Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

So, I know this post features a fairly lofty title, but these cookies turned out perfectly. I've been searching for a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I know will work - every time. And here it is. If you're a person who doesn't like chewy-in-the-middle, melt-in-your-mouth, pee-your-pants-a-little-because-you're-so-happy cookies, then you probably won't like these. The rest of you will.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

(adapted from recipe at food.com)

Ingredients:

-3/4 cup white sugar

-1 cup brown sugar

-1 cup butter, room temperature

-1 tbsp vanilla (use the real stuff)

-2 eggs

-3 cups flour

-3/4 tsp baking soda

-3/4 tsp salt

-1 bag milk chocolate chocolate chips (the best are the Guittard brand - they are HUGE chunks of
chocolatey goodness)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter & sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).

2. Add eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, beating thoroughly after each addition.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined. Add gradually to creamed mixture while mixing.

4. Stir in chocolate chips.

5. Roll into balls and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes & move onto cooling rack.

Eat warm, cold, in the rain, in the sunshine, in bed late at night, standing up, sitting down - you're not going to want to stop.

3-Ingredient Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't LOVE pumpkin chocolate chip cookies? I know I'm not that person. Really, I love pumpkin ANYthing... but there's something about the delicious combo of semisweet chocolate and gooey pumpkin that I simply can't resist. I wanted to make some the other day, and realized I didn't have flour. Bummer. But, I had cake mix. I thought, "Surely there's a way to make these cookies with cake mix!" And you better believe, friends, there's a way. You can make these delicious cookies with the following ingredients:

Cake Mix Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 box cake mix (Preferably spice cake mix, but I used yellow and it was still delicIOUS)
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree
1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

Okay, here it goes... Mix the cake mix & pumpkin puree. Since I used yellow cake mix, I did add a few extra ingredients to spice it up (but I'm sure these cookies would be delicious either way) - 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. allspice. Add the chocolate chips (I used about 2/3 of the bag, and there were plenty). Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet (don't even worry about making them look pretty). Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Bottle Post

Recently, by watching "Community," I learned what a bottle episode is. I think Wikipedia defines it well:

The term bottle episode or bottleneck episode is used in episodic television to refer to episodes which are produced using the least money. The majority of a television series' budget generally goes into producing episodes meant to pique audience interest, such as season openers and closers; bottle episodes are produced using whatever money is left over. Most bottle episodes are shot on sets already built for other episodes, frequently the main interior sets for a series, and they consist largely of dialogue or scenes for which no special preparations are needed.

That being said, I'm pretty much broke right now. And no money=not as many fun cooking projects. So, this post is to kind of bridge the gap between paychecks. I'm linking some recipes from my personal blog, which have proved delicious in the past.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Focaccia Bread

Until the next pay period! (Which will actually be my food blog party this Sunday, so come if you can!)