Cookie Dough and Kitchen make-overs

I think most people think of Sunday as a day of rest but around here it's more of a day of hurry-up-and-get-ready and then hurry-and-set-the-table-because-we're-starving and then leave-mom-alone-for-an-hour-so-she-can-take-a-nap-or-she-will-be-super-grumpy day.

Only the kids generally don't listen to the let-mom-nap part.

 I think the most important Sunday evening occurance is what the kids call cookie-dough time.  I would say it's cookie time but really it's more about the cookie dough than anything.  Even Jackson has figured out the importance of Sunday afternoon treats.  He stands by the counter and stomps his little feet to get my attention if I ignore him long enough.

Aren't I an awesome mom? I let my baby consume raw egg products.  And cookies.  Double Awesome.

Our cookie dough addiction dates back the the time when our double ovens in our old house broke leaving us oven-less for almost eight months.  I still can't believe we managed that...we were waiting to get a new bigger under the cabinet oven and expand the kitchen into the garage a bit to make things more user friendly.

Kitchen before.  Please look past the toddler
eating fresh strawberry  jam with his hands.

And after.  please ignore the (same--years later) child pulling
faces while getting into things in the drawers...

Did you know you can cook brownies in a grill?  I would just put a pizza stone on top of the grill under the pan and adjust the propane flow until the grill thermometer showed the right temperature.  Actually you can cook almost anything on a grill so I  suppose we could have theoretically cooked cookie dough on the grill but why would we want to do that?

So here we are years later still eating cookie dough on Sunday afternoons.  Is that how family traditions start?  Considering the fact that Landon actually has the cookie recipe memorized I would be willing to guess that my kids will probably give their kids cookie dough on Sunday afternoons also.

These really truly are the best cookies I've eaten.  I got the recipe from Nicole Martin in Page, Arizona {Thank You!}.  I miss Page.

I never, ever buy cookies at the store any more because these are better. They have the perfect ratio of butter/shortening and brown/white sugar giving these a cookies perfect crispy-chewy caramelized salty sweet deliciousness.  When we actually cook them.

Here's the favorite recipe:

1 cup butter softened
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
Cream  together then add:

2 eggs
1 TBS vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
Mix these all together then add:

3 1/2 cups flour and 1 cup chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or 325 in convection oven for 10 minutes.