At some point after I decided that I was actually going to start Top Shelf Cookies, I came up with this cookie. White chocolate cranberry oatmeal, with just a dash of nutmeg to tie the whole thing together, it wasn’t created with the thought that it would be a holiday cookie – but when I brought it to my office job in my old life on of my coworkers exclaimed that it tasted like Christmas. So, I made it part of our holiday line up. But we always release it first, like right after Halloween.
Naming it, that took awhile. It wound up being named by my friend and Bruins seatmate Jon. I had someone tell me White Chocolate Crantastics sounds like a great band name and I don’t disagree.
This cookie is pretty straight forward, and there isn’t a great big story about how we came up with it.
So, I guess I’ll take the opportunity to tell you a little bit about my best pal. He is not a risk taker at all. Jon researches everything and is meticulous about all his decisions - so when I had this conversation with him – I listened.
I had arrived to my barstool at The Fours before a Bruins playoff game in the glorious spring of 2011. I was visibly shaken and annoyed from a day at work – I don’t even think anything out of the ordinary happened at the time.
Me: “I wish I could just make cookies for a living” – I had never really said it out loud yet.
Jon: (almost instantly) “Been waiting for you to say this, just do it”
There are a lot of little interactions like this that had to happen for me to get off my ass and just do this. Everyone will tell you to follow your dream, but everyone doesn’t have your responsibilities, bills, fear of failure etc. But, in the gaggles of people that encouraged me to follow my heart, there’s a handful that have helped me and Jon is at the top of the list
Jon is a really good second set of eyes. At the beginning, he probably reviewed so much of our copy for the site, email marketing, and really honestly anything I asked him to do. He’s shared to social. He even gave me a short term loan so I wouldn’t miss out on an opportunity. I know he’s voiced concern about my exhaustion from time to time with our mutual friends (especially the ones that work on our team)
As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to feel lonely – and trust me, I do. But I know having a friend like Jon is just a call or text away makes me feel like I’m not so alone.
White Chocolate Crantastics might be a good band name, it’s a darn good cookie, but it really reminds me of what a great friend I have in my seat buddy and partner in crime, Jon Strauss