Earlier this week my 3.5 year old, Lucas, and I were home alone… Unfortunately my lil guy has been sick and at his grandparents’ house and daddy was on a business trip. Just the two of us, what were we to do but bake COOKIES!!!

Since Lucas started having cooking classes at school, he has shown a real interest for helping in the kitchen so he was all for a little cookie making and eating of course!

To keep it simple, I decided we would make chocolate chip cookies. A good staple! So many people will say “I can’t bake!” or “Making something from scratch is too hard!” But if you can read you can follow a recipe. Now I am not saying everyone can make duck a l’orange but a basic cookie or pasta dish absolutely!

A basic chocolate chip recipe always reminds me of the Friends episode where Phoebe talks about her family cookie recipe that Monica so desperately wants. Long story short the recipe was destroyed but when Phoebe tells Monica the recipe was from her French great-grandmother “Nestle Toulhouse” they realize it was a basic recipe from Nestle Tollhouse!

For the cookies Lucas and I made I used Ghiardelli dark chocolate chips and the recipe they print on the package. Easy to follow, a few ingredients, a little time and you get a delicious cookie!

Ingredients
11 1/2 ounces Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)

Heat oven to 375ºF. Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside. In large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy and lightened in color. Add eggs and vanilla, one at a time. Mix on low speed until incorporated. Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: The 11 1/2 ounces of Bittersweet Chocolate Chips can be substituted with any variety of chip flavor (i.e.- Milk Chocolate Chips, Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, etc.)

Note: After the cookies are completely cooled you can store in a ziploc bag with wax paper between the layers of cookies and freeze. You can defrost the whole bag at room temperature until soft or an individual cookie in the microwave for a few seconds.