30 Day Challenge- Food I can't live without
I can't live without chocolate chip cookies.
I have spent at total of two years making cookies almost every week in hopes of perfecting a chocolate chip recipe. I think I have finally arrived at that.
Here's the thing about chocolate chip cookies...It's not that I really can't live without them, I can't live without what they mean.
To me, chocolate chip cookies represent the warmth and comfort of home; a true comfort food.
When my kids were little, I was THAT mom who always had a warm cookie treat waiting for them when they piled off the school bus and we would sit around the table eating warm cookies and talking about the day. The best part of the day. I think I got that from my grandma.
Whenever I went to grandma's house, I would run to the kitchen right away because I knew she would always, without fail, have the cookie jar filled with her signature, soft raisin cookies. I hate raisins but somehow, I loved those cookies, but just those ones, the ones that grandma made.
When Spencer was 9 years old, he came down with Encephalitis and was life flighted by medical jet to Boise. He was there three weeks and for the better part of our time, he was unconscious. He was having multiple seizures a hour so the only way they could protect his brain was to keep him in a medically induced coma. For two weeks, I sat in his room, watching him breathe. I had a room at the Ronald McDonald house but didn't spend much time there, I was too scared to leave so I spent day and night with him.
One afternoon, a nurse convinced me to go back to the RMH and shower and just get some fresh air on the walk across the street. She promised she would stay with Spencer. I knew I needed a break and so I left for an hour. As I opened the front door of the Ronald McDonald House, the smell of cookies baking seemed to wrap itself around me. I walked into the kitchen to see who was in there baking.
I didn't realize that they had volunteers come in twice a week to bake cookies. Two elderly women stood there and greeted me with a plate of the best chocolate chip cookies I had ever seen. I took one and without warning, just fell apart crying. These women, who I didn't even know, wrapped their arms around me and I fell into pieces. I was so tired and so scared.
It was in that moment that a chocolate chip cookie became much more than just a cookie. They are the thing I can't live without. To this day, when we are stuck in the hospital, I have crazy cravings for a warm cookie. When my kids are having a rough time, I bake cookies. If I ever live in the same town as a RMH, I will be that lady in the kitchen, baking up a little love for those tired, sad parents schlepping back and forth to the hospital.
There's a lot of love in a cookie...for real.
I have spent at total of two years making cookies almost every week in hopes of perfecting a chocolate chip recipe. I think I have finally arrived at that.
Here's the thing about chocolate chip cookies...It's not that I really can't live without them, I can't live without what they mean.
To me, chocolate chip cookies represent the warmth and comfort of home; a true comfort food.
When my kids were little, I was THAT mom who always had a warm cookie treat waiting for them when they piled off the school bus and we would sit around the table eating warm cookies and talking about the day. The best part of the day. I think I got that from my grandma.
Whenever I went to grandma's house, I would run to the kitchen right away because I knew she would always, without fail, have the cookie jar filled with her signature, soft raisin cookies. I hate raisins but somehow, I loved those cookies, but just those ones, the ones that grandma made.
When Spencer was 9 years old, he came down with Encephalitis and was life flighted by medical jet to Boise. He was there three weeks and for the better part of our time, he was unconscious. He was having multiple seizures a hour so the only way they could protect his brain was to keep him in a medically induced coma. For two weeks, I sat in his room, watching him breathe. I had a room at the Ronald McDonald house but didn't spend much time there, I was too scared to leave so I spent day and night with him.
One afternoon, a nurse convinced me to go back to the RMH and shower and just get some fresh air on the walk across the street. She promised she would stay with Spencer. I knew I needed a break and so I left for an hour. As I opened the front door of the Ronald McDonald House, the smell of cookies baking seemed to wrap itself around me. I walked into the kitchen to see who was in there baking.
I didn't realize that they had volunteers come in twice a week to bake cookies. Two elderly women stood there and greeted me with a plate of the best chocolate chip cookies I had ever seen. I took one and without warning, just fell apart crying. These women, who I didn't even know, wrapped their arms around me and I fell into pieces. I was so tired and so scared.
It was in that moment that a chocolate chip cookie became much more than just a cookie. They are the thing I can't live without. To this day, when we are stuck in the hospital, I have crazy cravings for a warm cookie. When my kids are having a rough time, I bake cookies. If I ever live in the same town as a RMH, I will be that lady in the kitchen, baking up a little love for those tired, sad parents schlepping back and forth to the hospital.
There's a lot of love in a cookie...for real.
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