Happy New Year!

Okay - I am just going to say that I don’t like it when New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday.  I am a huge fan of parties, and staying up late on a Saturday night just doesn’t work since we have church the next day.  My kids need their sleep, and, as a matter of fact, so does my husband.  I could use a little here and there, myself! :)  I have become more of a social person  than ever before, and I dislike having to go to bed on New Year’s Eve without having partied just a little!  Oh well, there is always next year.  I know most of you are in the same dilemma… Here’s to staying home and snoring in the New Year! Huzzah!  Huzzah!  Huzzah! :)

My husband is going to be at an evangelists’ conference this week.  Unfortunately, the conference coincides with his birthday, so we will be apart for this milestone anniversary.  It’s a big one! Hee hee!  I decided to make his favorite confection in honor of his birthday – chocolate chip cookies.  These are not just any chocolate chip cookies, either – they are the best ever!  At least, that is what he told me.  This is not another brag session.  In fact, it started in a most humiliating way.  Years ago (cue the dreamy music), when we were first married, I made chocolate chip cookies for my husband.  He at them and, after polishing off the entire batch, told me they were not the best he’d ever eaten.  I was rather offended, in a new-bride-like way.  How dare he criticize my offering of love.  See if I ever made cookies for him again! Humph!  He then proceeded to tell me that the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies was the Nestle original recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag.  I was highly skeptical and reluctant to even try the recipe, since my recipe had been so maligned, but my sweet, docile temperament won out and I eventually made “his” recipe.  To my great surprise, they actually were better! (Yes, it did hurt to admit it at first.)

Now, eleven years later, I am still making those same CCC’s, as we call them.  The page in my recipe book is spotted and smeared with use, but it doesn’t change the outcome of the recipe.  And it doesn’t change the beatific  smile on his face whenever he tastes one hot out of the oven.  By the way, that is the only way to eat CCC’s!  My children love them, and now Abigail is almost able to make them by herself.  No wonder she is Daddy’s girl!  I have discovered that the type of pan on which you bake the cookies can affect the consistency.  The best pans are the round, gray, pizza pans.  The cookies do not spread too much or too thin (like they do on the airbake pans), and they maintain their soft, chewy texture.  Yum!  My resolution for today is not to eat too many of them! :)