In these times of
isolation, when it seems like everything is awful, many of us are returning to
something that brings us comfort: Baking. So I’m going to share with you my
tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie recipe, handed down from one generation to
another in my family, like a precious jewel.
But first, let me tell
you a story about those cookies. Ahh, the smell of chocolate chips wafting
through my childhood. My earliest days are filled with this aroma of the gods.
I remember Meemaw making these cookies throughout my youth. Meemaw, she lived
in a cozy little house on the edge of the woods, right by the river. And she
would bake these chocolate chip cookies every Sunday afternoon and all her
grandchildren would come over.
And we’d all eat the
cookies. When we were done, all the children would say, “Tell us a story,
Meemaw!” And Meemaw would tell a story from the Old Country and she’d do a traditional
folk dance from her childhood. And we’d dance and clap and sing along with her.
She always gave us plenty of cookies to take home with us and those would last
until the next Sunday, when we’d enter her house and our senses would be hit
with that wonderful aroma once again.
When Meemaw died, she
passed that sacred cookie recipe down to us. She wrote several copies of the
recipe down on little scrolls of parchment and put them in special wooden
boxes. My cousins and I each received a box during a special graveside
ceremony. It was so emotional to open those boxes and see the recipe. I could
swear the cemetery smelled like chocolate chip cookies that day. Well, that and
manure.
ADVERTISEMENT
Maybe it’s my childhood
connection with those cookies but I really believe food is the key to our souls
and memories. It’s the thing that connects us and binds us. When you sit down
at the table to celebrate with your loved ones, there’s always food on the
table. Have you every noticed that?
What
unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? No. It’s stories. There's nothing in the
world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat
it. And stories about food and family are what get us by, what make life
meaningful for us all. I can recall so many stories about food that I’ve told
while eating food. One Thanksgiving, my parents regaled us with a story about a
cheese fondue they made in the ‘70s where they accidentally added limburger
cheese instead of Emmental. The story was so funny that we were squirting gravy
out of our noses while hearing about all that cheese! And who can forget when
Uncle Nigel talked about that deer he wounded (and then had to kill with his
bare hands) over Christmas figgy pudding one year? What a delight!
ADVERTISEMENT
You
know, chocolate chip cookies just bring me back to who I am as a person. What’s
really important. This idea of belonging. Family. People who can and not people
who can’t. People who will always be there for you no matter what. Cookies that
will always be there for you no matter what. Butter, flour, eggs and chocolate
morsels. Summer days you never wanted to end. That new car smell. The second
law of thermodynamics. Swing sets.
Call
me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no
money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I
would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I
have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find
myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in
my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses,
and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my
hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle
to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically
knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time tozz get to sea as soon
as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical
flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There
is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their
degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the
ocean with me.
And
I’ve tasted a lot of cookies since my childhood. Oreos. Lorna Doones. EL Fudge.
Oatmeal raisin. Thin mints. Hydrox. Snickerdoodles. Macaroons. Macarons. I’ve
tasted a lot of cookies, and I’ve learned a lot about myself.
ADVERTISEMENT
And
they are dancing, the board floor slamming under the jackboots and the fiddlers
grinning hideously over their canted pieces. Towering over them all is the
judge and he is naked dancing, his small feet lively and quick and now in
doubletime and bowing to the ladies, huge and pale and hairless, like an
enormous infant. He never sleeps, he says. He says he’ll never die. He bows to
the fiddlers and sashays backwards and throws back his head and laughs deep in
his throat and he is a great favorite, the judge. He wafts his hat and the
lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and
takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two
passes, dancing and fiddling at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never
sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and shadow and he is
a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says
that he will never die.
You
know, it’s so important to have a sense of community in your community. And
that’s one of the things that food can do and one of the things that passing
down recipes can do. It’s like you’re giving the next generation a little piece
of your soul. When you make food, it’s not just a teaspoon of oil; it’s a
tablespoon of caring. It’s not just a quarter-cup of water; it’s half a cup of
love.
You’ve
got big dreams. You want fame. Well, fame costs. And right here is where you
start paying—in sweat.
Please
read on for my special recipe for chocolate chip cookies!
INGREDIENTS
1 package of Nestle’s
Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
DIRECTIONS
Open the package of
Nestle’s Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
Break apart the
pre-scored cookie dough.
Bake according to the
directions.
Eat.
No comments:
Post a Comment