Grandma's assistant baker

Not only was Bubby's visit to Grandma's the first time he rode on a plane without Mom or Dad and the first time he slept in the big boy guest room all by himself, it was his very first time to bake cookies -- chocolate-chip cookies! -- with Grandma.

 

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm! Finger-lickin' good!

Today's question:

Chocolate-chip cookies are my signature baked good. What is yours? (If anyone wants the recipe from another commenter, say so in the comments and I'll conduct a recipe swap through e-mail. OR ... you're welcome to include your recipe with your comment to begin with!)

Friday Haiku Contest winner - and farewell

I like to move my furniture around on a regular basis. I can handle the layout of a room and its accoutrements for only so long, then it's time to switch things up, take away this and add that. Each time the overhaul is done, Jim and I sit back and exclaim, "Oh, this is so much better. Why didn't we do this in the first place?"

Six months later we'd be shuffling furniture again, finding an even better layout.

Well, it's been six months since I started the Friday Haiku Contest. I enjoyed doing it. I loved your haikus. I learned a lot about my readers through their haikus ... and met some new readers. A successful six months.

But now it's time for something new, something different, something I hope will make my readers sit back and say, "Oh, this is so much better. Why didn't Lisa do this in the first place?"

Before I get to that 'something new,' I'd like to name everyone who submitted a haiku in last week's contest a winner ... and award yet another goofy antique-store tchotchke to each of them.

Ann, Debbie, Keith and Kate, here are your prizes:

Ann gets "A Round Tuit" so she'll be equipped next time she's tempted to say she'll do something when she gets around to it.

Kate gets an antique postcard to add to her collection.

Keith gets a cash register because his haikus are always money.

Debbie gets a star because she's a rising star and this will remind her when she's not feeling so bright.

 Congratulations, guys! And thank you for being dedicated haiku writers! It's been fun, thanks to YOU! Contact me to claim your prizes.

Now for the all-new Grandma's Briefs feature. If you look up at the top of this page, I just added a "Quotable Grandmas" tab. Clicking there will bring you directly to my new page, where I'll be regularly adding quotes from grandmas. I like quotes, collect them in all sorts of ways, and here is where I'll share the inspirational, sappy, possibly even shocking quotes from grandmas, well known and otherwise.

But I'd like you to add to my list, too -- and am willing to bribe reward you for doing so. I encourage everyone to send me quotes from grandmas, whether it's something your grandma used to say, a quote you read in a magazine or heard on the news, or an interesting line or two from a book or a movie. If it's by a grandma, I want to hear it. Just send me the quote, the name of the grandma, and your source for the quote and I'll add it to the Quotable Grandmas list (with kudos to you for sharing). Submit as many as you want, as often as you want.

And your reward for doing so? Each month I'll randomly choose a submission and the person who submitted it will receive a 'grandma's dozen' (that's 14 ... one more than you get in a baker's dozen) of my yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies, baked fresh and on their way to you within 24 hours of them coming out of the oven!

So check out the Quotable Grandmas feature and submit your own. New quotes will be added to the list as they come in, and the name of the submitter will be included with the quote.

And now, on to our regularly scheduled programming ...

Today's question:

What's your favorite kind of cookie and where do you get it?

My answer: To be honest, I'm not that fond of cookies. Everyone who tries them loves my chocolate chip ones, and I do enjoy eating the dough while I make them, but I can't think of any cookies that are to die for. Maybe I've just not tasted one that delectable yet.

National Cookie Month

My most recent batch of chocolate chip cookies.I recently made a pact with myself that I would send Bubby off-the-wall gifts in celebration of various months of national recognition. It's just a goofy way of connecting with my grandson, not because I feel particularly strongly about any of the designations.

So far I've sent Bubby maracas for Happiness Happens Month (August) and a wild and crazy chicken for National Chicken Month (September). In searching for ideas of what to send him for October, I found that October is National Cookie Month. And although I make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world -- or so I've been told many times by many people -- I won't be sending Bubby chocolate chip cookies. Not because he can't eat chocolate or because I worry they'll turn to crumbs in the shipping, but because my chocolate chip cookies are already made regularly at his house -- by Preston!

My chocolate chip cookies have a supporting role in the story of Megan and Preston. When Megan went to college in Nebraska, in the small town where Preston had lived most of his life, she needed to find a part-time job to bring in a little cash (and car-payment money) while there. Preston was part of the group of friends Megan initially made there and although they truly were "just friends" at that point, he helped Megan get on at the local grocery store where he'd worked for quite some time.

Megan was deeply grateful and needed a way to thank him appropriately. So she asked me to bake up a batch of my cookies and send them to him. And I did. And Preston fell in love with them. Then soon fell in love with Megan ... and she fell in love with him.

I'm pretty sure my cookies had very little to do with the mutual love fest between Megan and Preston, but they did become rather legendary.* I regularly mailed batches off to Nebraska for Megan to share with Preston and made sure the cookie jar was full when Preston came to visit during school breaks. Now that Megan and Preston are married, Preston has taken on the cookie-making for their little family -- using my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I'm honored, in a small way.

So, since Bubby already has a source for cookies for National Cookie Month, I'll just share with you all the recipe for the cookies Preston loves so much. And I'm posting it early enough for you to head to the store for the ingredients and have the goodies made in time for the kickoff of National Cookie Month, three days from now.

To be honest, my chocolate chip cookie recipe is simply the original toll house cookie recipe -- except that I use butter-flavor Crisco instead of butter or margarine (it makes for a fluffier, puffier cookie). And I don't mix the dry and wet ingredients separately ... which started as a time-saving measure but has worked just fine for the past 20 years I've been making these.

Here ya go. Enjoy!

Lisa's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter-flavor Crisco

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups unsifted flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

12-oz package (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine first four ingredients; beat until creamy. Beat in eggs. Add flour, baking soda and salt (sprinkling the soda and salt over the mixture so there are no "hot spots" of either). Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-9 minutes. Transfer to wire rack for cooling. Makes about 4 dozen yummy cookies.

*Brianna actually has a mechanic who, after her first time of thanking him for a job well done by giving him a plate of the cookies, now accepts only batches of cookies as payment for the auto work he does for her!