Almost Mrs. Barry's: Coconut Shortbread Cookies

The new school year officially began for students on Wednesday.  For our school, it was a freshman-only day.  Since I don't teach freshmen, it was another work day for me, but I did go to the festivities at the pool to welcome the freshmen.  There were some really huge kids and some kinda small too.  I guess it's always this way with the freshmen class.  I was kinda surprised to see some of the girls.  I remember them from years ago in elementary school.  They had been small and skinny then but now, they got chunky.  I guess you can never tell how kids will turn out.

My classes this year seem okay, but I'm veteran enough to know that the first week or so is a honeymoon period.  We'll see how the coming weeks go...but I know there will be at least one kid who is a handful in every class. 

One happy moment was when a student asked me, "Do you know ___".  I said I did and he was one of my favorite students because he did quality work, was respectful and had great commitment to bettering himself.  To my surprise, the student told me, "this year, I'm gonna be your favorite.  I'm just like ___".  Right on!  I love enthusiastic kids.  In other classes, some kids couldn't shut up.  Others kept pushing buttons.  Just after my partner told students not to sit on the desks, one boy sat on the desk.  She told them not to put their feet up, and seconds later, some kid put his foot up.  I wanna know if he is hard of hearing or just insubordinate.

Now that I think about it, I didn't see much of my coworkers at all.  I guess I was too busy working to even notice most of them!

After busting my ass all week, I knew the weekend would be more of the same.  I invited the family over for lunch on Sunday, so even going into the weekend, I knew I had to get in a Costco run before Sunday.  I would've just asked The Help to go, but he made a choice...a choice to re-enlist in the work force...thus his days are rather busy.

So after work on Friday, The Help and I headed out to the west side.  Our plan was to go right after work, but there were some things we had to do first, so by the time we got to Costco, it was after 6 pm.  I was hoping to stop in at Mrs. Barry's Kona Cookies to buy a bag of coffee crunch cookies.  Unfortunately, we were too late.  They were closed.  Maybe we'll make it the next time.

It was always a treat to go to Kona and make a stop at Mrs. Barry's Kona Cookies.  Without a doubt, my favorite was the coconut shortbread cookies.  Don't get me wrong...the coconut shortbread cookies are one of my most favorite cookies of all time, but I no longer buy it from Mrs. Barry's since I can make my own.

My friend's mom shared with me a cookie (and the recipe), and I was blown away at how much it tasted like Mrs. Barry's coconut cookies.  The one difference was that her cookies were round instead of quadrilateral (Mrs. Barry's version used to be rectangular but now they are more square-ish).  I put on my thinking cap and came up with a sure-fire way to get quadrilateral cookies. . . use a spam musubi mold to shape the dough! 

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Coconut Shortbread Cookies

     3/4 c butter, softened

     3/4 c sugar

     2 c flour

     1 c sweetened flaked coconut

Cream butter and sugar til fluffy.  Stir in flour and coconut.  Shape into a log (I use a double Spam musubi acrylic mold), wrap in plastic, and chill 5 or more hours.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Slice thin (1/8"-1/4") and place close together on cookie sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Cool completely on wire rack.