what are the criteria?

So here I sit, finishing off dinner (Conrad is in LA until Friday night late), and I find myself in a conversation conducted through comments on a photo on Facebook. Over what? Cookies, specifically a recent shipment to a few friends.

I love to bake for people far more than I love to bake for myself. I knocked out four different types of cookies on the weekend and sent off a few parcels. It's gratifying to know that people enjoy them.

I get asked by people how they can get cookies or such. Or friends get asked how they can get my cookies or such. It's a tricky question. I can't even explain how I go about it all the time. You just kind of have to accept it. But here are a few helpful hints in case you do want to try my baking (and please, it's just average fare - it's nice to get homebaked stuff, I know, but any bakery can kick my butt):

1. be my best friend, or
2. live in the US (mailing cookies to Canada or elsewhere could be tricky) and
3. take me up on my offers (this round of baking I offered to friends in exchange for supporting a book tour for Josh, whom I met in Baltimore last winter), or
4. catch me in the right mood.

The rules change about, I am capricious at times. Here's what you don't do:

• do not tell me that Whole Foods makes better scones than I do (thank you, though, Luis for giving me THAT to aspire to).

In the end, though, there's nor hard and fast rule other than #1 and, to a lesser extent (I would be glad to bake in Vancouver), #2. If baking comes your way, roll with it. It's not the worst thing to be subjected to. Or so I hope! ;-)