Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sweets, the boys, and I were sitting at the dinner table on Wednesday.  We’d enjoyed a tasty meal, courtesy of Sweets’ fantastic cooking, and were all slouched back in our chairs, contemplating unbuttoning that top button while we chatted about our respective days.

Hockey in on hiatus.  Lacrosse is going strong.  High school is high school with thirty days to go until summer and neither boy can wait, particularly the senior.  Listening to them tease each other always makes me smile.  Because they make me smile….

Me: “I think we need cookies tonight.”

Boys: (Suddenly upright in their respective seats) “Yes!”

Sweets:  “What kind?”

Me: “Toll House.”  (Actually my version of Toll House…same recipe, different chocolate)

Boys: “Yes!”

Sweets:  “It’s already after 8 o’clock.  Are you sure?”

Me:  “Oh.  Crap.  Okay.  Tomorrow then.”

Hockey Boy: “What??  Why not tonight?”

Me:  “It’s too late.  I’ve still got to do the dishes.”

Hockey Boy: “We’ll do the dishes!”  (Volunteering his brother while he’s at it…)

Lacrosse Boy:  “What?  Dishes?  Uh, no.  I’ve got homework…yeah.  Homework.  Lots of homework.”

Sweets and I rolled our eyes.  We’d just finished a discussion on how little homework Lacrosse Boy swore he had.  But apparently, when one is a high school senior, homework is the lesser of  two evils compared with dish-washing duty.  Who knew?

Hockey Boy: “Geez.  Lazy.  Okay.  I’ll do your dish job…I’ll dry, so you can bake cookies.”

Me: “That’s sweet, but I wash.  Your father dries.”

Hockey Boy:  (Getting exasperated…and desperate for cookies)  “Fine.  I’ll wash!”  (Note: he had finished all his homework when he came home from school.)

Sweets:  (Smiling.)  “I’ll wash.  You can dry.  And you can bake.”

Me:  “Perfect.”

And I got exactly what I wanted out of the exchange.

No dish duty.

I baked 4-1/2 dozen (cookie dough taste testers keep me from an even 5 dozen). By the next morning, we were down to 2 dozen...

As I said above, I use the Toll House cookie recipe but I use Ghirardelli chocolate chips instead of Nestle.  Sometimes I use dark chocolate or bittersweet instead of semi-sweet.  Depends on the choice made by the prospective eaters.  I’m not posting the recipe here since it’s on the back of every bag of Nestle Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels.  If you’d rather use another brand of chocolate, and don’t have a bag of Nestle’s in the cupboard, the recipe is easily found via Google.  Yes.  I’m being lazy, just like Lacrosse Boy.