Happy Endings

Sometimes recipe ideas come from entertaining places. Like the mind of a six year old. Recently, an idea for a fun cookies was planted in my mind by just such a child. He'd gone home to cookies and even brought me one. They were nice and I asked him if he wanted to make some cookies with me. He said yes and then proceeded to tell me what he wanted in his cookies. Oatmeal and raisins … and chocolate chips … and more chocolate! Well, it sounded good to me, so I grabbed a tried and true recipe for cake mix cookies and tweaked it a bit to make a simple recipe that fit Will's description.

The next time he visited, we made the cookie dough and baked cookies together. He loved using the small disher for putting the cookies on the cookie sheet. And he loved the cookies. So much that he said he wanted to eat a whole cookie sheet full of them. That led to a funny conversation between him and his dad:

• Dad: "You shouldn't eat all those cookies, Will. Do you know what kills more people than anything else?"
• Will: "Sharks."
• Dad: "Heh. No. It's heart disease. And do you know what's really bad for your heart?"
• Will: "Stabbing."

At which point, we both burst into laughter. Kids say the darnedest things … but they can help put together a fantastic cookie recipe. As always, I encourage you to share your recipe ideas and comments. You can always post comments using the forms provided in the articles or email me directly at . Enjoy!