On Monday Dec 12 we held the first ever [to my knowledge] Skagit Gluten Free [or not]Holiday Cookie Swap tweet-up. Sweet success! Over a half-dozen attended the event, held at Ristretto’s Cafe and Wine Bar in downtown Mount Vernon. A local couple @bywaywriter and wife [ WWU grad student] were the first to arrive. His local motorcyclist adventure writings can be read here. Gluten-free cookie lovers from as far as Bellingham came to share and enjoy the tasty homemade recipes. Not everyone was a twitter user, however. This made no matter to the instant social connections that ensued.
We were soon chatting merrily along. Ooohs,ahhhs and yums could be heard between bites as the conversations flowed. Ranging from such topics as FB-vs-twitter, GIS, local favorite [foo foo] micro-brews and coffee-vs-tea. Young and ole alike seem to be having an engaging time. As the event came to a close , the ‘Best Cookie’ judging by Ristretto’s barista Sarah began. As she took a bite from each of the eight entries, having to choose just one proved challenging. Ultimately, with everyone’s nod, emerging victorious was the scrumptious gluten-free Chocolate Coconut & dried Cherry cookie. It was a close call though.
I’ll do my best to garner the recipe from the winner and post it here. [The homemade gluten-free Almond Biscotti entry from Bellingham was one of my favorites as was the non-GF Peanut Butter & Chocolate Kisses thumbprints.] The ‘Best Cookie’ received a small gratitude gift of a cafe gift card to Ristretto as did @bywaywriter [peep present].
Truly there was not a ‘bad cookie’ on the table. All the entries are “winners” in my culinary opinion. Though the evening was more on making real social connections and not the cookies. A request for folks to bring extra cookies was made of all invited. All donations brought were laid on a holiday platter for giving to the Skagit Friendship House Community Kitchen. Leaving , the ’strangers’ just an hour before, hugged as if they were long time friends. And now they will be thanks to a little social experiment thing called a ‘tweet-up’ . Oh, and of course Holiday ’cookies’.
Stay tuned for more Skagit ‘tweet-up’ events in the new year, perhaps you’ll join us too. Even if you’re not on Twitter. Though I don’t know why you wouldn’t be, its yummy!
Special Thanks to Ristretto Cafe and Wine Bar for the use of their cafe for this event and to Sarah our fab barista for the evening.
Note: Names omitted except for links to online profiles. I do not have permission to post the names of those attended.
We thoroughly enjoyed the tweet-up. Thanks for organizing it, Mona. And a big thanks for the gift in the miniature stocking!
Thanks! You’re welcome! It was my pleasure. Now you have no good reason Not to have a cafe there,LOL. Enjoy