Holiday baking has begun~

The recipe is Mrs. Field's chocolate chip recipe.  It makes a ton and I used chunk white chocolate and cappuccino chips with pecans instead of chocolate chips. The cappuccino chips are new to me and very good.  They are from King Arthur.  The white chocolate hunks or small squares are from the same source.  Beth always celebrates her birthday with pancakes, so after we go out for that tradition I am going to try the same recipe with home made applesauce and some other delicious goodies--what ever I lay hands on in the baking cupboard. I have not made cookies for years because they are so time consuming, but I found if I put everything on a tray and have it ready and at room temperature, things run a little smoother.  On the 22nd of this month Cook's Corner will have their cookie recipe inset in the Columbus Dispatch.  Several pages of reader's favorite cookie recipe.  I put one in for consideration called dessert cookie which is a cake like country cookie with a burnt sugar topping. 
                                    

                                                 

I am making a second batch tomorrow and adding home made apple sauce to this recipe and maybe raisins instead of the other goodies.

ABOVE: Same batter but with home made applesauce.  This makes it more cake like.

These are just like Mrs. Fields...makes 112 cookies."

Ingredients:

2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 2 cups packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons baking soda

4 eggs 4 cups all-purpose flour 5 cups rolled oats 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips 8 ounces finely grated chocolate bar 3 cups chopped walnuts

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2.	Cream together butter or margarine, white sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla.
3.	Mix together in a separate bowl: salt, baking powder, baking soda, flour and oatmeal (put small amounts of oatmeal in blender until it turns to powder. Measure out 5 cups of oatmeal and only "powderize" that, NOT 5 cups "powderized" oatmeal).
4.	Mix all of the above.
5.	Add: chocolate chips, grated chocolate bar, and chopped nuts (any kind).
6.	Bake on greased cookie sheet (make golf ball sized balls) and bake about two inches apart. Bake for 8 -10 minutes. Do not over bake. Note:There are many recipes for Mrs. Field's cookies but this is the one I use. I have a hankering to try lamb shanks. (Hankering? Where did that come from?)  I don't know why.  I think it is because our friends in Chevy Chase always ordered them when we ate out after an antiques show.  I am on the look out for recipes although it does not seem too complicated. I guess any shanks would do, but I have found that now the prices of ox tails and shanks have risen to steak level for some reason.  It is practically all bone, so why the price escalation? One butcher in Cincinnati said it would be about $10. a pound.  I said forget it, I missed that boat.