An email I just sent: It's time to end your "First Lady" cookie contest

[cali]

Dear Editor:

It’s time. Time to end your “First Lady” cookie contest. It’s outdated. It’s sexist. It’s just darn silly. I was inspired to contact you regarding this rather unimportant issue due to an article I saw on right wing website, accusing former President Clinton of “plagiarizing” Hillary’s cookie recipe of 20+ years ago.

I’m an avid baker and cook, but I recognize that not everyone is- and not every presidential spouse bakes.

This is 2016, not 1958 or even 1992. Let’s laud the potential first spouses for their achievements and contributions, not the goodness of some cookie recipe.

Sincerely,

[oberliner]

1. It started in 1992

I'm not sure I understand what the problem is for a food magazine to have a cookie baking contest.

[grossproffit]

5. It's not the contest. It's the name of the contest. We have a First Gentleman that best be baking.

[oberliner]

6. Agreed

They should re-name the contest. That is definitely outdated at this point, for sure.

[grossproffit]

2. Instead of ending it, what about changing it to "First Spouse?"

[yurbud]

8. How about just "president's wife" or "president's husband"?

Honorifics imply a degree of hierarch that doesn't seem democratic.

[grossproffit]

3. Bill better have one hell of a recipe on the ready.

[cali]

4. It's already happened.

The Daily Caller and other right wing sources are accusing him of "plagiarizing" Hillary's recipe. Really.

[tammywammy]

9. They're using the same oatmeal chocolate chip recipe used in 1992

They're renamed it Clinton Family Cookie or something. Hillary really promoted her oatmeal chocolate chip recipe and won the contest in 1992.

[Hekate]

14. At the time, iirc, someone griped that HRC got the recipe from the Quaker Oats box

Excuse me, cookie critics, but so did my mother, and they were delicious. When I was in my teens and starting my own recipe box (this was the early 1960s) I copied the same recipe. We used raisins instead of chocolate chips, though.

I never bothered to check Hillary's recipe against mine, but I do remember the "controversy" and how utterly sexist and stupid I thought it was. She and I are about the same age, and at that time I was concerned about feminism, and realized that this young woman had already achieved more than I had and was on track to achieve more -- and THIS was what the media was choosing to get exercised about?

Apologies, Tammy, for going off on this tangent in my reply to you. If I could do an efficient cut and paste on my iPad mini I would place my comments elsewhere in the thread.

[KMOD]

7. While the contest is silly and should end,

I really could not care less if Bill is being accused by RWers of plagiarizing Hillary's recipe. That is just too silly to get upset over.

[cali]

13. I see it as creaky sexism.

[KMOD]

15. Yes. The contest is sexism.

The making hay over Bill stealing Hillary's cookie recipe is silly. It's a family recipe.

[lillypaddle]

10. Bravo!

[GoCubsGo]

11. I agree. And, I'll bet my house that most, if not all of the recipes are "plagiarized."

Not only does every presidential spouse not bake, even the ones that do are not pastry chefs, and therefore, aren't going to make up their own recipes. The odds are, ALL of them are using a recipe that someone else came up with. I don't buy for a minute that Laura Bush came up with her "cowboy cookies" recipe all on her own.

That being said, here is the recipe that was entered under Bill's name in "Family Circle" some years back. It's plain oatmeal cookie recipe, no chocolate chips, although there is no reason one can't add them:

http://www.food.com/recipe/bill-clintons-oatmeal-cookies-358409

I made this recipe once. The cookies are actually quite good. I think the liklihood that Bill has actually made them at some point in his life is greater than the likelihood that Melanoma Trump or Anne Romney ever made the recipes they submitted.

[MyNameGoesHere]

12. I'm waiting for the first pot brownie submission