Thursday, October 18, 2007

Uber Mother Gives Out Her Secret Weapon

I was planning on writing either chapter II in the Grandmother series, or an addendum to Chapter I, but certain small people who live in my house were up very early today, making a great deal of noise. I am definitively NOT a morning person, so the rocket ship that they were building (or whatever the hell it was that they were banging on and yelling about)kept the Mom-person (Moi) from getting that much needed minimum of 6 hours of sleep. So anything I write in this stuporous state is bound to be crap-ish and mundane. My apologies. I also am called from the computer today by my Uber Mother duties; I have promised homemade chocolate chip cookies to my son's third grade class, and since it is my personal mission to expose all little children in my reach to the joys of home baked goodness (organic butter and eggs, bourbon vanilla, unbleached flour, etc. but don't mess with the chocolate, now), I must go anon, leaving a paltry post in my wake. If only I could post a cookie for everyone...hey! what about the recipe? If you want to try them, they're only a mixer away.

Okay, this is my mother's famous
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees*

In the mixing bowl (and I like to use a stand mixer to make this very fast and to cream my butter into submission) add:
2 sticks of butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
cream the bejesus out of this, then add:
2 eggs from a happy chicken, if possible
beat well, then add:
1/2 tsp. salt (I was using salted butter, or else this would be 1 tsp.)
1 tsp. baking soda added to 1 tsp. water - stir together and add in
2 overflowing tsp. of Bourbon vanilla
beat it again, then add:
1 and 1/2 cups of flour
beat it into the mix, then add:
2 cups old fashioned oatmeal (its nuttier and better for you)
ditto with the beating it in, then add:
2 overflowing cups of semi sweet chocolate chips (my mother likes Ghiradelli these days, but I think they're kind of weird. the Nestle's ones are the best, I think)
again, mix them in until its all assimilated and whatnot, then:
scoop by heaping teaspoonfuls and drop on a buttered cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, but watch them - all ovens are different, and some ovens get hotter as they stay on longer. the cookies should be a nice golden brown all over. Transfer from pan to cooling rack, wait ten seconds, and inhale with cold milk.

*my dad likes to bake his at 350 because they stay more round and fat. I like them to spread out and become a bit thin and crispy. You do what you like, OK?

I have never met anyone who didn't dig these cookies - men are particularly easy prey with a box of these in hand. Ask my husband- I basically clunked him over the head, cave-woman style, with a box of these, and he's been my slave ever since (or something like that. He is harder to manage when I don't make them).

All right then, I'm off to the kitchen, and maybe you will be too.

1 comment:

OhTheJoys said...

Oh, the cookies!

The Lady Flabina loves you!