Girls Scout Cookies Sales

Selling Girl Scout Cookies has been a part of American life since 1917. The Kenny Family, has been selling Girl Scout Cookies, in more ways than one, for close to 30 years.

One way is that the Kenny Ladies have been selling Girl Scout Cookies for generations.
The other way, is that I ran a Coconut Company that sold all the toasted coconut to the Girl Scout Cookie Manufacturers

One might say that selling Girl Scout Cookies is in our blood.

FAMILY

My wife Susan has been big on Girl Scouts forever. She was our daughter Jenn’s troop and cookie sales leader for many years. Now our daughter-in-law Lauren, is our granddaughter’s troop leader and in charge of Girl Scout Cookie Sales. The expression that “the son married the girl, just like the girl that married dear old dad” can be a little bit scary. To say that these ladies (wife, daughter in law, daughter (also a scout leader) and granddaughters) are competitive would be an understatement. Every year, it is given that they will sell more cookies than they did the previous year. The good news is that, in many ways, Girl Scout Cookies sell themselves.

Emma and her Nana in full sales mode

Gramps gets thrown into the fray annually. It is expected that gramps will develop sales materials and encourage our friends to buy cookies. This year Susan and I had the added responsibility of hosting a booth for a morning of sales at the local Kroger. Emma was in charge of merchandising. Gramps was in charge of finance. Not to brag, but Emma’s sales skills are impressive. At 9 years old, she has experience and no fear of chasing down shoppers asking if they need cookies. The combination of her charm, tenacity and digital skills make her a force. Gramp’s responsibility was finance and specifically credit card sales. The Girl Scouts now have a pretty good app and, with a little training from Emma, I was able to keep up, sort of.

Sales materials developed by Gramps

When it comes to sales to our friends, the question we get asked all the time is: do you still have cookies. Truth is that my son’s garage looks like a warehouse. I always think of the story that Phil Harris the actor and announcer at the annual Bing Crosby Pebble Beach golf tournament used to tell. Phil and Bing went on golfing trips to Scotland. One night they were driving home late after golf and more than a sampling of the local adult beverages. They passed a distillery and Bing pointed out to Phil that the Scots can make whisky faster than he can drink it. To which Phil replied, “That might be true, but I have them working nights”. Looking at the inventory in my son’s garage, its hard to imagine that Emma will run out of cookies. Then again, watching her sales prowess at the cookie booth, she might have a supply chain issue.

The Cookie Inventory in Brian’s Garage

WORK

In a past life, I ran a coconut company in the Philippines. The joke used to be that on my tombstone it would say: “He knew coconut”. The second most popular Girls Scout Cookie is the Samoa that is made exclusively with toasted coconut from my Franklin Baker Company of the Philippines. They say that coconut is a polarizing flavor. Either you like it, or you don’t. I can’t tell you the number of times that when someone found out about my being the coconut guy, they would tell me how they don’t like coconut. To which I would ask if they have ever had the Samoa Girl Scout cookie? Invariably they would respond about how it was their favorite. There is something about the toasted coconut in combination with caramel and chocolate that is a winner.

Another, not so funny joke I tell is about “Murphy’s Law”. What can go wrong, will go wrong. I firmly believe that Murphy was Filipino. In my years of running a company in the Philippines, the list of what went wrong went on and on:

Typhoons
Droughts
Military coups
Communist attacks on our plant
Assassinations
Kidnappings
Salmonella
Tsunamis

The toasted coconut for the Girl Scout cookies had its moment. One year a large shipment of coconut got contaminated by an off odor. As with all the other things that went wrong, our team at Franklin Baker in the Philippines was amazing. They always figured out the problem and the solution.

In retrospect, whether it is the FAMILY side or the WORK side, selling Girl Scout Cookies is a lot of fun

For anyone that wants Girls Scout Cookies – This is Emma’s card

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The Magic Pan Is Coming Home

THIS BLOG WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 2022.

Sad News, Angelo Caserta’s mother, who was the inspiration for this blog, has passed away. Mom was close to 93. The good news is that the “Magic Pan” will be coming with Angelo after the funeral.

For most of us, the food we grew up with is special. People from New York like New York Pizza. People from Chicago like Chicago Pizza. If you are lucky enough to have a mother that is a great cook, your favorite dishes are going to be what your mother made. My buddy Angelo talks about his mother’s magic pan and the dishes she made with it with a mythical wonder.

Mom Doing Her Magic in The Kitchen

A friend of mine grew up on the island of Cephalonia off the mainland of Greece. Spiros would talk about Cephalonia and his face would glaze over with a smile fueled by the fondest of memories. Angelo talks about his mother’s Fried Zucchini and Ravioli with A Beef Ragu made with her magical pan with the same look on his face.

Fried Zucchini With Pasta

Ravioli With A Beef Ragu

Mom Making Homemade Gnocchi

Most families look at inheritance in terms of money, property, jewelry or maybe furniture. All I inherited from my father is a wacky sense of humor and a few old golf clubs. Angelo’s big ask is for his mother’s magic pan. That pan will make great meals, but more importantly, it will invoke really great memories.

Angelo with His Wife & Son

It’s Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Christmas.

My daughter has been known to say: “This kitchen smells like Christmas Eve at home”. Yes, I use a lot of garlic in my cooking. One of my holiday traditions is to peel a few heads of garlic as part of getting a mise en place set up.

A Traditional Kenny – Christmas Menu For 2013

In 2023, we have all 5 grandkids and their parents coming for Christmas. The menu will be close to traditional. And yes, there will be seafood served on Christmas Eve because you can take the kid out of Silver Lake (Italian Community in NY where I grew up), but you can’t take the Silver Lake out of the kid.

I must confess that I still have a little scar-tissue to deal with. One year we had the whole Kenny Clan to Memphis for Christmas, and I published a menu that called for “The Feast Of The Seven Fishes” on Christmas Eve. After dinner which included clams, shrimp, scallops and cod, my brother-in law Brian asked about why I called it seven fishes when there were only four? Now Brian is a nuclear scientist and one of the smartest guys I know. So I told him that I was careful to count and made sure he had at least. 3 shrimp and 4 clams. Sales and Marketing guys just look at the world differently than scientists do.

Another Christmas ,the whole Kenny Clan descended on the ski resort at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire where Susan’s brother Bobby has a condo. After dinner on Christmas Eve, we had wonderful experience. It was a magical evening with a horse-drawn sleigh ride through a heavy snowstorm with the whole family singing Christmas carols. It was also an experience that describes the difference between my two sisters. My sister Joan, the college professor, exclaimed “Isn’t this beautiful, it’s a winter wonderland”. My sister Bernadette, the corporate executive, leans in to her college aged niece and whispers: “Winter wonderland my ass, it’s a ‘F- – king’ blizzard”. You can’t buy memories like that.

Maybe this was the real reason behind Cuomo’s downfall…