My cookies

So I have been craving some chocolate chip cookies this week, but I always try to put it out of my mind because making them always turns out to be a bad experience. Like the time when I made them, they came out terribly bad and then I realized after going back and looking at the recipe that I had added baking POWDER instead of SODA. Come on! They are both white powders, how different can they be? Turns out? REALLY different. I think Tanner only ate one of them....or he ate more, but it was only out of sympathy. We have been married 4 years next week and I have NEVER made a good batch of chocolate chip cookies. They either come out too cakey, too runny (yes, cookies can be runny..at least mine anyway), or taste just plain nasty. I have even done the recipe right a few times, and it turns out groady. The last time, I made one batch, and they looked and tasted so awful that I didn't even bother cooking the rest of them and Tanner and I just ate the cookie dough (which tasted okay, go figure) for the rest of the week.

But yesterday was the premiere of Survivor, and I wanted to make something yummy to eat while we watched. I happened to see Jeff Probst on Martha Stewart's cooking show today and they were making some ridiculous appetizer. It looked really good, but in order to get all the stuff that Ms. Martha said to use, it would take my entire grocery budget for the month, sooooo, I had to think of something else. Enter chocolate chip cookies again. Why is it that whenever I watch cooking shows or any athletic event (especially tennis and figure skating), I think I can do everything as good as they can, and then when I go try, I realize just how bad I really am? But, I decided to do the cookies anyway.

As I was mixing all the ingredients together I noticed that the consistency was completely different than any other time I had ever made cookies...A GOOD SIGN! There were a few close calls, like almost not adding the vanilla, and I originally put the oven on 325 degrees instead of 375 degrees, but realized after the first batch that it was too low. Better too low than too high! Here is how they turned out!

They turned out so good (in spite of myself), I almost cried.