Chocolate Chip Cookies... Just Because

I'm really excellent at finding excuses to cook... Because I love to cook, and I love to bake, and I love to feed people.

And in the last few days? An 86-proof chocolate birthday cake, pasta with roasted squash and tomatoes for two, lemon squares for an Oscars party, margaritas and tacos for six.

Then cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. No excuses needed.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Adapted from Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick butter, softened to the consistency of toothpaste
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour and baking soda in a bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl with a hand mixer until creamy.  Beat in the egg. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Bake for 11 minutes, or until the middles are golden brown and the edges are darker. Cool the cookies for one minute on the baking sheet, then move them to wire racks with a spatula. Makes approximately 20 large cookies... if you don't eat all the batter first...

Best Tuesday Night Ever

Cupcake Decorating Class, Tuesday, 6pm, Isabelle's Curly Cakes. 

Cupcakes to decorate....

 And cupcakes to take home. 

My favorite? Red velvet. I'm a sucker for cream cheese frosting.

Super Bowl Sunday

10:30am. I'm bouncing at the start line of the Super Sunday 5 Mile race. It's twenty-five degrees and I'm trying to stay warm. The race director says a few words, finishes with "It's cold as shit," and the start gun goes off. 

The first mile makes me question why I'm here. The cold air hurts and my hamstrings are tight. Do I want this? And then I hit the first mile marker and I can't believe my split... 6:54. Can that be right?

The next split is good too and, somewhere between miles 2 and 3, I start to want this race. I want it bad. I'm not thinking and I'm barely aware of the course... rounding the corner by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, sprinting through Inman Square, breathing hard between Cambridgeside and Kendall.

I cross the finish line 49 seconds under my goal time.