Best Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I'm not the cook in our family. When my husband and I were first married I tried to cook. It was very frustrating to me. The ideas were easy to come by, but the timing of it all seemed to get me. Don't get me wrong, I'm familiar with all the techniques and reading recipes. Occasionally I venture into the kitchen to bake some muffins or something fancy like an apple tart. I'm good at making eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches. I can make some pretty good soups too if I set my mind to it. But I feel like all the mental focus it takes doesn't make the end product worth it. I'm pretty certain that if I was left to my own devices I would eat more salads and peanut butter sandwiches.

My husband on the other hand seems to make cooking look so easy. He makes some incredible food, just on a daily basis. His latest claim to fame is making the best chocolate cookies ever!

Our son requests them as his treat to take to preschool. If I'm home when my husband is making these, they are the absolute best when they first come out of the oven.

He found the recipe on epicurious.com. They are perfect!

Yield: Makes about 28 large (4 1/2-inch) cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (16 ounces)
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment or wax paper.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Lightly beat 1 egg with a fork in a small bowl and add 1 3/4 tablespoons of it plus 2 remaining whole eggs to butter mixture, beating with mixer until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and mix in flour mixture until just blended, then stir in chips.
Scoop 1/4 cup batter for each cookie, arranging mounds 3 inches apart, on 2 baking sheets. Flatten mounds into 3-inch rounds using moistened palm of your hand. Form remaining cookies on additional sheets of parchment.
Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool and continue making cookies in same manner using cooled baking sheets.

Cooks' note: Cooled cookies keep in an airtight container at room temperature 3 days.

A Beautiful Bouquet!

I ran across this beautiful photo the other day....

It's one of the most stunning bouquets of flowers I've ever seen.

Rosemary AND Citrus?

It probably smells as wonderful as it looks!

A perfect winter day brightener.

Getting Started

As I've talked about before, I love lists. I like to make lists and I like to cross things off lists. I like grocery lists, books to read lists, plants I'd like to plant lists, things I should clean lists, possible names for our next baby lists. It goes on and on. Sometimes the lists are little scribbles on scrap paper in the bottom of my purse. Sometimes they are charted out in fancy spreadsheets. Sometimes they are intricate, detailed ideas that are in my head.

As the impending arrival of our third child gets closer and closer....around twelve weeks from now, my head is full of lists of things I'd like to accomplish. Some of these things are probably ideas that if they aren't fully completed, life will go on just fine. But some of these ideas, if not accomplished before she arrives might be nearly impossible to complete for possibly years.

I really want to get a little girl's room ready as much as possible before she gets here. That means painting walls and trim and switching bedroom furniture around upstairs. Those simple ideas led us to move our boys in the same room last week. But switching the bedroom furniture around means going through everyone's clothes to see what doesn't fit or what isn't being worn. It means having to find some temporary storage for baby blankets and books. I have thoughts of being able to paint the room in a weekend, but then I start to get overwhelmed with all the other things to do and then I start to fizzle out.

I ran across the following quote that inspired me:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it, boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."
--Goethe

I'm ready! But now where should I start?