the brown paste leftover after the cocoa butter has been extracted from the cocoa nibs.)
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COOKIE QUEEN COOKBOOKS
The Cookie Queen has published three cookbooks: “Royal Recipes From the Castle of the Cookie Queen,” “Hassle Free Holidays” and “Never Scrub Another Toilet.”
To find out more about her books go to her Amazon Author’s Page:
amazon.com/author/thecookiequeen
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COOKIE QUEEN CLASSES
Did you know that the Cookie Queen teaches cooking classes? A gift certificate for a class here at the Castle would make a great holiday gift. I offer a whole host of classes from two to make bread to how to make pie crust to how to make dinner in 15 minutes. You can also design your own class. Tell me what you want to learn and I will teach you. And you can bring a friend or two.
But not more than 5 in a class. Fees depend on what we’ll be learning and how many will be participating. You can purchase a gift certificate by messaging me at cookiequ@verizon.net.
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This newsletter has been published weekly for the past 30 years. You can read some of the back issues on Substack. (
) Or message me for any back issues you'd like to read.