Chocolate Chip Cookies and a Drag Queen Dress

I was having the most lovely Sunday.

After a leisurely brunch of Banana Sour Cream Pancakes courtesy of a recipe shared by my good friend Pattie at Olla-Podrida, I took the dog for a long hike and then came home to enjoy a day of putzing, cleaning, and cooking.

As an aside, there is truly nothing I like better than a Sunday spent at home and in the kitchen.

And this Sunday I planned to try a couple of new recipes from Around my French Table - one for something called gougéres; a delectable looking little cheese puff I would like to serve at my next book club dinner, and another for Armagnac Chicken.

To round it out, I decided to bake my favourite chocolate chip cookies.

I am all about health, exercise, and balance this month - but no one ever dropped dead from eating one perfectly baked cookie.

Right?

Right.

But just as I got the first pan into the oven, two things happened:

1. The man I married put a movie on that featured blood thirsty alien predators hunting screaming humans.

In surround sound.

2. And my mother, who I affectionately refer to as Aurora, called with an urgent Ebay related cocktail dress emergency.... (have I mentioned she got an i pad for Christmas?)

Friends, up until December 25th, my mother - who had never so much as laid a fingertip on a computer key board and thought the internet was pretty much of the devil (which it still may actually be) - was now in possession of a device that could take her to every conceivable shopping venue known to man, including Ebay, (deep cleansing breath) with absolutely no idea how to use it.

And I, as loving and dutiful daughter, was crazy enough to set up an icon on her desktop in the category "cocktail dresses" so that she could just tap and go on Ebay.

A site she spent six and a half hours purusing prior to her phone call at approximately 2:30 pacific standard time.

Occurring simultaneously with my cookies going into the oven and The Predator coming onto the big screen.

The call:

Aurora: I don't know what I've done.

Me: What's going on?

Aurora: I found a dress, but then I tapped something and a mauve model came up and she won't go away.

**Heavy artillery and explosions in the background**

Me: A mauve model?

Aurora: I keep tapping the cancel button and I can't get rid of it.

Me: Why don't you just go back to your home page and try again?

Much fumbling and muttering

Aurora: I'm back on the page I started at.

Me: What's the first dress at the top of the page?

Aurora: "Classic party mini dress, cross dresser drag queen"

(I honour the divinity that resides within me)

And on it went.

To my eternal credit, I managed to bake 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies during the phone call.

And the drag queen dress was just fabulous enough for me to place an order.

Who knew baking cookies could be so exciting...

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1\2 cup white sugar
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Add baking soda to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.