c is for

Cookies

And that's good enough for me.

Okay, true confessions. According to my outline, I was supposed to write about chocolate today. It truly is a wonderful and marvelous thing. However, I've previously established that if there is to be a heaven, it will surely have heap loads o' chocolate.

So instead, I am going to write about cookies. I blame Coworker for changing my plans in this manner.

It started on Friday when she tried to convince everyone in the office that I keep a stash of cookies. Though they ravaged my office, they did not find any. So ha!

But later that afternoon, I did pop over to the Chevron next door and get some Oreos (Double Stuf, of course) and Nilla Wafers.

The other reason Coworker is responsible for the cookies post is because I was over at her place yesterday for a little gathering. I brought cookies. Her husband really liked the cookies. He even moved across the room so as to put some distance between him and the plate of cookies. For some reason, even bolstered by the distance, his willpower was still insufficient to overcome the allure of the cookies.

That is because I bake cookies with my mother's recipe. They're truly the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. And there is a family secret to them. To be honest, though, I have no idea what that secret is. My mom can bake them. I can bake them. My sister can bake them. My cousin cannot bake them. Anyone we've given the recipe to has not been able to bake them. This is not a secret recipe; we got it off the back of the Nestle Toll House Chips bag.

Coworker and I got into a discussion about this. It's interesting to me that there is something about how we bake them that makes them immune to duplication.

So I have decided to throw down the Edgy Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge. I'll post the recipe here, and you can bake the cookies at home. If you think you've succeeded in reproducing the yumminess that is these cookies, you can send me the cookies. I'll eat them and offer my feedback. Sure, it's a sacrifice to eat so many cookies, but I will do that for you.

• 1 c shortening
  
• 3/4 c sugar
  
• 3/4 c brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
  
• 1 tsp water
  
• 2 1/4 c flour
  
• 1 12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream shortening and sugars. Add eggs and mix until creamy. Add salt, baking soda, vanilla, and water. Add flour, then add chocolate chips. (Dough should be stiff.) Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes or until light brown. Remove from cookie sheets to wire racks to cool.

This post has been brought to you by Cyndi Lauper and Robert Cormier. Choosing this post's sponsors was difficult for me. For one thing, how does one choose between Celine, Cher, and Cyndi? That's right. One doesn't. We appreciate them for their unique and special gifts. I have chosen to highlight Cyndi, however, because her new album rocks. She revisits acoustically many of her earlier songs and brings in guest artists. Good, good stuff.

And I love Robert Cormier. I was introduced to him during my young adult lit class with Chris Crowe. The girls in the class hated him. Well, they hated The Chocolate War anyway. But I thought it was powerful. Deeply disturbing, don't get me wrong, but powerful. True, there are very few teens whom I would actually recommend the book to, especially without reading and discussing it with an adult, but that doesn't make it any less amazing.

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