Dreidel - it's not a brand name!

I thought it would be fun to make some dreidel shaped sugar cookies this year. I thought I’d just head to the local kitchen store and pick up a dreidel cookie cutter. Easy. Off to Northgate mall where. I walked in, “One dreidel cookie cutter please.” The sales lady responded with, “Sorry. We don’t carry that brand.”

Hum? “Ah, it’s not a brand. It’s a shape. You know….a dreidel.” She looks confused so I thought I’d job her memory. “No, it’s a top thing….’dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay….lalallalala….”

Blank stare. In over her head she reached for the mic, “Manager to the front!”

In comes the manager who was very nice and seemed to have a pretty good idea of what a dreidel was because she immediately informed me they don’t carry them but she does have a Star of David has she showed me the five pointed star. Hum? So she had a general idea of what I was talking about. I give her credit for trying. It beat the associate that chimmed in with "Maybe you could cut them out free-hand." He had a good point although it defeated the idea of looking for a cutter, doesn't it? I thanked them and left the store.

I thought over my situtation and decided that perhaps a dreidel was too obscure for a north side suburb. I needed to go downtown. The big city. The melting pot. I went to my favorite kitchen store, City Kitchens. It’s a tiny, tiny little store with a brilliant sales team that is VERY helpful. They devote an entire wall to cookie cutters. They knew exactly what I wanted but sadly they were out, “torah instead?”

“No thanks.”

Next, Seattle’s own, Sur la table. No perfect cookie cutter there.

Finally my last hope, the Mother of all kitchen stores: William Sonoma store. The glossy lipped sales girl said “Oh no we’re out….they’ve been hot sellers” and points to the blank space on the display. I was surprised that they were hot sellers but on the other hand it reinforced my notion of the big city having everything I could ever want. She sprinted away to look it online. I took a closer look at the display. It had a blank spot with a picture and one word: “Ornament”. Apparently “Ornament” and “Dreidel” are interchangeable. It was a relief when she said she couldn’t find any others in town because I didn’t have to explain. She recommended City Kitchen and when I told her they were out she just went off on how bad they are….which was about all I could stand. I wanted to scream, “at least they really know what I'm looking for...take your ornaments and.....” Instead I got a grip, grabbed my complimentary cup of tastey W-S Cider and did a 180 and headed home.

After much thought, we’ve decided to make marshmallows instead. Sugar cookies are over-rated anyway. Plain, square, marshamallows. Much better. We hope you have a good holiday no matter what shape your sugar cookies are!!