blunderous.

I’m a haphazard denizen in the kitchen.  My tendency towards erratic culinary performance is not so surprisingly heightened after spending a prolonged afternoon in the library watching and listening (attentively…) to a research specialist preview the countless search engines available to me in my research of a tropical commodity. I chose tea. I may regret this decision when guilt and social conscience paralyze me from partaking in my morning, afternoon, and evening ritual of a stout cup Scottish Breakfast. 

This afternoon, my inelegant yet cathartic endeavor at the kitchen counter may also have been at the mercy of last week’s episode of the Bachelor streaming from the roommate’s computer sitting in the adjoining room.  It’s possible that the tragic yet uproariously comical affair that is the rose ceremony blighted my earnest concentration.  However, my favored philosophy goes something like this: as long as I neither inflict nor receive any serious injuries, no one need know the details of my blunderous baking.  If no one saw it, it didn’t happen.  Case closed.

My blunder stemmed from an incurable tendency I have to disregard the tiny etchings along the handle of those little silver spoons, those spoons whose solitary purpose in existence is to measure. You can envision my attempt as something resembling the reverse of “catch and release”.  My spoons are there to offer moral support, then laugh silently as I discern my inaccuracy. 

However, all’s well that ends well.  The final result of these creamy yogurt chocolate chip cookies proved that they themselves possessed immunity and strong defense mechanisms against my haphazard attention.  One friend went so far to say, and I quote, “there is a god”.  A compliment like that, in my humble opinion, is near impossible to beat. 

So now with confidence, I send you off.  Leave any apprehension at the door, enter the kitchen, turn on The Bachelor, and experience for your lovely selves the unassuming and modest confection that is achieved through the union of yogurt and chocolate chips.  

Yogurt Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Kim Chin’s Yogurt Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe via allrecipes.com).

Ingredients.

.5 cup packed brown sugar

.5 cup white sugar

1 stick butter (.5 cup)

.5 cup plain whole milk yogurt

(just shy of) 2 cups of flour

2 tsp. vanilla extract

.5 tsp. baking soda

.5 tsp. salt

As many chocolate chips as desired…

Needed: cookie sheet (multiple), greasing agent (Pam), 1 mixing bowl, mixer.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

In medium bowl cream together till light and fluffy: brown sugar, white sugar, and butter (if incidentally while softening the butter the butter melts, don’t worry. Things will still turn out all right).  Add yogurt and vanilla, stir, then combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix until it resembles a cookie batter. Then add chocolate chips to your heart’s content.  And if you’re anything like my mother  (who believe nuts make any dessert better) now would be the appropriate time to mix in the chopped nut of your choice.

Drop spoonful bits of batter on cookie sheet about two inches apart. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.  Watch and rotate racks as you judge appropriate. Cookies will appear light and fluffy, the top resembling meringue.  Do not over cook. Transfer, ever so gracefully, to a cooling wrack.

Ta-da.