The Cookies of Life...

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Brenda and I (and her sister Debbie) took off to New York City for a girls' weekend. The mission? To attend an Oprah Live Your Best Life Weekend in honor of the 10th Anniversary of her O Magazine. We had no idea what to expect, and of course, being that it was an Oprah event, we secretly (or maybe not so secretly since we speculated on this with everyone we know!) had hopes of coming home with a new car, or a new house, or a fabulous trip, or maybe a check with which to start a dream business (like the Stumptown Sisters' Bakery Cafe)... One of us might even have had a dream before they left on the trip that when they walked through the door to attend the convention, an Oprah representative handed them a door prize, a check for $10,000!! I won't mention any names, but you get the idea. And don't even try to pretend that you wouldn't have had those same thoughts too. Of course, you would have, it's Oprah we're talking about here!

But alas, that was not to be... Instead, we got to stand in line after annoying line just to be herded like cattle from one event to the next. Even with our pre-purchased tickets we had to stand in line for the opening night welcome event, and each of the three workshops, and for lunch, and for the Oprah event at Radio City Music Hall. And for the bathroom... Needless to say, this did not match up to the posh treatment we were expecting to receive. Though the workshops themselves were certainly inspiring and definitely left an impression on us, the overall event just didn't seem to be organized as well as it could have been, which if I was being perfectly honest, was a little disappointing.

But in the end, we still managed to have a fabulous trip. I mean, come on, we were in Manhattan, after all! We got to go to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, and Ground Zero, and Times Square, and the massive FAO Schwartz store. Plus, we got to eat a slice of real New York pizza. Oh, and we saw Denzel Washington as he came out of a theater where he is starring in a Broadway play. And, as an added bonus, we walked so much I actually lost a few pounds!! Yes, you read that right, I actually lost weight on a vacation. Now if that isn't the icing on the cake, I don't know what is!

But for me, the best part of the trip was getting to know my friend Brenda better. We spent the entire flight back talking nonstop about our lives, and our growing up years, and our relationships. It was one of those bonding moments that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. And for some reason, whenever I think of this trip, a certain phrase from childhood keeps flashing across my mind. Okay, I know this needs some explanation....

Let me just start by saying, I have never been the best gift giver. Don't get me wrong, I always have good intentions, but I am a perfectionist by nature, and when it comes down to selecting a gift, I freak out. Nothing ever seems to be quite right, so I go back and forth on which item to buy the person until I finally just pick something out of sheer desperation. So jump back with me a couple of decades (okay... a couple of decades and a half) to when I was about 10 years old. I was looking forward to going to a friend's birthday party but I needed to find a gift. My ever-patient mother trekked all over the mall with me searching for the perfect gift, and of course, I was starting to panic. Finally, we wandered into the Hallmark store and I found just what I was looking for! I picked out a yellow t-shirt with a big chocolate chip cookie on the front that said...In the Cookies of Life, Good Friends are the Chocolate Chips... I thought this shirt said it all. It was the perfect gift for one of my best friends.

Looking back on this event now, I think I may have been a little ahead of my time. I'm thinking, too, that it might have been just a wee bit cheesy, not exactly the "coolest" gift. But for whatever reason that t-shirt and its slogan made quite the impression on me, and when I think of the trip to NY and the time I spent with Brenda, this phrase flashes like a neon sign across my mind. Because really, what would life be like without good friends and chocolate chip cookies?!

So in honor of this sentiment, I'm going to share with you my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. This recipe is actually for white chocolate chip cookies with pecans (another dessert with pecans, yum!), though you could easily make them with regular chocolate chips and/or with walnuts, which I sometimes do... and they are just as tasty!

White Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
• 1/2 cup shortening (preferably non-hydrogenated)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 2/3 cup flour
• 1 cup pecans (hand broken into small pieces)
• 12 oz white chocolate chips
  

1. Cream together the butter, shortening, sugar and brown sugar, and salt.
   
2. Add in eggs one at a time and beat until well blended. Add vanilla.
3. Slowly mix in flour and baking soda. Once this is combined well, add in the pecans and chocolate chips and stir to evenly distribute the chips and nuts.
   

*The original recipe says that each step should be stirred by hand. But I'm a weakling and use my stand mixer for this entire recipe. It seems to come out just fine this way as well.

4. If you have time, refrigerate the dough for approximately 45-60 minutes. This helps the cookies to keep their shape and not spread out too much when cooking.
5. Scoop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet ( I like to use a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone baking liner to prevent any sticking) and bake at 375 degrees for 9-10 min.

**Note - You can also make a chocolate cookie variation with this recipe by decreasing the flour to 2 cups and adding 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa.

Hope you enjoy these as much as us!
-Colleen

P.S. I apologize for the fact that we have been seriously negligent in our blogger duties! But we do have a pretty good excuse... Heather just got engaged in April and is planning her wedding for September! So exciting!! But also a little stressful, and time-consuming, and sometimes exhausting... So we could be a little preoccupied over the next few months, but we will do our best to get back on track with our blog posts. :) Thanks for hanging in there with us!