I have a question for Americans...

[FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant]

...and I'm too embarrassed to ask the Americans I know in real life as it's a strange question and kinda pointless.

What's the deal with girl scout cookies?

Are they the same types of cookies every year?

Are they only sold at certain times of year or are they sold all year round?

What types can you get? I know on Friends they've mentioned thin mints, The Office has mentioned Shortbread.

Are they actually nice or do people buy them to help the girl scouts?

Can you buy the same kinda cookies in supermarkets or are they literally just sold via the girl scouts?

I’d say it’s more common for kids to have their own bedrooms.

Our house is fairly typical for our area. It’s about 3000 square feet, with four bedrooms, one of which is used as a home office. We have two kids, only one of whom lives with us at the moment.

I’m surprised the cookie selection in US isn’t as good as ours in the UK. To be fair when I’ve been there we’ve had Graham crackers but the cookie aisle isn’t one I’ve noticed or not noticed in Safeway, Target or other supermarkets. I used to live on Oreo’s for breakfast though, when I first went to stay there at 16. Or at least until my friend or her mom got up and ordered takeout breakfast. My friend will admit that she’s a typical Jewish girl who can’t cook. Her mom was the same.

Now, their ice cream parlours the ones where they knead it and add cookie bits and sprinkles, that’s on a whole other level to UK!

Maybe we’re a misnomer but I can buy shortbread, Hob Nobs, digestives, Cadbury’s fingers etc on the regular shelf in my grocery store and not the import aisle.

I can even get those Lotus/biscoff cookies.

I’m quite partial to a vanilla double-stuffed Oreo.

I only drink iced tea. Not so good for dunking.

But a pecan sandie dunked in coffee is my favorite.

Speaking of things portrayed by TV and films, my burning question for Americans would be, on TV people in the big houses are often shown to have people (or one part of arguing couples) sleep on the couch and not in a spare/guest room despite there only being a few people in the house. Is that just for dramatic affect or do the big houses generally have fewer bedrooms than the size suggests they do?

Most average sized homes will have 3-4 bedrooms. Less than that would really impact resale value.

Since Covid the most desirable thing is to have a dedicated home-office (not just a repurposed spare bedroom).

@MooseBeTimeForSnow by your user name I'm guessing you're in a northern state. Are you in a border town, by chance? If so, might account for the selection. With the US being so diverse I would expect regional tastes reflected by grocery offerings.

The biscuit selection here is definitely much behind the UK. Its basically chocolate chip in crunchy and chewy varieties, oreos with different flavored fillings, graham crackers which are like bad digestives, and a few sandwich style cookies with chocolate based fillings

But all the major grocery stores - Stop & Shop/Publix/Whole Foods etc. - have in-house bakeries selling fresh baked goods. Why buy some generic boxed cookie when you can have bakery-fresh?

Sorry my fellow Americans, but Girl Scout cookies are just plain nasty. I just give them a contribution and tell them to keep the cookies!

I have lived in Australia for 26 years and have never had Anzac biscuits or Lamington sellers at the door, so I am guessing it’s no longer done?

Most people make their own Anzac biscuits around Anzac Day, if they do at all. Lamingtons are not so common anymore either.

@Mumtobabyhavoc I’m in Northern Alberta, Canada, roughly 600 miles from the US border.

Even if she's in Maine she can be a long away away from Canada. From what I've seen the border is mostly forest anyways.

Even 15 years ago shortbread and mcvities were common. Btw I don't agree in the slightest that cookie/biscuit selection is worse in the US. Pepperidge Farm Milanos are so much better than a ginger nut!! Also why are adults eating graham crackers, they're for kids and cheesecake base only.

Is it obvious I'm trying to diet, I can't keep away from this thread

Ahhh, I'm YVR. ☺️👋🇨🇦

@MooseBeTimeForSnow

I'm in NZ and lamingtons are still common here - my local supermarket sells them, and cafes sometimes sell them with cream. It's also quite common for lamingtons (and cheese rolls) to be sold for fundraising, although not by door to door sellers, unless it's neighbourhood kids taking orders. I do love a chocolate lamington.

We have 119 border crossings. In the US, Detroit is the closet, I think; Buffalo is about an hour over the line; Blaine and Bellingham are easy drives away as well.
That's just off the top of my head.
There are lots of cities and towns just on either side of the border so shopping is quite regional.
@CheeseSandwichRiskAssessment

@Mumtobabyhavoc I meant the Maine (and NH)/Canada border specifically! Sorry that wasn't clear.

@WalkingaroundJardine I remember laminating drives from being a kid in Aus in the late 70s/early 80s. Nothing to do with Guides though. They were fundraisers for maybe the school! You ordered them by the dozen & they eventually turned up in a recycled icecream tub😁.

We did have to sell Girl Guide biscuits as well - only the vanilla ones. All girls given a certain number of packets to sell, and it was only at one time of year. I'm now in NZ and it seems to have changed from kids selling them outside the supermarket on a stall to the supermarket stocking them - but only the ones with chocolate on one side. The plain ones are much nicer!

Ahhh, not familiar. I am on the west coast in Vancouver.
Where have you visited? Or do you live in Can or Us?

I grew up in Maine, haven't visited much of the Northwest but it's on my list!

Plenty of Jewish women cook -- I'm a real balebusta as my Bubby (grandma) would say :)

There are other varieties of cookies besides the basics, but to be honest I am not fond of most of them. It's all industrial shortening and sugar. There are some premium ones I do like, and I'm a sucker for Milanos even though you only get 15 in a packet! I'd much rather have fresh baked cookies. I am not a tea dunker, even though I'm English. You can get imported biscuits as well -- McVities are in the little British section and pricey, but lots of places have Walkers shortbread, TimTams, Lu, Biscoff. One of my children likes plain graham crackers. I don't but they are not bad with some cream cheese and jam. I do miss McVities Jaffa Cakes but my blood sugar (I have diabetes) does not.

I don't eat pork, but sausage gravy looks vile! A nice freshly made American biscuit is really delicious, though.

House size varies quite a bit by age. Newer homes are larger. My neighbourhood is older (1960s-1970s) and I would say the houses are 2,000SF or less, and I've been in many neighbourhoods where they are smaller than that. In cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia you will find loads of brick row houses (terraces) just like any British city. Older homes also won't have things you see on TV like walk-in closets and en-suite bathrooms unless they're particularly big or expensive, or if they do it's like mine where the ensuite is tiny and the hall bath is the big one. There are lots of neighbourhoods in the suburbs that were built en masse to accommodate the postwar returning soldiers and baby boom -- just loads of houses that were originally identical. The original postwar suburb, Levittown, was tiny houses (I think 700 or 750 square feet) with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. If you go there now many of them have been massively expanded.

This thread is fascinating, I've just googled the cookies you're talking about and now I need to buy a pack of Viscounts when I visit Sainsburys later.

That may be so if you live outside a place with fewer delivery options, but back in the 80s, whenever I visited my Jewish friends in Forest Hills, they used takeout for everything. Sometimes, the grandma (who lived with them) would cook, but she was elderly so this was rarer. Probably because the parents were divorced and the mother worked as a teacher, that's why she didn't have time to cook much, so therefore, she passed her lack of cooking skills down to her DD, my friend.

I agree with you on the houses though. When my friend went to college (UPenn) she lived in South Philly, in a brick row terraced house, where I stayed when I visited her when she got married at 22/23.

Once she moved to Wilmington, Delaware, this was into a (I'm guessing) 1960s/70s house (detached) - with the typical basement, converted attic space and bedrooms and then when they had their second child (both adopted) they moved to a larger detached house which has 4 bedrooms, 3 with en-suite bathrooms and all with walk in closets, plus a huge kitchen, living room area, separate dining room and big basement area. Plus out in the back yard (garden) they have an outdoor pool and jacuzzi (this looks to be 60s/70s decor though judging from the tiling). I was always a bit freaked out by the basements though (we have them in London but they're a bit different) as I associated them with American horror films.
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I've just recalled, yes my friend 'did' post these to me in London! I recall I ordered quite a bit, so brought them into work (00s?) to share with colleagues. This was the days though when post wasn't stolen or disappeared quite as easily as it does get now, so you could post and not use recorded/registered post from both sides of the pond.

LTB doing that to Girl Scout cookies is treasonous

the thin mint ones are tasty, dry though.

Biscuits, are warm and scone-like and served with white gravy.

Some people eat biscuits with gravy, but I am a Southerner and I never have and probably never will. The best way to eat a biscuit is warm with butter and jam, or my favorite, honey. Biscuits are popular for breakfast, but are also often served with a meal, like a dinner roll would be. The gravy thing is regional, and not part of the cuisine I grew up with (coastal Carolinas and Georgia).

Thank you. Much better having examples from from a southerner. ☺️

Cold Stone Creamery, yes!