Time to Sew the Good Stuff

Is everyone else as tired of the recession as I am? It has taken the fun out of everything. My favorite Sunday morning activity is reading the New York Times, but lately the paper has shown a certain lack of ambition. All of the bad financial news must have broken their spirit. Today they suggested vacations in the United States. Whatever happened to trekking in Bhutan? To staying at the ever popular Tuscan villas? It was fun to imagine that we might do those things. It was aspirational, for Pete's sake! Don't take that away from us and start getting all practical!
In the book section there was discussion of making your own bacon (!). What's next, articles on Urban Deer Hunting? (Make Your Own Venison Bacon, shot right in your own backyard!) Will articles on weaving our own cloth be far behind? (I read that vegetable gardening and canning are hot now. Who could have predicted THAT a year ago? Although I am all in favor of growing vegetables and making jam. I do these things myself.) But I am worn out with being worried. I've had enough of that. It's been long enough and I've decided that it's time now to cheer up now. No more panic. No more gloom and doom.
Radical steps are necessary. I decide that it's time to break in to stash. It's time to sew the Good Stuff. After all, don't I deserve it? After making three shirts in a row for Mr. Hunting Creek, all with the dreaded buttonholes -which all came out perfectly after all the procrastinating - what was I afraid of? I decide to make a silk blouse. It's not practical, it's not frugal, it's not recycled or any current thifty-chic trend. And it's not for anyone but ME.
Isn't this pretty? So sweet and girly, so old fashioned, so not like anything else in my entire closet.
This silk chiffon is as impractical as it gets. I bought it from Gorgeous Fabrics a year ago and it's been waiting for its close up ever since. I think it wants to be something floaty and feminine. I'll have to search through the patterns and Burdas to find a worthy pattern.
So go ahead. Break into your stash. If you're a sewista, I know you probably have one. If you don't, then you have my encouragement to get yourself something pretty to sew for summer. It will help the economy and make you happy, which will in return make others happy and then - like magic! the recession will disappear. That's right - it's your patriotic duty!
What lovely thing will you sew for summer?

Summer Reading

Those of us who sew would not be surprised to learn that working with your hands is the new black. Last week I read in Slate that Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work " was the best self-help book that I've ever read" Buddhists have long felt that physical labor helps clear your mind, and the Shakers argued (gently of course) that honest labor was a form of prayer.
Sewing for me is a form of meditation, plus problem solving, with the satisfaction of a job well done. Most of the people that I know who garden or sew or paint are happy people. Yet those people I know who are mainly 'cube dwellers' without outside interests are often very cranky or cynical. I'm sure there is a connection here. Modern philosophers argue that the source of modern anomie is that we work in jobs that have no tangible results. But when we sew or quilt or knit or crochet, when we cook or garden or clean or paint, we have something to show for our labors. It makes us happy and it contributes to our mental health.

When I went to college, we were supposed to learn how to think. We didn't learn anything practical, like how to build furniture, or houses, or repairing machinery. It would be interesting if in the future students could have combined degrees that taught, say, French Literature or Architecture, or whatever, but also a little plumbing or woodwork as part of their education. Don't you think people would be happier if they learned a productive skill alongside a "thinking" one? That's why Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work is on top of my summer reading list. And since we are in the worst recession in our lifetimes, it might be healthy to reflect on the power and meaning of work, and what we bring to our work, and what our work gives back to us. I'd like to add more creative pursuits to my week. I've resolved to add more sewing time, and less "non-happy work" time to my schedule. Also as a nation it would be healthy to think about work as well. Keeping work local. Valuing our workers. Stuff like that.(That's the Berkeley girl coming out.)

I am reminded of those bumper stickers that say "I'd rather be fishing," or skydiving, or sailing. Notice how no one says they'd rather be making a power point presentation or backing up the system, or writing a report?
I'd rather be working in my sewing room. I like making things. It makes me a whole person (and now I have a book to back me up)
What would you rather be doing?

Almost Done Shirt

Do you have projects that are almost done, except for one tiny step? The step that you don't like to do?
I hate to do buttonholes, even though my Pfaff 2141 does wonderful buttonholes. All the machines I had before must have scarred me for life, because I still put off doing the buttonholes. But this shirt has been done and ready for the buttonholes for over a month, just sitting on my sewing desk, giving me the stinkeye. I don't like to start new projects until I finish the old ones, or the unfinished items get set aside out of my sight and then I never finish them. I know myself well enough to know this. I must finish this NOW or it will fall down the memory hole and one day get found in the closet of doom, never finished. It's pretty too. It is a fine Japanese cotton print and I did a nice job of matching the design, if I say so myself. Not perfect, but close enough. (Besides, trying to be perfect is just inviting insanity.) It's for Mr. Hunting Creek and he's been hinting that he'd like to wear it now that it is warm. He even wore the other shirt I made for him as a gentle reminder of how much he appreciates my handiwork. I took the shirt yesterday and remarked the buttonholes, once with a chalk pencil and also with a pin next to the mark, because the pattern is busy and the marks are hard to see. I use a very retro method to mark them - I take his old shirt that I made (those buttonholes are perfectly placed), I lay it on top, pin it in place and then mark through those buttonholes. Retro , but effective. Now all I have to do is make them, then sew on the buttons.
I'll set up the machine and do a few practice ones to get warmed up and then I'll be done. It never seems like a big deal once I start to do them and I always wonder why I put it off so long. I wish that here in Virginia they had places like those in New York where they do your buttonholes for just a few dollars. But driving to New York from here for four buttonholes might strike some people (Mr.Hunting Creek among them) as excessive.
What sewing tasks do you avoid?

A Tie Pattern For Father's Day

I was poking around the internets while I was waiting for my Ginger Shortbread to cook and I found this FREE Tie Pattern from Purl Bee. There are tons of cool theme fabrics you could use and it doesn't take much. ILUSTRATED DIRECTIONS TOO!
Father's Day is June 21st, so you'd better get started soon.
You're welcome!

New Patterns on Website

I'm way behind in adding patterns to the website, but I set aside a couple hours early this morning to at least reduce the backlog.
For my sewing friends, we have new old or out of print Simplicity, McCalls, Butterick and Vogue Patterns added.

For My quilting friends we added a new line from art quilter Laura Wasilowski.
These cute quilts are fun and easy to make and a good project for the beginning art quilter.









I also added a new batch of Cutting Line Designs Patterns from Louise Cutting.
Louise is well known for her excellent articles in Threads Magazine and her great directions.







But that's enough work for a three day weekend! I'm off to the grocery store to get supplies for our Memorial Day BBQ Bash down by the pool! Yes, the pool is open and ready for sunning, picnics, and swimming! We're planning for Sunday Brunches by the pool, Workday evenings by the pool, lunch at the pool...
May summer last a thousand years!
I hope you have a fun weekend planned.
Happy Barbecueing!

Can you believe...

...that this baby is graduating from high school in 3 weeks?
No, I can't either.

Hunting Needed

Our business is called The Little Hunting Creek Company; it is a historical name and it is right in our neighborhood. Just a short hop, skip and jump down the hill from here, in fact. George Washington once owned Little Hunting Creek and all of the surrounding land. Most of the land nearby is either National Parkland or protected marshland. It is especially beautiful here this time of year, when everything is green and blooming and all the birds have returned. We enjoy going out on the creek in our canoe, and the dogs (pictured in a previous post) have been known to jump in.
But our company has nothing to do with hunting, as even a quick glimpse at our website will show. Nothing even remotely connected with hunting.

Imagine our amusement when we received this email yesterday (names have been redacted)
DEAR SIR, WE ARE INTERESTED IN HUNTING AT YOUR PLACE I WANT TO KNOW THE COST AND ALSO I NEED MORE DETAILS ON HOW YOUR HUNTING ACTIVITIES ARE LIKE,

1 DO YOU HAVE ACCOMMODATION,
2 TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES,
3 DO YOU HANDLE FEEDING OF THE HUNTERS

I WILL ALSO LIKE TO KNOW THE HUNTING PACKAGES YOU HAVE AND PERIODS OR DATES AVAILABLE AND OTHER NECESSARY THINGS HE WILL NEED TO BRING ALONG FOR HUNTING
HE WISHES TO HUNT FOR 2 DAYS AND IT WILL BE FULL DAY HUNT.

I WILL BE EXPECTING YOUR SOONEST REPLY WITH PACKAGES AVAILABLE THE DATES AND AMOUNT SO THAT I CAN MAKE ARRANGEMENTS ON HIS ARRIVAL AND PAYMENT OF THE HUNT
NOTE: DO YOU ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS AS A MEANS OF PAYMENT
REGARDS.

Mr. Hunting Creek loves this idea. He says he would be happy to take people fishing for the mighty snakeheads (spellcheck suggested skinheads as an alternative instead. Spellcheck has a quirky sense of humor, have you noticed?) on Little Hunting Creek. We do have authentic English Springer Spaniels, but they have never hunted birds. (They did catch a squirrel once, but I think that was pure dumb luck.) Did this Englishman even LOOK at our website? Does he imagine that we do quilting and sewing, with hunting on the side?
Mr. Hunting Creek is all for doing British empire-style hunting on the side. He says this is a perfect opportunity to wear clothes like Robert Redford's in Out Of Africa and have elegantly dressed servants to assist the hunting party. He is imagining the part of the movie where they go on Safari and are dressed formally for dinner in the middle of the wilds of Kenya. That's the kind of hunting he has in mind. He wants a Hunting Lodge too, and the staff that goes with it. However, no one hunts on Little Hunting Creek. People fish for snakeheads and catfish. There are beautiful ducks and herons and geese. There are deer, foxes and possums, but alas for our English friends, no lodges or shooting parties. No food for the hunters either (unless they want to dine in Old Town Alexandria). Perhaps I should do restaurant reviews on the side? But I draw the line at hunting.
Oh wait! A quick scan of the internets shows that he might have us confused with these people!(But he had our email address. He had to have gotten that from our website. Didn't he get just a teensy bit concerned when he saw the Vintage Vogue Designer Patterns and quilting software? I'll send him a polite reply. Dear Sir, We regret to inform you...

Birthday Lily Blooms

Look! The lily bulbs with the weird flowers started blooming today. BSE and DBiL gave me these lily bulbs for my birthday in March, and we (that's the Royal We, that means I told the Under Gardener where I wanted them, and they were planted there) only planted these a few weeks ago. They grew as fast as the alien life forms that they are. Alien Body-snatcher lilies. Look how they shrunk the dog!

Here's the Anti-Squirrel Patrol on the Hunt, looking for traces of evil-doing from the Vast Squirrel Empire. See all the branches on the ground? The wind and rain yesterday blew those down. Sometimes they hit the roof with a big crash. Once a big branch pierced the roof! OUCH! Say goodbye to $500 when THAT happens! Luckily, these branches were of the small, not piercing variety.
I checked my persimmon tree today and I have about 20 baby persimmons. They are difficult to spot because they are small and don't turn that burnt orange persimmon color until after the first frost. Last year we got ONE persimmon, so I am hopeful we will do better than that this year.
How is your garden growing?

Rainy Baking Sunday

Sunday might be my favorite day of the week. We always wake up early because we are used to waking up early, but it's nice to not rush around and go to work. This morning Mr. Hunting Creek said, "Oh no! We forgot to get coffee yesterday!" So he got dressed in jeans and went to fetch provisions. I teased him about going in his pajamas; he informed me that he had seen people at Starbucks on previous Sunday morning coffee runs in their pajamas. But we have our standards. Jeans and brushed hair and teeth at least, besides, what if he saw someone we know? That always happens if you go out in your pajamas, I think. It's asking for trouble.
He brought in the 2 kilos of newspaper and made coffee and then since no one else is awake, we read particularly interesting or outrageous articles to each other.


Since it is a rainy Sunday, I baked banana bread, cinnamon raisin bread, and by special request, bran muffins for breakfast all week. Have you noticed how expensive bought muffins are? Ms. Hunting Creek looked it up online to see how many calories and it said the Starbucks Bran Muffins had 400 calories each. We can do better than that, I told her. I bet that theirs are full of fat and sugar.

My banana bread recipe is IMHO simply the single best banana bread recipe EVER. No other banana bread recipe that I have ever tried has surpassed it. I don't remember where I got it, but I've had in in my personal cookbook binder since I have been married, which makes it almost 30 years old.

Best Banana Bread (Really)
makes one loaf (9" x 5" loaf pan)
Grease and flour your pan
Preheat your oven to 350
Blend together
2 ripe bananas, mashed (By ripe I mean getting brown and mushy)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk ( I have also used yogurt or sour cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla ( or use rum, that's delicious too)
then add
1 3/4 cups flour ( or use half whole wheat and half white flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Optional 1 cup chopped walnuts (my son dislikes nuts, so we take turns with the nuts. If I put them in he complains, but he still eats it)

Add to loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes- check and see if it needs longer. Mine this morning took about one hour and 15 minutes. Depends on the weather and atmospheric conditions, I think. Sunspots maybe? Or magic. Let it cool before you slice it. It is delicious toasted with or without cream cheese. I eat some for breakfast with coffee. It doesn't last long.

The Bran Muffin recipe is from Morning Food, by Margaret Fox, pictured above. ( A great cookbook, by the way and highly recommended.)

Bran Muffins
These are not too sweet - they are MUFFINS, not cupcakes, and do not have a zillion calories like those poseurs at Starbucks.

1 egg
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup strong coffee ( I used leftover coffee from breakfast)
1 cup buttermilk (buttermilk is low fat, you know)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cup flour (you can use half while and half whole wheat, but they'll be heavier)
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons oat bran ( I didn't have this, so I used oatmeal instead)
1 1/2 cup bran cereal (such as All Bran. I used the kind from Trader Joes. It looks like hamster food)
1/2 cup raisins or any other dried fruit (as mentioned previously, I live in Anti-raisin country. Ms. Hunting Creek, who wanted these for her breakfast all week, added a half cup of slivered almonds and a half cup of chocolate chips. "Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins?" "yes," she said "I want to look forward to eating them"
Mix all this together. You don't want to beat muffin batter too much. It causes trouble...tunneling, toughness...anyway, you'd get marked down in 7th grade Home Ec for that move, so don't over beat. The recipe says to leave the batter overnight in the fridge but I have never done that (not a long range muffin planner) and they always come out great.(But it's nice to know that you could do that if necessary) Scoop into muffin tins and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. We used texas size muffin tins so we had eight huge muffins that took about30 minutes. When we sampled one ( for quality control purposes only) it was delicious. Chocolate chip-almond bran muffins are a great invention. You heard it here first.
I hope you also have a great rainy Sunday.
Happy Baking!

Material Obsession (book review and personal condition)

It's a Happy Day when I have new sewing books to read (preferably in bed). Yesterday brought two new books for my collection and for the Little Hunting Creek Store.
First, Material Obsession. Anyone who sews has this condition. (Blessing or curse? Depends on who you ask.) The authors, who run a quilt ship in Sydney, Australia, present patterns that have modern twists on traditional quilt designs, all photographed in color. The inside cover says. "Owners of the renowned Australian quilt shop Material Obsession share 23 fresh and modern quilts inspired by traditional designs, and explain how any quilter, novice or seasoned, can create striking variations of their own." Excellent eye candy. The quilts are all ranked by degree of difficulty. There are detailed, well illustrated instructions that will walk the beginning quilter through the whole experience. I'd recommend the book for the pictures alone, but the text is very informative and full of helpful tips.
I find quilting very Zen-like. If you've sewn garments for many years, curved seams will hold no terror for you. Applique can be easy or difficult depending on your method, but I find nothing in quilting as frustrating as garment sewing can be. For example, quilters do not have to attempt trying to cut silk chiffon correctly (it slithers all over the table, defying you to keep it on grain. Cotton is much better behaved.) Quilters mostly sew cotton, which is the most pleasant, easy to sew fabric on earth. It doesn't stretch! It is easy to press, and stays where you put it. The colors and designs available for quilters nowadays are so beautiful that the quilts pictured are almost good enough to eat.

The second book is Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again. This book is by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston, both well-respected quilt teachers and authors of many books. Their book is full of pictures of quilts and quilt blocks and explains their collaborative quilt process in detail. The cover says, "Award-winning authors Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston reunite for a follow-up to their successful Collaborative Quilting. This time the duo uses historical quilts for inspiration and collectively gives them their own modern interpretations. Separately, Gwen offers unique insights about historical formats, while Freddy imparts her extensive knowledge about color and pattern. Then the two join forces, often using well-recognized historical quilts as inspiration for new, bold, and modern interpretations. Each author shares 20 of her own creations, along with an additional 30 collaborative quilts -- and every project comes complete with patterns for shapes, pieces and blocks."
(I have to confess that Freddy's color schemes are not quite my cup of tea. Her mantra is "Red is a neutral", hmm, maybe so, but I find too much color is a quilt distracting. I like the book and the directions, but I think if I attempted a quilt in her color schemes my head would explode.) The point of the book is how to develop a design and color system that works for you in designing your own original work. That's a good example for anyone to emulate. Thumbs up for the text, great illustrations and explanations. Plus both books inspired me to make a play date with the sewing cave and design a quilt soon.
Happy Quilting!

Manage Expectations

I was on a conference call earlier this morning, and the project leader said, (in a firm, no nonsense tone that I really should learn how to imitate, it would be so useful!) "We need to manage the customer expectations on this one." and while I was waiting for my cue I sat thinking, hmm, isn't that true of every project in life? That we need to manage expectations? For instance, sewing. I buy a pattern for many reasons. I think it looks cute, I don't want to spend ten years of work drafting my own pattern, I might actually make it. In the olden days (before I had any kind of pattern-sense) I would buy patterns that I thought were awesome but that I would never make in real life because I am truly not a ball gown wearing kind of girl. Which explains why I have one whole entire drawer of gorgeous dress patterns yet wear a dress about three times a year. Shouldn't I have managed my expectations? How many times will I wear ball gowns? How many balls do the rest of you go to? That many? I thought so.
Same with cookbooks. A couple years ago I realized that I had almost five hundred cookbooks. FIVE HUNDRED! That was crazy - there aren't even that many recipes in the world! So I went through each and every one and thought, "Will I ever use this? Will I ever really make this?" and reduced the collection by half. I gave the books to BSE and BBE and they kept what they wanted and sold the rest on half.com or ebay, I forget which. And you know what? It made me happy to have the space, and not have all those books lurking around eyeing me resentfully. In my heart of hearts, I know that I will never make croissants from scratch or learn how to make German food. It just is NOT going to happen.
Which leads me to the fabric collection. I stopped buying fabric over a year ago because I just had too much and needed to sew down the collection a little. And in that year I have realized that my fabric stash and I don't get along any more. I think I have out grown some of it or it, me...anyway I've changed or it has and we just don't even know each other any more. Now I want suddenly cool old retro prints for quilting purposes and clothing, and I have crazy modern hand dyes and batiks instead. Silks and velvet and brocades. But I want floral lawns, and polka dots and stripes. I've got wild and crazy knit prints instead. Has this ever happened to you? Has anyone else grown apart from their stash? Will the stash insist on custody of the patterns that they were bought for? And now that we don't love each other any more, how do we move on to new partners?

Lonely

That's what Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said when she was asked how it felt being the only woman on the Supreme Court. In a recent email from Senator Boxer (as a former Californian, I am on her mailing list) she states that we all need to strongly encourage President Obama to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court.
I have heard some people say that gender does not matter(these people are mostly men, I have noticed). I disagree. Research shows that when there is a mix of men and women in a group, the decisions they make as a group are less extreme than when men are deciding alone.(Bill Bishop makes a similar argument in his book The Big Sort ) More women on the court would have made a difference when they made the completely wrong-headed decision in the case regarding the 13 year old girl who was strip searched in Junior High School. (I know how I would have felt if that had happened to me as a teenager. And if it had happened to my daughter I would have been down at the school with a flaming torch and a pitchfork. Allowing school authorities to strip search a child is creating a situation ripe for abuse.)
Women make up 51% of the population. It is reasonable to argue that we would all be better served if women made up 51% of the representation in the courts, in Congress and in local governments. If you would like to Join Senator Boxer in urging the President to appoint a woman, here is a link to send an email. Or send an email on your own by going to whitehouse.gov and expressing your opinion. Even if you disagree with me - it's important for your voice to be heard.
It is only by participating fully in our government that we keep it a government that is by the people and for the people. Fifty-one percent of those people are women.
As Abigail Adams argued, "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could."

If only Samson had known...

For Mother's Day Eve my daughter treated me to a visit to the Sugar House Spa in Old Town Alexandria. We had our hair cut, and had pedicures and manicures. What a fun idea for a gift! The Sugar House is in a restored Town House in Old Town and is very nice inside. (I'm not affiliated nor did they pay for a mention. I just liked it.) When I sat down to get my hair cut, I only intended to get a trim, but the hairdresser said these magic words, " You have such long beautiful hair. If you went short for summer, you'd have enough to donate to Locks of Love, a charity that helps kids with cancer". I am a total sucker for anything that helps sick kids. My mother had cancer, so I know first hand how difficult chemotherapy can be for families. Now I have short hair for the first time in 24 years. People have been telling me I look 10 years younger. (That would make me look only 29, right?)
On Mother's Day we had a brunch here and Mr. Hunting Creek made the following menu for Best Sister Ever and DBil, my nephew and Best Brother Ever plus Ms. Hunting Creek and J. Hunting Creek:

BLT Chicken Rollups, Crab Rollups
Fruit Salad
Tropical Punch
Coconut Blueberry Pie

We ate the pie picnic style while we played croquet by the Little Hunting Creek neighborhood pool; it has a lovely large lawn right by the creek that is perfect for croquet.
It was a perfect afternoon. I hope everyone else had a great Mother's day as well.

Coconut BlueBerry Pie
(recipe adapted from Celebrate Spring 2009 issue, that BSE bought at Costco and gave me for my birthday, page 36 Buttermilk Coconut Pie)

1 1/2 cups sugar (I only used one cup as it was sweet enough for me)
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup butter melted
3 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract( I used my homemade vanilla)
1 1/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 9 inch pie crust
and my addition - one cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 325. Put pie crust in pie pan, pour blueberries on the bottom. Combine sugar, flour and butter, buttermilk, vanilla, eggs and 1 cup coconut. Pour filling over the blueberries. Sprinkle with remaining coconut. Bake 50-60 minutes or until center is almost set. We ate ours warm. It was very yummy indeed. There was one teeny tiny slice left, which Ms. Hunting Creek took for her lunch the next day. I need to make another one.

Spring Fever with Cookies

My neighbors ask me every year, "What kind of tree is that?" The 'host' tree is a crab apple, which is nice enough, and has the usual pale pink flowers in early spring. The real show is when the Lady Banks Rose that is climbing the apple tree blooms. It has thousands of tiny yellow roses all over it and looks this beautiful for weeks. It was one of the first things I planted when we moved into this house.
I saw one blooming a few years ago when we were walking in Fiesole, Italy that was as big as a house. From the looks of it it won't take long for mine to get that big, the red you see in the picture is the roof of the Alfa.

Is there anything sadder than an empty cookie jar? Nothing sadder around here. The whole Hunting Creek tribe eats cookies with the unbridled enthusiasm of Cookie Monster. When I try new recipes I can gauge how good they are by how fast the cookie level drops in the jar. I knew that these would disappear quickly; I've been making these since I was in college. I cut the recipe fom the back of a Gold Medal flour bag in 1977.

Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (from Gold Medal Flour circa 1977 with improvements by Mrs. Hunting Creek)

First thing, preheat your oven to 350. Now gather your ingredients, or as a chef would say, do your 'mise en place.' (In Mom-terms, that means get everything you need out and ready)

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter ( I only use real butter. Margarine has never darkened my butter dish)
1 egg
1/4 cup water ( I use cold coffee left from breakfast. It makes the cookies taste more chocolate-y)
1 teaspoon vanilla (I make my own and you should too - see directory for recipe)
1 1/4 cups unbleached flour (or use half whole wheat and half white - I do sometimes and no one can tell)
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 package 6 ounce size chocolate chips ( or use milk chocolate, or white chocolate or a combination)

Cream together sugar and butter, then add egg water(or coffee) and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Fold in chips. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. bake 10-12 minute s- mine took 11 minutes - so check yours. Ovens vary. They won't be goopy but cooked in the middle when touched. Let cool for a few minutes then remove from the cookie sheet. Makes 5 1/2 dozen cookies, which means that they will last 2-3 days around here if I am lucky.

My family begs me to bake cookies all the time, but I find it very tedious unless I can listen to music or watch a movie while rotating pans in and out of the oven.
My favorite cookie is oatmeal raisin, but since I live in the midst of an anti raisin Cabal, I never get to have them unless I want to hear LOTS of anti-raisin rhetoric. Since it's Mother's Day this weekend, that seems to be the Perfect Time to make them!
What's your favorite cookie?