Is there a proper season for cookies like there seems to be for, say, banana bread (autumn) and strawberry shortcake (spring) and soup (winter)? I really hope not because if cookies DID have a season I'd guess it to be winter with oven on warming the kitchen where everyone is gathered cozily listening to Christmas carols or the like with batch after lovely batch hitting the cooling racks only to be taken out to combat the chill in the weather.

But...if cookies do NOT, in fact, have a season, then have I got great news for you!

You see, I've got this killer K-I-L-L-E-R chocolate chip cookie recipe...only, it's not mine to share...exactly. It belongs to my whole family, my mom and ant (aunt...story here on the alternative spelling), my cousins, my sisters and me. It may be the first recipe I ever made on my very own and it is absolutely the first recipe I memorized.

Do you memorize recipes? I do. I can't seem to help it. Recipes are the only time fractions have ever made sense in my mind. I have made these cookies so many times that I know the recipe by heart, in more ways than one, and as a result, I've been able to make these cookies anywhere my feet have landed.

But, like I said, I cannot share the recipe. If I could give you a sample though, I'd have my sister bake them for you because she has just the knack for it. My cookies are often great right out of the oven but loose their lusciousness upon cooling. Sudeana's stay crisp on the outside and soft and tender inside for as long as they last, which is never ever very long.

You may be wondering after these many paragraphs why in the world I touted good news up there in the early stages of this rambling post. Well, here it is...

I have figured out how to make my cookies almost as wonderful as my sister's...but it took a few changes and tweaks to the original recipe to achieve. Since this recipe no longer looks like the original, I am completely giddy with excitement to share it!

This was the last one from the batch.

My kids thought that they were all gone...so did I.

Here goes:

Not {Quite} My Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies
{Printable Recipe HERE}
Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (not margarine, the real deal),softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (more if you like)

Instructions:
When you think you might want to make the cookies, go immediately to the fridge and set out the stick of butter. It takes it a sweet forever to soften up.

Preheat oven to 350˚.

While waiting on your butter to soften, combine the dry ingredients: all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt. stir with a whisk and set aside.

Place softened butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix until the mixture is a fluffy light yellow. Allow the mixer to go for 2 or 3 minutes longer than you think. You'll want to allow enough time for the sugar to cut through the shortening and the butter very well.

Add the two eggs one at a time and scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl after each egg with a rubber spatula. Yes, it's a pain but it pays off in the end, honest. Add the vanilla allow to mix for a minute and grab your flour mixture.

WITH YOUR MIXER ON LOW SPEED add flour mixture in three or so separate batches allowing the mixer AND THE SPATULA to do their jobs between each addition. Finally, add the chocolate chips and give that mixing bowl a final spin to evenly distribute the chocolate goodness through out.

Spoon evenly sized mounds of dough onto the cookie sheet. The size you choose is completely up to you. Sometimes we do mini cookies and sometimes normal size and sometimes great big ones; simply add cooking time as you go bigger.

Bake (at 350˚) until they are just starting to get brown around the edges which will probably take 10-11 minutes. They may not look done to you but take them out anyway and let them rest about 3 minutes then remove them to a cooling rack. Note how long it took and decide after the cookie is cool enough to eat if it is to your liking. Then, simply adjust the time as you see fit. You are the baker, you are in charge.

Now, put on your game face and prepare to be hassled by children, spouse, neighbors...until you allow everyone to eat their fill of these soft and chewy and chocolaty and... {can we count them as healthy because of the whole wheat flour?} healthIER than before cookies!