By Kathryn van
One of the biggest quandaries I had this past Christmas was figuring out what to get for my older sister Tammy and her family. They live in
Yeah, I couldn’t think of anything either. I was over at my parents’ house complaining about the problem when my mom made a great suggestion. “Why don’t you send them recipes?” she said.
Have I mentioned that my mom is brilliant?
If there is one thing I have plenty of, it’s recipes. What’s more, I am the only one of my mom’s five kids who inherited her flair for cooking. While we were growing up, Tammy was one of those who could barely heat a can of soup without hurting herself and she is famous in our family for once leaving a char mark in the bottom of the microwave while trying to heat up a chocolate chip cookie.
Tammy has now learned to cook, but she is still leery of inventing in the kitchen. So I went through my recipe collection and picked 24 of my favorites to put in a mini cookbook. I dubbed it “Kate’s Classic Recipes: Easy, fast and ‘comfort food’ recipes.”
For my four nieces – Sarah, age 11, Madeline, age 9, Emma, age 7, and Kira, age 4 – I put together a second collection of recipes. This one is titled “Cookin’ for Kids: Simple recipes for small chefs.” It includes some of the first recipes I learned to make when I was a kid, plus some new ones I have discovered since.
Apparently both collections were a big hit. I got a call from the group asking for clarification on one of the recipes (somewhere in the typing phase I omitted one of the measurements; yes, everyone needs an editor) and they were excited to try out several more.
Kate’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
This is one of the recipes from “Kate’s Classic Recipes.” With most chocolate chip cookies, the cookie part is rather bland and only serves to stick the chocolate chips together. I prefer a cookie that can stand on its own – and the chocolate is just a bonus.
1 cup butter or margarine
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash ground cloves
2 cups chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Beat together the butter or margarine and the sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves. Add the flour gradually. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop dough by teaspoons 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Makes about 60 cookies.
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