I once worked as a bookkeeper in a small office for a company that was building an upscale shopping center in Westlake Village, California. When I say small office, I mean me and one other person, and many times I was there by myself. On one such day, I was getting ready to leave for lunch when a maintenance worker walked in. I had made some of these cookies the night before and two of them were sitting on my desk in a baggie. He saw them and commented that they looked good, so I offered one to him. He took the cookie and walked off to do his work, and I headed out the door to go to lunch. As I was about to get into my car, I noticed that the man had followed me out to the parking lot. He called out to me: “That was the BEST cookie I have EVER had in my life!” I thanked him for the compliment, but instead of going back to his work, he just stood there looking at me with his mouth half open as if he was trying to decide what we should do next. I think if I hadn’t gotten into my car and driven off, he would have offered to partner with me in marketing them.

One of the key steps to this recipe is to place paper on your cookie sheet. This keeps the cookies from getting too brown and crisp on the bottom, so be sure you don’t skip this step. I just use plain paper from my computer printer.

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, cream the butter together with the sugars using an electric mixer.

Add the eggs and vanilla.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir to combine.>

Add the chocolate chips and nuts.

Using an ice cream scoop, drop cookies about 3 inches apart onto the paper-covered cookie sheet. If you bought two 12-ounce bags of chocolate chips, you should have some extra. That is—-if you haven’t already eaten them. I love chocolate chips, and I sometimes eat them right out of the bag. A good place to hide them is in the freezer—-behind a bag of frozen corn. But if you do still have some extras, you can add 3 or 4 more to the top of each cookie. This will ensure that they come out of the oven with lots of chocolate chips showing on top. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes at 350 or until slightly under-done. They will look more done after they have cooled for a few minutes on the pan.

Enjoy!