Why we bake

After 22 years in uniform, I came home with two things: a wife who never gave up on me, and a kitchen.

For the first eighteen months I couldn't sleep more than three hours. The flashbacks weren't the worst part — the worst part was the silence in between. So I started baking at 2am.

It turns out flour is patient. You can be a mess and the dough doesn't mind. You can cry into the bowl and the cookies still come out.

That's what Cookies and Shipp is, really. It's 28 different stories I needed to tell, and a way to send 5% of every order to other vets who are still figuring out how to come home.