One [and a half] handed cookies

Just can't keep me down I guess! I got determined and made dinner tonight. Shrimp sautéed with onions and wine over rice with stir-fried zucchini. Actually the hardest part is chopping the vegetables since (because of my surgery last week) I don't have use of my right hand other than using my index & middle finger to help me hold things. It's really interesting to watch me cut things. Especially at our nice Valentine's Day dinner on Thursday. I was worried my knife would slip and toss something off my plate! But so far not too bad... Dinner tasted great, and I felt good about managing to feed us some home-cookin' as well.

While I was ahead... I decided to try making my Chocolate Chip Cookies! If I can manage to bake anything while partially crippled, it should be my famous cookies, right? If you who are reading this now know me well, you will know ALL about these cookies - and hopefully love them?! It's a recipe my mom discovered many, many years ago. However she and I have subtly tweaked it over the years into its current form. Up until a few years ago Mom had an "Application Process" for anyone who wanted the recipe. Only two of my friends got their hands on it -- both of whom have now lost it! And Mom has since vaulted it. "Let's just keep it in our family..." I think she hopes I'll hand it down to my children and so on. Let's just hope any off-spring I may someday produce actually enjoy baking! I've had people ask me if I'd make these cookies as wedding favors and also if I'd provide them to a caterer as a dessert option; neither opportunity came through but it certainly showed me the greatness of the cookies!

This is the first time I had to use a mixer since part of my enjoyment of making cookies is hand-stirring. But I knew that wouldn't be happening so I used a hand mixer instead. I'm not so happy with the [visual] result, but they taste completely normal so I'm calling it success. You're all gonna think I'm crazy but I'm not in love with these cookies. I happen to love the cookie dough *grin* but the cookies are just alright.  I blame my overall ambivalence about cookies in general...