Monday Menu ~ Big 'Ole Yummy Chocolate Chip/M&M Cookies!

***By the way, Spanish "expert", I think that I should be addressed as Senora, not Senorita!  Gracias, amiga.***


I'm cranky this afternoon.  Straight up cranky.  I have a cold.  The left side of my face is all plugged up.  It feels like someone is shoving their fist into my sinus cavity.  Not that I've ever literally felt that before, but I think if someone did it...nevermind.  Even I'm getting lost in that.  I've been snapping at my girls for the last 45 minutes.  The boy is just not home yet, or I'd probably snap at him, too.  The man is not home yet either, but I probably won't snap at him.  Probably.  But he knows I'm sick.  He will enter gently, rub my back, and talk in a soft voice.  I think.  The kids know, and they say they are sorry I'm sick, followed by "Can you sign this?"  "What does 'relate to the previous values' mean?" "Do you know if we get our uniforms tomorrow?" "Is Daddy at my conference right now?"  (Which is tomorrow night, by the way.  "No", my sarcastic voice screams from the inside, "your father is coming home for dinner, to sleep in his own bed, going to work tomorrow, coming home for dinner, THEN going to your conference!!!")  But a gentle answer turns away wrath, even the wrath that is screaming inside your own head, so instead I said, "Isn't your conference tomorrow night?"  Ugh.  Now I've just vented my anger, so I think that makes me a fool??!!  I was on His mind when those words were spoken.

So...Monday Menu?  Is that what I'm doing?  Well, who doesn't love a little comfort food when they are not feeling well?  I know I do.  That's why a meatloaf is filling my home with scrumptious smells right now.  And that's why it's on my brain to share this cookie recipe.  Cookies are my love language, and chocolate chip cookies are my "I've never loved you more than this moment" language.  Make those cookies jumbo-sized, and add in some M&M's???  Oh, baby.  Stephanie Mills starts singing in my head her oh-so catchy "I Never Knew Love Like This Before".  Clearly the non-drowsy Sudafed has kicked in.  I'm so sorry.

So these cookies are baked in muffin top pans.  Muffin top pans!!!  I've been trying to get my hands on one for a couple months now, and finally found one at a Kitchen store in an outlet mall.  It is fabulous.  So cool what you can do to cookies in this pan!  Really, truly, go get yourself one.  Order one on-line if you need to.  But you need one.  Put it on your Christmas list if you can wait that long.  If you want to make the cookies before you get a pan like this, just pat them into hockey-puck shaped mounds on parchment-lined cookie sheets.  Still big, still great...just not "muffin tops".  This recipe comes off the Picky Palate blog.  I renamed it to suit my whim.  Cheers to clear sinuses, quiet-voiced children, and cookie happiness...

Big 'Ole Yummy Chocolate Chip/M&M Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 TBSP vanilla
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups chocolate chips
M&M's (buy a big bag, you'll only use a bit but will have lots left to munch)

With a mixer, beat together butter and sugars until creamy and fluffy.  Add in eggs and vanilla, beat until well-combined.  Add dry ingredients slowly, mixing just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop 1/4 cup of dough and press into a muffin top pan.  Press M&M's into the top of the cookie dough.  (My OCD went wild with this, making sure I had one of each color in each cookie!!  What fun to indulge a mind that craves that type of orderly candy placement!)

Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes, or until edges are just browning.  Leave them a wee bit on the underbaked side in the middle...you'll be glad you did.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.  And, please, for the love of all that is chocolate and gooey, invite me over when you make them.  I'll bring the coffee.  Or milk.  Or whatever.