A month ago, I received a phone call from Sara instructing me to go and Skype with Meaghan. I’d heard the house phone ringing but I was in the middle of a ‘House of Cards’ episode – Francis was being particularity diabolical that night… so I’d ignored it. When my cell phone rang immediately after, and I could see that it was Sara, I picked up.
“Mom, Meg’s been trying to call you”
“Is something wrong? I was going to call her back in a few minutes.”
“No Mom. You need to go on Skype, now…”
“Why?”
She had already hung up.
I ran upstairs to my office, totally panicked. I clicked open my Skype account and video called Meg. The screen opened to a close-up of Meggie holding a pregnancy test stick.
With tear filled eyes and a huge smile, she said, “I’m going to have a baby.”
In that moment, I felt my world shift. A subtle metamorphosis from mother to grandmother. In a nanosecond, my love for Meg expanded to include the tiny life she was creating inside her. My gentle, loving, sweet-tempered daughter is going to be a mom. Ten minutes after we hung up, I booked a flight to Calgary. I needed to touch her, care for her and feed her. I needed to be her mom.
Beyond being able to fall asleep mid-sentence, she’s constantly smiling and dreaming of chocolate chip cookies!
“Mom, I don’t know what’s wrong with me but all I can think about is great big warm cookies full of oozing chocolatey chips – without oatmeal.”
When they were little, I’d sneak oatmeal into their cookies to heathy them up a bit…
Hope this does the trick, Sweetheart!
Chocolatey Chip Cookies
preheated 375°F oven
1 cup butter
2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chocolate chips
THE STEPS:
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With the mixer set at low speed, add the eggs and vanilla.
- Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
- Slowly add this mixture to the butter mixture in three batches, beating at low speed till incorporated.
- Gently mix in the chocolate chips.
- Using a scoop, place balls of dough on a greased baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 15 to 17 minutes or until they’re an even golden brown, rotating the pans top to bottom and back to front midway through the baking time.
- Makes 3 dozen cookies, 3 ½ inches in diameter.
- Remove the cookies from the oven, and after a couple of minutes transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
THE LOVE: The baking time is where you make or break your cookies. Use the suggested bake time as a guide then use your eye. Wait until they’re brown from the edge to the center. If you prefer chewy cookies, bake them until they’re light brown, and just barely set in the center; for crispier cookies, bake them till they’re a dark, golden brown.
one year ago: eggplant with yogurt dressing and za’atar
two years ago: maple pudding
Thanks for reading.
