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Grandma's Cookies Gone Bad

Beware: This post contains complete stupidity. Blame Adriana Trigiani.

So, my bff Sheila from Book Journey emails me and says, "Hey you should do this!" I take a look and I say, "Wow, that's really involved." But here I am doing it anyway.

Last year at BEA 2010 Sheila had the fantastic opportunity to meet and spend a considerable amount of time with author Adriana Trigiani, author of "Viola in Reel Life," "Brava, Valentine," and "Very Valentine" to name a few. When Sheila returned from her date with Ms. Trigiani she was so enthusiastic and happy I couldn't help but be a little jealous. So here I am, admitting my stupidity, in hopes of going with Sheila this year to meet this amazingly personable author.

The task: Make a recipe given to you by your grandparents, take a picture of the recipe you made, post about it on your blog, and then post the link on Adriana's Facebook Page.

Before I begin, let me once again warn you, I am not a home maker and have not been graced with the skills of a cook or baker. Without further ado, I give you my late Grandma Elaine's famous chocolate chip cookies.



Random Picture from Google that looks like Grandma's

Grandma Remmers' Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 C butter, softened 1 1/2 C sugar 1 1/2 C brown sugar 4 eggs 1 t salt 2 t baking soda 1 t baking powder 2 t vanilla 5 C flour 2 bags Milk Chocolate Chips
1. Mix butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla together for 3 minutes. 2. Mix the dry ingredients. 3. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients and mix 4. Add the chocolate chips and mix. 5. Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet. 6. Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes.

Now that you've been sufficiently warned. I give you my cookies.

The first thing you should notice, besides the mutation that has formed on my stove, is the pizza pan. I do not own (yet) a cake pan. Yes, I graduated from college a year ago. But the pizza pan that survived four years of college has worked for me every other time so I'm waiting until the wedding for an actual cake pan (I registered for several — no worries). The next thing you should probably notice is the funky crystalized giant cookie. Seriously, this "cookie" was so close to the pan that the chocolate chips were literally 3D. Oh, you want a close up? Here you go!

Disgusting really. In case you haven't figured out, Grandma didn't make them like that (I promise). What went wrong? Well, besides the fact that I'm an awful baker, I decided to "wing it" as I often wing life. I had everything put together and then realized that I didn't have any baking soda. I'm a lazy bum and figured since I cut the recipe in half* that really, what good was 1 teaspoon of baking soda? I mean, really, what could it possible do for my cookie? I further discussed with myself the evilness of society and how it tells me I need to add all of these pointless ingredients so that I go broke baking cookies.

Well, a four minutes later I realized exactly how important baking soda can be.

Am I bitter? Absolutely! It took a long time to put everything together (plus a lot of supplies). Did I cray? Absolutely! Wouldn't you! Who can't even make chocolate chip cookies!? Obviously, this girl. Did I call my mom? Yes. She, of course, laughed. Now that a few hours have passed, I can laugh too. But damn, those cookies sure kicked my butt.

Let me know if any of you have better luck. Oh, and a word of advice to any new bakers — stick to the recipe. Apparently only professionals and veteran bakers "wing it."

*The above recipe makes near 60 cookies, so definitely reduce the recipe if need be.

PS: Happy Mother's Day Mom and Grandma! I promise next year I'll be a pro-baker!

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Grandma's Cookies Gone Bad + TIME