after a day like yesterday i think we could all use a treat! so here is the long over-due recipe for mini mo's delicious, delectable oh so original and royal but royalty free chocolate chip cookies! they were promised BEFORE the quiltin' directions and i am trying to do the catchin' up in order. maybe you can whip some of these up and they'll be ready for you to munch while you read about the quiltin'. and anyone who sends in a photo of a member of their family eating a freshly baked mini mo chocolate chip cookie will be forgiven for not doing the first two assignments - to date i have received not one shot of a collaged box or piece of printed fabric. should i take this as some kind of sign that i should just stick to braggin' about my doo dads? i'll have to ponder that a while....hmmm....guess i'll give you the mini mo chocolate chip cookie recipe first.
mini mo started cooking as soon as she was allowed to use her own feet to carry her from place to place. she has been so adored from the minute she arrived and i felt so very lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful gift...well...i might as well come clean....i was an over-protective ninny. it didn't help that the one time i tried to make her sleep in her crib all night (or else she would be damaged for life i was told), we had that whoppin' big earthquake here in the LA area. or that i don't think her father had ever seen a baby before and certainly didn't know how easily they could break. i often realized he was carrying her in the little bucket thingy they ride in for so long UPSIDE DOWN. so for a very long time i carried her from place to place for fear she might step on something that would hurt her princess little feet. but too soon for my liking she escaped from the ride and started scurrying from place to place.
her first feat of freedom was mastering the mouse and keyboard two days after her second birthday. during breaks from her 'putering' she decided it was time to learn to cook. this was fine with me since i made it clear to her father long before we married that i did not cook
nor did i clean and to expect otherwise would be the kiss of death. when she first started she had a willing assistant - a housekeeper we had for the longest time that spoke absolutely no english and was so horrible at her job that we had to hire someone else to do her work. but mini mo loved her and she adored mini mo and so the baking began. some how they were able to chatter away in two different languages. she still calls mini mo from time to time and they are miraculously able to communicate vital information back and forth.
from about that time until the body snatcher took over mini mo about a month or so ago, there were concoctions at various stages of 'cooked' in our kitchen. unfortunately, many items would be baked for one of the cats or dogs or imaginary friends and we weren't allowed to touch them. this is when i mastered the art of flipping a cake up ever so slightly and eating the whole middle part with absolutely no sign of damage to the outside. i was never caught, unless you count the pounds of punishment i accumulated.
the fabulous mini mo chocolate chip cookies came about by accident since she started trying to make things from scratch before she could read (and of course the non-english speaking assistant wasn't able to help in this area). as she got older she discovered a shorter version
for them and that is what i am giving you here. they are so quick to make and won't make too big a mess unless it is mini mo making them. when she makes even a sandwich the kitchen is destroyed.
here's what you need:
a box of chocolate chip cookie mix...the kind we like to use best comes in one of those bag type things - flat on the bottom and i think is made by duncan hines...but we have used them all and have never had bad cookies! if you are really needin' your cookies fast and all you have
is one of those rolls of chocolate chip dough (i used to carry one in my backpack in college for a quick snack between classes)it will work too - just bang the roll - in the wrapper of course - against the cabinet a few times to make it softer - then dump it in a bowl and mash it up a bit so the other stuff will mix into it okay.
the cookie mix usually calls for oil, water and a couple of eggs. mini mo and i really like to eat the dough so we use egg beaters instead of real eggs so we won't die from whatever it is the raw egg is supposed to give you.
the secret mini mo ingredients are:
a small splash of real vanilla
a small splash of almond extract
about a cup of the old fashioned oatmeal (you know - the kind in the round cardboard container with the man on it)
some of those teeny chocolate chips
once you have all your goodies in the house, pre-heat the oven to 325 or whatever the cookie mix directions say to set it to.
rip open the cookie mix and dump it into a mixing bowl. add whatever the package tells you to add. throw in mini mo's secret ingredients. stir it all up until everything is all mixed together - no powdery lumps or clumps please.
it is now necessary, if you used the egg beaters, to eat a number of blobs of dough to make sure you feel you got it all right.
mini mo likes to use parchment paper to cook cookies on because she says when she uses cookie sheets with the pam spray,all the extra that lands on the floor makes her slip and fall. if you are better at hitting your target than mini mo, a cookie sheet and pam is fine. we use a small ice cream scoop to plop the dough on the cookie sheet.
put them in the oven and set the timer for about eleven minutes. the rest is up to your personal preference. i like my cookies soft so mini mo takes my dozen out at around the time the eleven minutes is up. she likes hers crisp so she leaves her cookie sheet in a little longer. her daddy will eat them any way they are made so we just give him the ones we have left when we have eaten so many we feel sort of sick. sometimes that means he doesn't get ANY.
we have also experimented by using butterscotch chips or peanut butter chips and have even used m&ms from time to time. but mini mo and i agree we always prefer them our original way. the chips we like best are the milk chocolate ones from giradelli's (not sure that's how it's spelled but you know the ones). they are dangerous to have around though as they are delicious without the cookie surrounding them.
martha and others always tell you how long they will keep and under what conditions to keep them...but you know - we can't tell you that because there are never any left to keep anywhere.
one last thing - we always keep a container of the cookie dough in the freezer. it's always a nice treat to give someone special (yourself) a hot chocolate chip cookie when they least expect it - if you hurl on some vanilla ice cream (mini mo makes that from scratch and keeps some in the freezer next to the dough) you are instantly a hostess to be reckoned with. and for those of you who like to eat chocolate chip cookie dough - you haven't had it right until you've had a blob of mini mo's frozen.
i hope you will all attempt THIS project. if not i may just have to throw up my hands in despair and give up on getting you to step away from the computer to do some other things now and then.
