Chocolate chip

We had dinner at a friend's house last night and it was a terrific time. In typical fashion, the kids (nine of them) quickly finished the business of consuming their pepperoni pizza and spent the rest of the evening running around in a happy frenzy between indoors and outdoors, upstairs and downstairs, wielding light sabers, swords, and Nerf guns... you get the picture. Morgan was a good sport about being the only teenager in attendance. She maintained a fine balance between politely chatting with the adults and alternately promoting mayhem with her brothers and the other younger kids.

The grown-up food and wine faire included an herb-stuffed pork tenderloin roast with truffle sauce, asparagus risotto, a tossed fields green salad and a goodly cheese platter paired with a couple of bottles of syrah and pinot noir. The children certainly enjoyed running around like maniacs while the adults maintained a more stationary venue at the dining room table--- but we still rivaled the kids in the amount of fun we had with such good company and food to enjoy.

Earlier, I broke out the ol'rolling pin & mixer and made an apple pie and some chocolate chip cookies to bring for dessert. Of course with something as basic as a chocolate chip cookie, everyone has their own personal preferences for taste and texture. For instance, Green Girl in Wisconsin has made mention that she likes her chocolate chip cookies to be crisp on the outside and gooey inside. I happen to like eating the cookie dough as much the cookies themselves. So I'd say my favorite would be a very dense cookie that's baked only just long enough to cancel any rawness of egg--- with chocolate kept from becoming overly melted, and cookie kept from becoming overly brown (Air Bake cookie sheets are great for this.) Mike's mom gave me this recipe when I was still a newlywed and I've been making these lil' suckers for the past 16 years now:

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bake 325 degrees for about 12-14 minutes
(Cookies will not appear completely set until they've cooled)
Makes about 2 1/2 to 3 dozen

Ingredients in order:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
(Cream butter and sugar then add:)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 packet instant oatmeal (1.5 oz.)
(Mix these ingredients then add:)
3 1/4 cups flour
1 Package milk chocolate chips or M&M's (11.5 oz.)

P.S. My fave chocolate baking chips: Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate



Bon appetit, fellow dough-lovers! What's your favorite cookie?