Six months since my last hair appointment. Oh yeah.
Five YEARS since I've strutted my stuff in a gym. Who's counting?
And my last full night of beauty sleep uninterrupted by a screaming toddler. Um, I'll get back to you. Ever since the daylight savings switch my day-to-day is hazy.
Truth be told, people REALLY do want to know how the Jersey Girl is able to kick it being extra small what with my love of food, booze and sarcasm. Not to mention my proximity to age 40. I'm not there yet, world. Hold your damn horses!
It's pretty much a failproof five-day-a-week formula: Infrequent eating and never sitting. Add in a bunch of chasing a toddler, cleaning a sizeable house and pretty much being a maniac during all working and non-working hours, and you have yourself down to your fighting weight circa high school junior year.
Look, my job keeps me on my toes: both the paying one and the mom one. And being a one-woman show means that my food intake is usually the lowest priority of my day. Is this wise, healthy or advised? Hell to the no. But, it's the Jersey Girl's reality.
On the plus side, I can totally rock a bikini while kickin' it at the Jersey shore. Yay!
And, if I want a cookie, a cookie I shall have.
But not just ANY morsel of chocolatey goodness will do. No, sir. If you're going to indulge, INDULGE with the best: Nigella!
These are THE best chocolate chip cookies in the whole entire land.
The recipe claims that this makes 12 monster cookies, but I always get at least 18 monster cookies. I use three lined baking sheets. And I eat one of these with a big glass of red wine and no guilt. Cheers!
Totally Chocolately Chocolate Chip Cookies
From "Nigella Express"
By Nigella Lawson
4 oz semisweet chocolate
1 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, sifted
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 egg, cold from the fridge
2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels or dark chocolate chips
(Makes 12)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt the 4 ounces of chocolate.
Measure the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a bowl.
Cream the butter and two sugars in another bowl with a mixer. Add the melted chocolate and mix together.
Beat in the vanilla extract and a cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.
Scoop out 1/4 cup sized mounds - an ice cream scoop and a palette knife are the best tools for the job - and place on a lined baking sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart. Do not flatten them.
Bake for 18 minutes, testing with a cake tester to make sure they come out semi-clean and not wet with the cake batter. If you pierce a chocolate chip, try again.
Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.
