The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I know that a lot of recipes claim to be the best, but in all honesty, this is THE best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever tried. Everyone that has tried them agree (except for the time that I accidentally doubled the chips!).

I like my cookies just like the what I call, "Fake-Bake" cookies from Toll House. You know the kind, just break them apart, stick em on a sheet and voila! 10 minutes later you have cookies. One could say that I could just go the easy route and make those, but for the sake of actually baking something and sharing that fun with the kids, here's the perfect recipe to do just that.

These cookies come out thin, chewy in the center, and just a bit crispy around the edges. Oh, and they don't call for eggs but they do call for a lot of butter so I'm not claiming they are healthy by any means. If you're a vegetarian, however, these are the cookies just for you.


Thin, Crisp, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup salted butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
6 Tbs water (Yes, water. Don't leave it out!)
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. With an electric mixer combine butter, brown sugar, and sugar until well blended. Add water and the vanilla until smooth.
2. In another bowl, mix flower, baking soda, and salt. Beat into butter mixture until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Drop dough in 1-tbs portions, 2 inches apart, onto buttered baking sheets.
4. Bake in a 300 degree oven until edges of cookies are browned, but an area about 1 inch wide in the center is still pale, about 14 minutes.
5. With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool. If hot cookies start to break, slide a thin spatula under them to release, let stand on pan to firm up, 2 to 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.
6. Makes about.... well I don't know how many it makes because my family always eats them as I take them out of the oven! But it seems like I put about five batches in, so maybe about 60 cookies. Of course you can cut this recipe in half, but I always make a lot and take them to work or give some to friends.


You want to take them out of the oven when they look like this... because if you leave them in until they look done then they will be way too crunchy when they cool. Yes they will look gooey when you take them out, but trust me, fifteen minutes later they are perfect.

I hope you try the recipe. I can't remember where I found it but kudos to whomever posted it. It really is the best.

Enjoy! :)

Doll Quilt Swap

I am very excited to say that I've joined the Doll Quilt Swap III with my About.com Quilting Forum friends. I've got my partner and have drawn her quilt out already. I made a practice block last night and will have to make a few adjustments before I really get started. This weekend I hope to get a majority of it done.

If you don't know what a Doll Quilt Swap is then I'll tell you. :) A doll quilt is just a little decorative quilt. The size specs for this swap are 20x20 or 16x20 max. You are assigned a partner to make a quilt for and then someone else is assigned to make one for you. It's all a secret of who is making who's quilt and lots of fun. The mailing deadline is at the end of June so it wont be too much longer before I get pictures of that put up here.

I can't share what it might look like until it's done, but I will say that it's going to be using a lot of prints, very colorful, maybe a little busy, and with some of what I call, modern bohemian flare. I hope my partner likes it! :)

Family Visit & Updates

Gabe's family came to visit over Memorial Day weekend from Southern California. We went to Sequoia Park and the zoo, the duck pond, and to see the new Indiana Jones movie (Ohh Shia! Be still my beating heart!). We wanted to go to the Kinetic Grand Championship but the weather was too cold for them. While at home we watched movies and played with the kids. It was a fun weekend.

Lydia chose the kind of bag she wants me to make for her. She chose this messenger bag pattern from McCalls. I was going to try and make it while they were here but didn't feel confident I would be able to turn it out under pressure! I promised to have it done within the month... keep your fingers crossed for me. ;)

I've made one top for Kaylee out of the Tutti Frutti fabric but it still needs some buttons and buttonholes. It came out really good I think but a little tight. I meant to make a size 7 and accidentally cut part of it out as a 6. I'm not sure if my abilities will allow me to make the next one bigger by just adjusting the seam allowances or not, so I might end up buying the pattern again. I bet I wont be able to get it for 99 cents this time. =/

I got my hair cut last week. I went from really long, to medium, to short with highlights. You can't see them all in this picture, but they are really caramelish-blonde.

Baby Things for Dominic

The baby shower for Dominic was on Saturday and I was naturally cramming to finish his gifts. I had to finish a quilt, a small receiving blanket type quilt, and some bibs and burp cloths. Most of this stuff I did on Friday night after work. I picked up a triple shot white mocha on the way home and planned for a long night. Just how long it was going to be was unexpected.

The bib on the left side of the photo didn't turn out after it went through the wash. I guess I didn't get the binding on just right and some of it came unraveled from the fabric. It was my favorite one too. =(

Dominic's mom likes the "bean" shaped burp cloths so I drew up a shape and made some. The one in the middle has brown binding, and the one in the back is one that didn't fare well after the wash. *sigh* Nevertheless, I enjoyed playing with the burp cloths in the middle of the night in front of my bathroom mirror as they resembled the eye covers you wear when trying to sleep. Had I lost my mind? Yes, yes, I think I had.

Onto the quilt. I want to first say that I love this quilt. I'm really proud of it and it was a little weird when it came time to let it go. After all, I have been working (and not-working) on this thing for seven months. I finished the top in a couple of weekends in November and then the top sat until February because I was scared to quilt it. I finally quilted it by machine and then it sat for about another month before I got serious to finish it. I was hesitant to because of the furry fleece, but fear doesn't get you anywhere.

Cutting the furry fleece is like exploding a feather pillow and watching the feathers float around the room. I joked that the stuff was in my mouth, my nose, and in my eyes (but it really was!). Forging on, I tied the fleece on with embroidery floss, basted the edges and then attacked the binding. I started with a double fold binding (premade) but failed to make sure it was wide enough. It wasn't. I attached the thing to the front but it wouldn't fold over all the layers to cover the raw edges on the back. It was if the quilt was saying to me, "I wont go down so easily! Muahaha!" So I sat for about an hour and a half ripping it off. I tried to preserve it but ended up cutting it with my seam ripper (argh!). "You lose!" taunted the quilt as I stabbed myself in the finger with my seam ripper. With the black binding not usable anymore it left me with Brick Red binding and I wasn't happy about it - I had envisioned black and that was all I could see finishing this quilt. But I was pleasantly surprised with the red and it didn't even look that bad on the back. I suppose I could have made my own with the Kona black fabric I have... but I just didn't need one more thing to add to my to-do list.

At 4:30 am I was finished with almost everything. I had bibs, burp cloths, the quilt kit I bought from Joanns (I didn't take a picture!) and 98% of the quilt finished. I still needed to attach the binding to the back of the quilt and wash everything since Terra is allergic to cats. The picture will explain...

A 5am, after trying to hand stitch the binding on the back I decided that it just wasn't going to be strong enough and did it by machine with transparent thread. You can see it on the front of the quilt, but that was the price I was willing to pay to: 1. Make sure it was attached really well and 2. Get it finished!

The birds were beginning their morning songs as I threaded my machine for the 100th time. I thought to myself, "7 months Lisa?! How could you let this take 7 months?!" What can I say, working on a deadline is when I am the most productive.

At 6am it was finished. I took my pictures and was ready to crawl into bed. Wait a second, I've been enjoying looking at this thing for so long I was going to take a few minutes to sit and spend some time with it. It balked at me for all the work it made me go through and then I had a talk with it about being a good quilt to Dominic. Finally we said goodbye to each other and with that I went to sleep.

Saturday morning I woke up and took everything to the laundromat (my washing machine broke on me through this whole ordeal). After the wash I realized the mishap with the bibs and burpcloths so while everything was drying I made a couple more bibs out of some white and blue surfing flannel. I should have used this easier pattern all along since they whipped up in no time (I didn't get a picture of those either). Finally everything was finished and we rushed to get this thing wrapped (in the Walgreen's parking lot) and off to the shower we went.

In the end watching Terra, my best friend of 16 years, finally see in person her's and Dominic's gifts made all the work worth it. Her husband looked at the back of the quilt and jokingly said, "We didn't order shag!" "It looks like hair," some people said. "It's sooo soft," commented others. Whether other people liked it or not was not my concern. I wanted her to like it - and she did. While the other gifts got put away, Terra held onto the quilt until the shower was over.

I forgot my camera so I didn't get a picture of her with it but once the baby comes I'll post a picture with them together. :)