Tasty Thursday: Paul's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Dad passed away 3 years ago, about a week before his birthday, which is today.  Every year since then on his birthday  I have made his cookies to honor his memory. I also make them for our Christmas Eve visit to his grave. And of course whenever I feel like eating some.

He spent a lot of time perfecting this cookie recipe over the years. We in my family think this is a really fantastic classic chocolate chip cookie.
Big, thick, sometimes somewhat doughy bakery style cookies are all the rage right now, made with a ball of dough the size of a baseball.
These cookies are not those cookies. These are lightly crispy, and golden on the outside and chewy on the inside.
I thought I had put this recipe on here already but apparently not.
Every time I post about these cookies elsewhere, I get requests for the recipe.
So here it is.

Paul’s Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Paul Bartholomew)

Preheat oven to 350

Cream together:

 4 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups white sugar 

1 ½ cups shortening

Slowly mix in:

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

4 cups flour (put in ½ cup at a time)

1 TBSP vanilla

Add 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Roll into walnut size balls. Place on un-greased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake @ 350 for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will be just light golden around the edges and may look slightly raw in the middle when it’s time to take them out. Cool on the cookie sheet. Makes about 4 to 6 dozen cookies.

Tasty Tuesday: Skillet Chicken Thighs

Weekly, if not daily, The Stay At Home Chef posts recipes that even my tasteless palate is drooling over. And every so often I get up the guts to try a new recipe. I had it on good authority that chicken thighs are quite tasty, so I hauled our family out of our boneless-skinless chicken breast comfort zone to try Skillet Chicken Thighs and we were not disappointed.

The recipe is simple and straightforward. I felt awesome when I plated the chicken, as most of the time when I cook this way it either ends up burned or underdone. I followed the recipe exactly (other than forgetting to turn down pan #2* to medium heat at one point) and I was totally successful!

Everyone liked it except one kid (who is not a meat eater unless it's bacon, a hot dog or a burger.) And the only comment on flavor other than "yummy!" was that maybe I should have spiced under the skin as well as on top. That may have been my error. I plan on asking the chef. :)


* I cooked 4 thighs in 2 separate pans to feed our family of 6.
 

Yummy Mummies and Sticky Webs

 My youngest son has a Fall Carnival this Saturday and his class is in charge of cupcakes. I was going to go easy and just frost with canned icing and sprinkles and stick a plastic bat on top. UNTIL..
Facebook intervened. My friend posted her cupcakes made for her son and the mummies were so cute and looked so easy I had to do them instead.
I looked up a "how to" on YouTube HERE, cause I  am too lazy to experiment and figure it out myself. :)
They were fast and easy, and I sped through them, since the messy look is in for mummies.
And when I got tired of mummies I used my black gel to make spiderwebs and the brown m&ms became spiders with the help of chocolate jimmies
The jimmies idea was from a blog where she made eyeball and spider-y cake pops, that I have searched and searched for and can not find it. I apologize! The point being that they were a great idea that was not my own.(Putting them on was a royal pain though!).
My son loved them and so did I.