#171: The Cookies are Calling and I Must Go

Recipe for Gotta-Have'em-Right-Now Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (GF)

Today, I get a gotta-bake-right-now urge. Actually, it’s a gotta-have-a-great-big-cookie-to-munch-on urge, but making cookies for myself is something I rarely do mainly because it would be way too easy to nibble my way through them and, after getting my COVID-15+ off, I don’t want to find those lost pounds again. So what to do when I am craving cookies? Simple. I bake and share…even if I don’t know with whom I’ll be sharing when I start.

Just as today’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies come out of the oven, a neighbor who’s been out of town for months knocks on my door to see if I’m home for a little catch-up visit. Sure, I say, and as they come inside I add, You must have smelled the cookies from your house.They laugh and sit down at my kitchen counter, watching as I move the cookies onto a cooling racks with a small spatula. When they’re cool enough to eat, I offer some. Would you like milk, too? It is the classic pairing, right, but water works for both of us. Then we have a first bite. The cookies are good and so is our chat. They leave and soon after another friend shows up. Perfect! More cookies to share. And then as if on cue, the painting crew shows up to finish a last little task on the house. When they leave, I give them a dozen…just like old times. Now there are eight left…enough to share with D&O…and just like that, the fruits of my labors are gone.

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When I’m creating in my little kitchen, it rarely feels like labor, except for the cleanup. That’s when I wish I could close my eyes, click my heels together three times, saying There’s no place like a clean kitchen, open my eyes to find dishes done, floor swept and washed, linens clean, folded and put away but I have yet to figure out the magic charm for that. If you know it and are willing to share, please do because I know we all would love to have some of that magic.

But, let’s get back to the cookies.

I make this batch gluten-free so I can eat one or two…or three if you count licking the beaters and bowl. It’s a good thing they’re all gone now because, if I had had one more, I’d be in a cookie coma. I make myself salad for supper, go for a walk to help keep that lost weight far far away, and hope the elusive kitchen fairies will show up while I’m gone. Maybe I should leave a plate of cookies for them.

P.S. John Muir’s words “The mountains are calling and I must go,” inspired the title for today’s newsletter.

Recipe: Gotta-Have-’em-Right-Now Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (GF)