A cookie by any other name ...

Currently, the Smitten Kitchen's ginger snap is on heavy rotation in 

my kitchen. Soft and spicy, and oh so yummy. Highly recommend.

... may taste just as sweet, but I feel like an idiot when someone is using another name and I don't know what they're talking about.

I like to bake. I don't know if it's the stirring or creating or smells of something yummy in the oven, but I find baking a great stress reliever (fortunately, baking is my #2 de-stresser and working out is my #1, because eating is a very close #3). 

Plus, people get happy when someone comes along with fresh baked tidbits to share and I like to be around happy people. One of my tricks for producing a tasty treat on short notice is to mix a batch of cookie dough when I have time, roll it into cookie-size balls and freeze them. Then when the need arises, just pop the frozen cookie balls onto a baking sheet, 12 minutes in a 350 oven and voila, you've got cookies. 

My stash of freezer dough has also come in handy for playgroup, too. 

M's Monday playgroup has a shared morning tea. Everyone brings a little something (fruit, crackers, cheese, etc.) and the snacks are served family style to the kids. I've raided my stash a few times when I didn't have anything handy in the pantry to take. Yesterday, out came the ginger snaps.

As the kids were eating their snack, one of the mom's asked, "who brought the bickies?"

I start going through my mental filing cabinet. Bickies, bickies ... need a definition for bickies (note, it could be spelled bikkies, I'm not clear).

Since no one claimed the bickies, the mom started asking people directly. She'd asked two people when the mom I had been talking to said, "Pamela brought them."

Shoot, I missed the connection. American cookies = Australian biscuits, which gets shortened to bickies/bikkies.

I stammer something about not knowing what bickies were. Yes, I brought the cookies. Sorry, I didn't realize that's what you were referring to. Everyone was very polite and understanding, even talking briefly about what American biscuits are, but I still wanted to shrivel up and disappear.

Oy. I've spent the last 24 hours feeling like a dolt. 

I wrote previously about how unnatural, awkward and fake it felt for me to use Australian words, but clearly I need to know them in order to fit in here (and maybe more importantly, for M to fit in here). Time to start studying an Australian into American English primer. 

Or start baking more to ease stress caused by my cringe inducing cultural faux pas.