May 8

Today is my birthday. Happy birthday to me! While I’m not so big on birthdays, I thought it was a good excuse to have some people over. One of our big problems with having a large number of people over though is our lack of dinnerware. Of course, this could easily be solved for a trip to IKEA, but the problem comes up so rarely and we’ll be packing up and moving in no time, again, so I don’t want to bother getting another set of dishes. So, my challenge for the evening was to think of things people could just pick up and easily eat. Luckily there are lots of delicious foods that fit the bill. Dessert-wise, the first thing I thought of were some simple chocolate chip cookies. I have seen Ashley Rodriguez’s (from Not Without Salt) recipe floating around the internet lately so I thought it was a good time to give them a try. I have to say, they are the perfect chocolate chip cookies.


These cookies are pretty unreal. The ratio of chocolate to cookie dough is right up my alley. There is a full half pound of chocolate in these 18 cookies: that’s what I call a chocolate-lover’s birthday dream. They are crispy around the outside and chewy in the center. The chocolate is gooey and delicious. They are sweet and perfect with a cup of cold milk. Does it get any better than that? I think they are a textbook example of a great chocolate chip cookie. I adapted the recipe, barely, based on what I had on hand but I’m sure if you want the original recipe you can find it on Ashley’s website.


Even though I have seen the recipe all over the place, I wanted to have it  in this space for myself. For me, especially the past couple of weeks when life has been so busy, I have really been using the site as a place to remind me of the food that I love, and more importantly, can whip up in 20 minutes when it’s time for dinner. Most of the food that I am making tonight is from my archives: tried and true. As much as this is a place to experiment, it’s also a place to record and keep track. And these are cookies that I don’t want to forget.