Made With Love

Good afternoon, everyone! It’s Amanda, back with another of my easy and affordable snack ideas for recruitment! Now, I know for a lot of you, recruitment might either be well on it’s way or over, but I’m still holding out some hope that there are some of you left going through the same, exciting time as I am. My recruitment period starts tonight!

Along with some simple recipes that anyone can execute from their teeny, tiny dorm room kitchens, I will also be showcasing bakegreek.com, a website I found during one of my daily travels across the internet. Bake Greek is a website that specializes in Greek letter and alphabet cookie cutters. They are an official licensed product, with more products aimed toward Greek life to come.

Using their products, my organization’s recruitment chair will be baking cute and delicious Greek letter cookies to serve to the PNMs. They’ll hopefully be in for a sweet surprise! For today’s recruitment treat, we’ll be making sugar cookies from scratch. Though it may be less time consuming to simply use a Pillsbury roll, cookies made from scratch have the kind of flavor that not all cookies can capture (and how proud of yourself will you be after you’ve finished them up?)

The recipe that I’ve provided below makes four-dozen cookies (probably enough for one rotation of PNMs), but doubling or even tripling the recipe shouldn’t be a huge ordeal.

Homemade Sugar Cookies: Made with all the love of a sorority girl!

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients Include:

Two 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

One teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

One cup softened butter

One 1/2 cups white sugar

One egg

One teaspoon vanilla extract

All of these ingredients can be found in small and bulk amounts at your local supermarket.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)

2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder

3. In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar until smooth

4. Add egg and vanilla extract into the large bowl

5. Combine the contents of both bowls gradually, kneading the ingredients

6. Separate dough into pieces and roll them up into balls.* Place onto ungreased cookie sheet

7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven, or until golden

8. Remove and let cool

*If you were planning on making these little beauties into the shapes of your letters, replace this step with the Greek cookie cutters instead!

Once you've finished baking, your cookies should look a little something like this:

Look at them little golden brown nuggets.

But don't stop there! They're so boring, aren't they? And no one wants to serve boring sugar cookies to potentials. So what can you do to spice them up? Here are a couple of pictures I've found of various decorating ideas and the like to help you out.

Sprinkles!

Flower power!

Greek letters, man.

Aww yea, no one can resist these guys.

Bake Greek has some pretty awesome tutorials that would be great for decorating. They're easy to follow and really fun to execute (I know, I've tried!)

Now, if baking from scratch is too time consuming (and, with how stressful recruitment can be, this is a possibility), there's no shame in buying a couple rolls of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie dough. Each 16.5 oz roll makes approximately 16 cookies, but it shouldn't be hard to squeeze 20 out of the roll. The instructions are on the sides of the rolls and only takes about 15 minutes to finish up.

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think I'm gonna end up making my roommate take me out for some cookie dough in a minute or two... I hope recruitment has been going well! Congratulations to all of the new member classes that have been established and all of the beautiful new sisters to come!

It's Basically a Fruit Salad... On a Stick!

Hey, y'all, it's Amanda Ramirez here! I'd like to say, first: thanks for checking out the Little Problems Blog! We appreciate each and every one of you, and hope you're here to stay!

Now, onto the post :)

We've decided on some interesting things for us to present to you and, today, I'm gonna be showcasing some cute, generic snack ideas for the upcoming recruitment season.

Now, it's probably easiest to think of small, easily accessible snacks (remember to stay away from things that most people are allergic to, like strawberries or nuts!) Less is always more, and it's definitely more affordable. One of the ideas that my organization's Recruitment Chair has come up with are Fruit Kabobs, which are incredibly easy to make. Here's the recipe for anyone who's interested!

Fruit Kabobs: It's basically a fruit salad... On a stick!
Prep Time: Approximately 30 minutes (depending on how many you plan to make)
Cook Time: N/A

Since Recruitment yields anywhere from 100-1,000 girls (depending on the size of your school and how many organizations there are to choose from), you're going to want to make these kabobs small, so  I suggest making them 6-inch skewers instead of the typical 10-inch. It makes it more affordable and easy to transport.

Ingredients Include:
Strawberries*
Cantaloupe pieces
Mandarin Orange pieces
Pineapple pieces
Kiwi or Honeydew Melon pieces
Blueberries
Any other fruit you might want to include

Most of these fruits can be found pre-cut in any supermarket.

*Strawberry Allergies!!! Be very careful!

Directions:
1. If using wooden skewers, make sure that all splinters and frayed wood are removed from the skewers (usually by rubbing two of them together between your palms)
2. Cut any fruit that is not already small in 1-inch, or bite size, chunks
3. Skewer the fruits in any assortment that you wish. You can make them uniform, or just have fun with it. Maybe make a rainbow.

You finished product should look a little something like this:

Always make sure there's room on both ends to hold the kabobs.

You can have fun with them, too! Some organizations buy ribbons in their colors and tie them onto one end, or you could even splurge and buy colored, plastic skewers (which eliminates step one entirely!) It's not too hard to make things cute for cheap, so never be afraid to push those boundaries and think of new ways to spice things up!

Remember: the way to a PNM's heart is probably through her stomach (because who doesn't love to eat?)

That's all for today, ladies! I hope this first recipe was helpful. Be sure to come back soon for new ideas and for all the amazing things we have planned for you!

Welcome Back to Recruitment

 
Every chapter has their own ceremonies, traditions and events, but there is one thing that every chapter has in common, recruitment.  Everyone seems to have a strong opinion about recruitment, whether they love it or hate it, its something that has to be done in order to make your chapter the best possible.  As an incoming senior I’ve experienced my fair share of recruitment on both sides of the fence, and over the years I have come to understand, and maybe not completely always enjoy, but appreciate everything that recruitment has to offer. 

There is the obvious, which is adding members to your chapter.  These girls not only boost your chapter total but they add to your family.  They become your littles, grand littles, or even great grand littles.  They create an image for your chapter on campus and even though it’s hard to imagine, those incoming freshman will be the ones that can make or break everything you have been working toward and will be the ones leading your chapter one day. 

Though the goal of recruitment is to add new members, a common misunderstanding is recruitment isn’t all about them. I come from a large school with a lot of girls in my chapter and though everyone tries their best, it is hard to get to know everyone during the year.  When recruitment rolls around, that all changes.  Everyone spends two weeks together, basically 24/7 working toward the common goal of having the best recruitment week ever, but what also ends up happening this week is that everyone learns more about each other and themselves.  

This is the time that you hang out with girls you might not necessarily hang out with, and you become even closer with the ones you do.  It’s where you learn songs that you will never get out of your head.  Dress up in crazy outfits to boost moral, and try to win that coveted tank top for most spirit.  You share funny stories and your deepest secrets.  You laugh, you cry (happy tears of course) and you become closer with your “sisters” than ever before.  This is the time that your sorority becomes your family and at the end of the week your family gets a little larger.  

Though recruitment can be daunting and stressful, and sometimes even seem unimportant.  Recruitment is a memory you will always look back on fondly and remember the laughs you had, the bonds you made and the sisters you gained along the way. So whatever you do, don’t take the week for granted, though your sisterhood last a lifetime, college and recruitment does not.

XOXO- Taylor S