Not Your Average Chocolate Chip Cookie

Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? No one I know! For years I used the tried and true Tollhouse Cookie recipe and it is, of course, great. However, about six years ago I stumbled across this recipe on Allrecipes.com. It was posted by Debbi Borsick. Debbi named these "Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies". I tend to stray away from recipes that use such hyperbole in the title, but the average 4.5 star rating (5000+ reviews as of this posting) made me give them a try. I haven't won any awards with them but I have gotten a lot of "these are the best chocolate cookies EVER"!

Everyone loves the soft texture and the intense vanilla from the pudding mix and the TONS of chocolate chips make them irresistible. Beware, this makes a lot of cookies. 4-6 dozen depending on the size of your cookies!!! You can just half the recipe if you don't need so many cookies. Somehow these never seem to go to waste at my house!

TIPS: Use REAL BUTTER. I refuse to use margarine or butter flavored shortening when I bake. YUCK! Fresh unsalted butter is the only way to go. Use a good quality vanilla. It makes all the difference in the world. I usually add a little extra vanilla to just about everything I bake...but that's just me.

Use a shiny cookie sheet with no sides when baking cookies. (Not the dark non-stick pans with the sides.) Use nice thick, cookie sheets. In fact, double up the cookie sheets. Rotate the cookie sheets in the oven half way through baking. This is a tip I picked up from reading Marcy Goldman's Passion for Baking. You will not believe how much better your cookies will rise and brown evenly. Invest in some good cookie sheets. You will be pleased with the results.

Use a cookie scoop for chocolate chip cookies (or any drop cookie). This will keep them uniform in size. Don't press the cookie dough down on the sheet.

Never. I repeat...NEVER put your cookies on a hot cookie pan. Your cookies will spread out too fast and you may end up with thin, burnt cookies. If you are short on cookie sheets, just run the warm cookie sheet under cool water before putting the next batch on to bake.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Easy Pasta & Corn Salad

This pasta salad is a staple at my cookouts (along with my potato salad). It is so easy, it's almost sinful--yet almost everyone seems to like it. I got this recipe from my mother-in-law, Marie. She got it from a friend, but I'm still going to call it Marie's Pasta Salad as an homage to her! Much like my mother's potato salad, this is usually a little of this and a little of that kind of recipe. However, I tried my best to give some rough measurements. Taste as you go and adjust seasoning accordingly.

MARIE'S PASTA & CORN SALAD

1 lb Ditalini Pasta (cooked al dente in generously salted water)

1 can of whole kernel corn (or 1 pkg frozen corn)

1 -- 1 1/2 cups of Mayo

1 tsp Garlic Powder

Kosher Salt to taste

Ground Black Pepper or more to taste

Drain the cooked pasta. Then rinse with cold water until pasta is completely cool. (If you mix this together when the pasta is hot, the mayo is going to curdle on you--ick!) Don't drain the pasta completely. Put it into a large mixing bowl while it is still fairly wet. The pasta will not soak up the mayo as much this way. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Season with the salt and pepper to taste. I tend to go heavy on the black pepper, but you might prefer less. You can make this pasta salad the day before. If you do, put a little more mayo in than you think is necessary. Otherwise you are going to have a dry pasta salad.

I think chopped tomatoes would be yummy in this but not many in my family like tomatoes...You can add anything your heart desires. The possibilities are endless, but as is this goes great with anything off the grill!

Fruit! Glorious Fruit!

Here is the fruit display I made for our Fourth of July Cookout. Nothing is more refreshing on a warm summer day than a nice fruit salad (and the cold beverage of your choice)! This is really easy to do. I should have taken photos while I was cutting the watermelon but I wasn't thinking. However, it is pretty self explanatory. I just inserted a paring knife into the watermelon to make each v-shape and then separated the melon. You can draw a template for yourself if you want to keep it even. I just wing it though. Make sure before you open up the watermelon that you do make a slight mark on the top and bottom of one v-shaped cut. That way you can put the watermelon back together with a perfect fit. I always scoop out with a melon-baller and scrape out all of the unwanted rind the night before. I put the fruit in a large Ziploc bag and then put the watermelon back together, wrap it with foil and stick it in the fridge to keep it from shriveling.

When you are ready to serve just, open up the watermelon, throw the melon balls and additional cut fruit (I used fresh blueberries, strawberries and grapes) back into each half of the watermelon and you have a wonderful presentation. If it is a particularly warm day and you are serving outside, just throw some ice cubes in a tray underneath the watermelon and add a few cubes to the fruit. Keeps it nice and cool and yummy!