“Mom? Mom? Momma? Maaama?!” Can you hear your little ones right now? And so began the banging on the back of my van seat from little, crazy feet that can’t stay still. But that wasn’t all, it was constantly having to repeat myself ten times over to get a kid to either 1. Do something, or 2. Stop doing something. Top it off with me getting the house straightened up to only have mounds of toys, pillows and blankets pulled from every room to create a doctor’s office in the living room. Angry momma was coming out and I was ready to explode. I felt like I was trapped under a metal trash can that my kids were freely banging away on from the outside. I felt like I could snap, like mentally lose and I was feeling guilty. I knew if I didn’t do something I was going to regret this day/week with my beautiful (somewhat disobedient;) children.
I know that I am not alone and that is why I just had to share this post. Because I know that there are others out there that feel this way, but don’t realize they are not alone. I’ve always wanted to be a mom, especially one that stays home with her kiddos and I am so grateful to be able to do that, but man was I (still am) ready for a little “mom” vacation! I mean, I’m just exhausted reading back over this. Since no vacation was in the near future I had to come up with something. Deep down I really needed something that would allow me to enjoy my children. I mean, truly enjoy them for the sweet kids I knew them to be. And lets be honest, they needed to enjoy their mom just as much. So, chocolate chip cookies was the answer.
Ah, there are those amazing smiles that bring our home to life! After a summer of watching Master Chef Junior with Elise, she has been begging to learn how to cook, so she can be on the show. I mean, begging daily. I put the kids in quiet time and told them when it was over we could set up a baking show and pretend we were teaching people to make cookies. They were sold. After quiet time they came running down announcing it was time to start baking!
*Note that whenever one is making chocolate chip cookies, one must continually taste the dough and consume handfuls of chocolate chips.
Want perfect size cookies so you will only eat one? Use an ice cream scoop. The bonus is you don’t have to get your fingers all sticky from pushing the dough off a spoon. And please, please, please don’t forget the sea salt sprinkles on top. They make a really good chocolate chip cookie AMAZING!
Wondering what to do while the cookies are actually baking? Mini photo shoot of course. And don’t think for one second I wasn’t nervous letting my six-year-old daughter take something out of the over for the first time. I had my camera in one hand and my own oven mitt on the other;)
Oh sweet heavenly cookies, you put crumbs, chocolate and smiles on my children’s faces. And the sugar I consumed gave me a little boost to make it to the kid’s bedtime.
Such a sweet face with a little extra grime and snot. I love it. I LOVE being a mom. This is the best job I will ever have and when I get weary…almost daily…I have to remember that this is the greatest privilege I have been given, so I need to allow a little grace into my life, so much that it overflows onto my children. So when you feel like you have just had it, forget everything else, get on your knees and pray and then get to baking. And if you realize midway through the recipe that you are out of vanilla extract, hopefully you will have a husband as kind as mine to leave work and run to the store just so you don’t have to cancel your baking show;)
I’m not even kidding, this was what they both did after their first bite of cookie. Their happy dances. I’d love to help bring on more happy dancing so I’m sharing the best chocolate chip cookie recipe EVER! No seriously, that is the title on top of the recipe from Savory Sweet Life. Never have I had a chocolate chip cookie slightly crunchy on the outside and so moist and chewy on the inside. I’m pretty sure I will never try another chocolate chip cookie recipe again. Why mess around when you know what amazing tastes like. Now go get your baking on:) ~Jen
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 1½ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
- ¾ tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt (I used 1/2 tsp of table salt and then added sea salt to the top)
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1½ tsp. baking powder
- 2¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (We used one bag, minus little handfuls here and there;)
- Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
jenclaytor 