This was a young Troop. It had a few older, experienced Scouts, but mostly it was made up of Tenderfoots. From the stories she'd been told by her sons and the leaders, the food at the campouts was the embodiment of what, in Scouting circles, is known as Tenderfoot Cooking - a dreaded term given to food prepared by Scout cooks with little experience. She'd heard the tales of biscuits dropped in ashes, rubbery eggs that bounced off your plate, and burned potatoes that crunched with every bite. She felt especially sympathetic toward the adult Leaders who got to partake of this food when a budding Scout cook followed the words of the requirement in the Scout Handbook which directed him to "Prepare a meal and serve it to your Scoutmaster."

She never said exactly why, but, for whatever reason, Kathy decided to make cookies. Not just ordinary little cookies that sat on a plate and waited for you to notice them. Kathy made COOKIES! Big, round, thick, cookies the size of a small plate. Cookies that were sprinkled with colored sugar and then baked to a golden brown perfection. Kathy made a cookie that a Scout could enjoy! She made a cookie that a Scoutmaster could enjoy! Kathy made a cookie that could quickly replace the taste and the memory of Tenderfoot Cooking!

When Kathy delivered her creations, the smiles of both Scouts and Leaders told her she had chosen wisely. The cookies quickly disappeared into hungry mouths. Not realizing what she had done, Kathy left the camp, finished her errands, and returned home. The baking was forgotten. At least, Kathy forgot it.

The Scouts however, returned from the campout with words of praise for Mrs. Faust's cookies. Other moms were told, "You HAVE to get her recipe!" Or, "They were the best cookies I ever ate!" When asked, Kathy protested that the recipe was just an ordinary sugar cookie recipe. "No," the Scouts insisted. "It was a special recipe."

Strangely, whenever one of the Scout moms makes her own sugar cookie recipe, but, cuts the cookies "small plate size", sprinkles them with colored sugar, and bakes them to a golden brown, her son(s) reply, "Great! You used Mrs. Faust's recipe! It's so much better."

We've all heard of the success of another Mrs. F. and her cookies. Debbie Fields took a simple cookie and built a cookie empire called Mrs. Fields Cookies. She did it with the best of ingredients, and with all it takes to build up a successful business.

Troop 421 claims their own "Mrs. F. and her cookies." She did things a little differently. She added an ingredient that money can't buy - and that made all the difference. The love she added didn't make Kathy Faust's cookies a financial success. But, it did make her a legend in her own time.

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