At It Again

It is May – right?  I thought so, however our warm, spring like weather has turned unseasonably cold and wet.  Temperatures the last two days have been in the 40’s and that is just not like May in Texas.  We desperately needed the rain, the water companies have already mailed out their water rationing dates, leading into summer.  All this miserable, wet, grey weather compels me to do, is bake.  Yep, put on my sweats, my fuzzy slippers, preheat the oven and bake something.

Ever since I made the, ummmm..excuse me, chocolate chip cookies with Crisco, I’ve wanted to try yet another chocolate chip recipe.  After my first post about those cookies, I received the recipe my mother-in-law used.  Holy moly, it calls for the unspeakable again!  Crisco!  I tell you it’s not food. I cannot conceive how I still had one slab of that butter tasting stuff in my cupboard but I did.  Best to use it up and clear that space for something that actually resembles food.  My sister-in-law told me that her mom said the recipe she used was the one on the back of the Nestle Toll House bag of chips.  Not true, the recipe on the bag calls for 2 sticks of butter – no Crisco!  No disrespect to anyone involved but the recipes are different in this aspect as well as a couple of others.

There is only one way to get to the bottom of this cookie recipe dilemma, bake a batch.  I smiled the entire time I was baking, in my sweats and fuzzy slippers.  Earlier in the day I was faking my smiles as we ran around taking care of errands in the cold, windy, rotten weather.  I found myself consumed with trying this recipe and if I was going to be chilly I wanted to be chillin’ in the kitchen.  It is relaxing to measure, stir and drop blobs of dough on cookie sheets. It’s darn near impossible to turn out a batch of chocolate chips cookies that won’t get devoured around here so no matter what, it wouldn’t be a waste.

I decided to make half a batch in case they weren’t totally delicious.  They went together quickly, when Crisco is used there is no need to wait for the butter to soften.  In went the first sheet and out it came, all golden and yummy smelling.  After a few minutes of cooling, Miss T, adoring hubby and I all tried one, still warm and melty.   Drum roll please …………………….GOOD not GREAT.  Not the best chocolate chip cookies ever, not like my mother-in-laws, certainly good enough to eat the entire jar full, but still not exactly what I’m looking for.  I’ll continue my quest for the best ever chocolate chip cookie.  If you have a recipe that you regard as that cookie, set me up so I can move on to other food adventures in my kitchen.  Meantime, half of the cookies I made have been eaten and time was not wasted, especially since I smiled!

This weather is not conducive to bee keeping tasks so I have no new reports.  I’m certain my girls are busy in the hives the last couple of days, turning pollen into honey, feeding brood, cleaning house, eerrrr, hive and catering to the queen’s every need.  Poor darlings are likely clustered together in the hive taking turns staying warm when they aren’t busy at the tasks I mentioned.  Bees are not safe out and about when rain and hail are present. Think about that for a minute, the size of a bee and the size of large rain drops and hail, the poor things would get hammered and they are too smart to subject themselves to that.

Enjoy!

Virginia’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Crisco
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
6 oz. chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped nuts, if you wish ( I used almonds)

Mix together sugars, beat in Crisco until mixture is creamy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  In separate bowl stir dry ingredients together.  Gradually add to sugar mixture and beat until well blended; stir in chips and nuts.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake at 375* for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown.