I stopped by our house this morning, our house that is deeply under construction. Our house that I pray each and every day will be finished before this baby comes. It is amazing that every time I go there it looks worse! I get nervous when we bring friends and family over to see the progress, and see their doubting, pitying nods when I tell them we will be in before the end of the summer. It has been stripped to the studs for 5 full months, and empty for 9 months. While there is lots of hammering, and subtle changes, I can’t help but long for the extreme home makeover crew to show up and magically have me in by next weekend.

This is not to say that the crew we have working on it is not fantastic- because they are. Really nice, accommodating guys, (who knock on wood) have had no “issues”. It dawned on me today as I saw little packets of hot sauce on the table, and takeout bags in the trash, that these guys may benefit from a little bribe. Delivered in food form of course. I somehow believe that if I bring them warm, homemade food, that maybe it will boost them into some kind of overdrive that will have a similar, (but less annoying) Ty Pennington affect.

I thought I would start small and test this theory with cookies. When there are huge men with hard hats and saws, foofy, ladylike cookies seem ridiculous- I think I am going to go basic, but large. I think it is going to have to be good, old-fashioned chocolate chip. The recipe I have is really sweet, and chewy in the middle, as well as heavy on the chocolate. You can cut back on the chips, if you like less chocolate.

Yummy Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

-1 cup butter, very soft
-1-1/2 cups of brown sugar
-2 tsp vanilla
-2 eggs
-2-1/2 cups flour
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp baking soda
-2 bags of chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk)

1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2) Cream the butter and the brown sugar together until really light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs, and beat together.

3) In a separate bowl, gently stir together the salt, baking soda and flour. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and beat together. At the very end, gently stir in the chocolate chips.

4) Drop spoonfuls of the cookie dough, (according to what size you want the cookies to be), onto prepared sheet pans. (By the way, I always recommend using sil-pat liners for your sheet pans. They are a one-time investment of about $20 each- but I have had mine for years, and use them all of the time).

5) Bake the cookies at 325 for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown, and not quite done in the middle. I like to take them out then, and let them finish cooking on the counter. That way you get a very gooey, soft center. Mmmmmmm.