Who's cookin?

If you are giving up chocolate or sweets for Lent, I will go on and apologize right now. 'Cuz if you keep reading, you might get a huge hankerin' for some of these Yum-O chocolate chip "picnic cookies"!

And before I go on even more, I want to give a huge shout out to Hollee, my sweet friend from college who designed my new header! I love it and it gives the blog such a clean, crisp look (I think). Thanks Hollee!

Oh, and be sure to check out the winner of the shakers at the end of the post!

Here's what you need: the recipe (as found below) or this awesome cookbook,
and the following ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup, 2 T. flour
6 oz. chocolate chips

Can you see the excitement on his face?
You might be wondering, why are you posting this recipe for chocolate chip cookies? Well . . . the main reason is because they only make about 15 cookies! Many of you might think, that's a bad thing - you can never have too many chocolate chip cookies! However, when you love them as much as I do, and your husband doesn't eat sweets (crazy I know) and your three year old only gets them when he eats a decent meal (which isn't often), GUESS WHO eats (almost) the entire batch of cookies?? I'm not going to answer that question. I like to bake, but because of the aforementioned problem(s), I only bake when I can give it away.

Another reason - I love this cookbook (and so does Lawton)! Santa brought it to him for Christmas and on a weekly basis he will get it out and peruse it saying, "What can we make today, Mommy?" It is very kid friendly, has good basic recipes, and each step is illustrated with Poppy and Sam. If you are familiar with Usborne books, then you will know who Poppy and Sam are and their Farmyard Tales. If not - these are great books!

If you have been looking for a good Children's Cookbook, I recommend this one. You can buy it HERE. Here's a look at the inside . . .
Here' s why you should do it: First of all, the end product should be reason enough. Ha! But, it gives you a good opportunity to spend some quality time with your child, and it gives them a good basic knowledge of cooking! They will learn some math (measurement) and work on some motor skills (stirring, sifting, dumping, etc). I'm not afraid for my son to be cooking in the kitchen . . . his wife will LOVE me one day - and who knows - he could be the next Ace of Cakes!

Alright - the details . . .

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. The cookbook says to grease your cookie sheets - I just lined mine with parchment paper (did you know this is the secret to fabulous cookies?)

2. Put the sugar, brown sugar and the butter into a large mixing bowl. Stir them together really well with a wooden spoon.

3. Continue stirring them together briskly. You are trying to get the mixture as smooth and as creamy as you can. (Make sure you stick out your tongue as illustrated to get the mixture smooth and creamy! ha!)

4. Break the egg into a small bowl and beat it well. Pour the vanilla into a measuring spoon, then mix it in with the egg.

5. Pour the eggy mixture into the mixing bowl and stir it in (using a wooden spoon). Then sift the flour into the bowl and stir the mixture.

6. When you have a smooth mixture, stir in 4 oz. of the chocolate chips. You'll use the rest of them later. ( I just dumped - and I'm sure more than 4 oz! Who knows what 4 oz. looks like - and can you have too many chocolate chips? ummm . . . no!)

7. Put a heaped tablespoon of the mixture onto a baking sheet. Use up the rest of the mixture.

8. Flatten each cookie slightly with the back of a fork.

Sprinkle the top of each one with some of the remaining chocolate chips.

9. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes, until they are pale golden brown. They should still be slightly soft in the middle.

10. Leave the cookies for a few minutes, then use a spatula to lift them onto a wire rack. Leave them to cool . . . and try not to inhale them all with a nice, big, tall, cool glass of milk! Yummy!

Just so you know . . . Lawton did not eat his spaghetti for dinner that night (which he loves) and didn't touch the ONE meatball we required him to eat. Meanwhile, Carolina inhaled FOUR meatballs! (diced up, of course) So. . . Lawton didn't even get to eat his cookies that night! I sent them to his school to share for snack - the temptation was too great for me!

And what was Carolina doing while we were baking? Trying to find any crumb she could under her high chair! :)

Alright, for the winner of the (very small) giveaway -

#22 Leah J!!!

e-mail me at chadandlaurabeth(at)yahoo(dot)com so I can mail you your shakers!

Thanks everyone for entering!

Guess what? I just decided to give away one of these cookbooks because I love it so much!

Leave a comment - and spread the word to your friends! Thanks for stopping by - winner will be announced on Saturday!