"Intense love does not measure, it just gives." Mother Teresa

If it were Betty Crocker saying the quote above, it might read: "Intense love does not only measure, it levels, sifts, folds, and bakes at 350 degrees for 2 hours."

There is something to be said for the ingredient of love in homemade food. I had the pleasure of enjoying a homemade sugar cookie from a SERVE Bake Sale for Pakistan today and it was tasted even better than the purple sprinkles and buttery color seemed to be saying it would. From its fresh smell to the simple, sweet aftertaste that tickled my tongue, this cookie tasted of love. Un-preserved, never shrink-wrapped, not mass-produced love. Thank goodness for generous teachers and commuter students who bring a little bit of home to my college-kid tummy.
Another shout out goes to my Dad's scrambled eggs. Never runny, always yummy, and cooked with skill. Perfect fluff and impressive pan flipping are my Dad's key egg-cooking characteristics.

One of the best gifts I ever received was the Betty Crocker Cookie Book...
I miss looking through the pictures and recipes for inspiration or just for fun. Scanning the ingredient list to see what we have and what we need is always a hopeful and exciting task. One of my specialties is Betty Crocker's sour cream cookies, to which I like to add chopped up milk chocolate bars. For some reason, the chopped bars taste even better than regular chocolate chips for this delightful treat. Mmmm...

You know, Betty Crocker wasn't a real person. She was an imaginary spokeswoman for the Washburn Crosby Company of Minneapolis which later became part of General Mills. Majorie Child Husted is attributed with creating the figure in 1921. Her role was to give advice and tips to American women through her cookbooks and products. Her picture was created in 1936 and has changed seven times since then to appease the public's vision of a perfect home-cooking, beautifully baking, on-top-of-it-all-mother type of woman. During the twenties, Betty Crocker had a radio show and in the forties she hosted a television program. Betty Crocker would eventually become America's "2nd most popular woman (after Eleanor Roosevelt) as reported by Fortune magazine in 1945) (wikipedia). Go Betty!

I like this bio (from ilovethefingerlakes.com) of the woman who was Betty Crocker 1949 until 1964:

Adelaide Fish Hawley Cumming (1905-1998)

The General Mills Company created the character of Betty Crocker in 1948 to answer baking questions American women sent to the company by letter. General Mills hired Cumming, a radio personality and actress living in New York City, because she represented the stereotypical image of the American homemaker. From 1950-1952 Cumming appeared on the half-hour Betty Crocker Show and in 1952 on the Betty Crocker Star Matinee and Bride and Groom. She also appeared in many commericals touting cake mixes and other General Mills products. In 1964 Cumming was dropped by the company at the age of 59 for someone younger.

After receiving a Ph.D. from New York University, Cumming went on to a second career as a teacher of English as a second language.

Long live Betty Crocker! Keep on cooking those cookies :)

More info on Betty Crocker

http://www.ilovethefingerlakes.com/history/famous-people-cumming.htm