Baking Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies with my children. Elias sat on one side of me and Addison stood on the other. Addison is old enough that she can help measure and add ingredients and use the mixer now. And Elias just tries to copy everything we do, including scooping flour all over the counter. But mostly the two of them just hover like little vultures waiting for the opportunity to eat a bit of dough or to clean off a spoon or a beater. Elias especially has bird like characteristics - lately he has taken to asking for food by opening his mouth wide, bouncing up and down, and saying uh, uh, uh.

There is something very satisfying to me about baking cookies. The smells, the tastes and the actions themselves transport me back to my childhood. My mother made the most wonderful cookies! I loved coming home from school to see my mom in the kitchen, a bowl of cookie dough on the counter and warm cookies on a plate. Mom would let us "sneak" at least one taste of the dough before shooing us out of the kitchen, cookies in hand.

Lately however, I've lost my cookie baking mojo. I can't seem to recreate the soft, chewy cookies that are like my mother's. Perhaps it is the difference in climate, perhaps I no longer eat enough of the unfinished dough! Most likely, I need to adjust the ingredients for living at sea level. All I know is that I long for the cookies of my youth - a little taste of sweet heaven to transport me back to my childhood.

My mom is such a wonderful cook and baker. I love her food and the food that reminds me of her. I hope that my children will develop a love of food and someday look back and remember the cooking and baking we've done together.