While as a doctor I don’t find hearing loss funny, it can lead to some hilarious stories.
My mother is deaf in one ear from having her eardrum blown out when I was a kid (she’ll tell you that it’s quite painful). Because of this, we’ve always had to make sure to speak up and talk on her “good side.”
We also need to make sure that we speak clearly.
We were driving to a church ice cream social when we were younger, and we were all listing off what kind of ice cream we wanted to have.
Me: I want Mackinac Island Fudge.
Dad (while pulling into the church parking lot): I just want ice cream!
Brother #1: I want cookies and cream!
Mom (whipping her head around and yelling in a stern voice): How DARE you say that??? We’re at church!!!
The rest of my family exchanged confused looks.
Dad: Honey, why is it bad that he wants cookies and cream ice cream?
My mother then burst out laughing and it was a few minutes later before she caught her breath enough to tell us…(while we all still looked on confused)…
“Oh goodness, I thought he said herpes and cream! You can’t talk about herpes at church!”
To this day, cookies and cream has never been known by its actual name…nor has anyone in my family eaten it since.
No Mistakes Chocolate Cutouts
perfect if you decide to combine with cream…for ice cream sandwiches 😉
Ingredients
-
2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 c brown sugar
- 1/2 c white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 c cocoa powder
- 3 c flour, plus additional for rolling
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
How-to
- Cream together butter and sugars in a stand mixture. Add in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until combined after each one.
- In a separate bowl, mix together cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder. With mixer on, slowly add in dry ingredients until well combined.
- Refridgerate dough at least 1 hour (overnight is best).
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Flour surface and rolling pin. Using a ruler (this helps, I promise!), roll out dough until 1/4 in thick and use a cookie cutter to cut into shapes.
- Place cookies into greased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-9 minutes (it’s really easy to overcook these, so it’s best to undershoot and then try them after they cool for about 5 minutes to see if they’re at your desired softness…personally I don’t like my cutout cookies too hard!).
domestic diva, M.D. 
Yum! I always love finding a new cutout recipe!!! I was trying to figure out the shape of the cookie. Could it be Santa with his sack?
It looks to me like the state of Illinois!
Correct!
Illinois 🙂
Oh, ok…well you could easily turn it in to Santa if you wanted too. =)
My grandmother made an asset out of this. She was deaf in one ear.
After my grandfather died, she got into the habit of going to sleep good-ear-down. It was quieter.
My mom does the same thing 😉
The ice cream sandwich idea is awesome. I bet it would work great with frozen yogurt too 🙂 Yum!
Definitely!!! This makes a TON of cookies so they aren’t that bad for you, either…at least I’m telling myself that!
Omg, that is hilarious, btw, I love Mackinac Island Fudge!
It’s one of my favorite types of ice cream…thankfully I’m still in the midwest so I can find it!
Love the shape of that 😉
I need to get Michigan and Jersey ones, too!
Seriously so cute! Where did you find them? I wonder if they come in a set of 50.. Like with separate ones for Colorado and Wyoming even though they’re the same shape.. haha
I found it on Amazon…it was only a few dollars. I can try to track down who sold it if you’d like.
It is great that you all had a good laugh at that. Your mom made a great memory without even knowing it. 🙂
Oh no- it’s still a running joke in my family 😉
Is it okay to talk about herpes and cream when you’re not at church then 😉
Of course 😉 It’s just probably that I don’t know if God would approve of all the things that happen that would lead one to get herpes 😉
Have you seen old clips of Gilda Radner’s character, Emily Litella? She always reminded me of my mother, who also only had one ‘good’ ear. Emily: ” What is all this fuss I hear about the Supreme Court decision on a deaf penalty? It’s terrible! Deaf people have enough problems as it is!” Love the recipe, too.
Haha yeah, love that character!
Question: are these freezable? They look amazing.
Definitely! That’s why you want them a bit softer 🙂
Thanks! Might make a couple batches to freeze in case unexpected company shows up. 🙂
I might need to do that as well…
I’m deaf in my left ear and whoever sleeps or sits on my left believes I ignore them. Sometimes it’s convenient.
You need to ignore the person sleeping on your left that often? 😉
That’s why I turn over a lot 😉
I just did sugar cookie cut outs yesterday. These sound great! Making!
My Dad was deaf and my life at as child at home was filled with these sort of misunderstandings. I remember being mortified when he “rescued” someone who was having fun in a swimming pool. but without the sound he mistook the gesticulations for drowning and panic:)
Hahahahhahaha,…What a story! Your cookie looks delicious!
Great story. My dad is pretty hard of hearing and we’ve had some pretty wacky things come from that too.
My Mom was hard of hearing and in her 90’s…when she said, ” I’ll have a “Greasy Cup” too…Actually it was a “Reeses Peanutbutter Cup ice cream… as you say…we always call it “Greasy Cup” to this day!…she lived to be 98…
Hahaha that’s hilarious
Love the recipe. Thank you for following my blog. I’m always facinated to find what brings people to it. That helps me find others and I’ve just started to read some of yours. I’m anxious to read more.
If you use tags you pop up in readers for that- that’s how I find most of the blogs I follow
Thanks. I’m learning something new everyday. Today was a success!
hahahahahaha great story!
I’m going to make these today! They look yummy.
This story is hilarious!!!
Made me laugh and laugh and laugh!!! My mother is also deaf in one ear so we’ve done the “good side” conversation for most of my life – thanks for the laugh!
Yeah…we can always tell when my mom doesn’t want to listen when she faces her left side to you 😉
Hi! How much is a “stick” of butter? That’s not a term we use in the Uk, but the recipe looks great and I’d like to try it. Lovely post, I like the way you have a story before a recipe, I’m a new blogger and picking up tips, so thanks!
8 tablespoons or 1/2 c
Great-looking recipe! I’ll give it to my husband, also an anesthesiologist who likes to cook. Here’s my post on Mackinac Island Fudge. He also likes that! (Me, too.) http://catherinesherman.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/oh-fudge/
We anesthesiologists love our kitchens 🙂