you're welcome.

Brace yourself.  I am about to share with you perhaps the greatest cookie recipe ever to have existed.  While it is not entirely my own, I take credit for the major improvements that made these cookies so amazing.

I'd also like to thank Bart Devon for taking such lovely photos.  The cookies are awesome, but I would not have been able to display their morsels in quite the same way without him.

Here is the recipe:

1c. butter, softened
1c. white sugar
1c. packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2t. vanilla extract
Splash of almond extract
2c. all-purpose flour
1c. blended oatmeal
1t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 c. chocolate chips
1c. chopped nuts

Directions:

• Cream together the butter with the white and brown sugar 
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, as well as the vanilla and almond extract
• Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water, and add this with the salt
• Stir in the flour, oatmeal, chocolate chips, and nuts
• Bake at 350, until edges are browned and tops look just firm enough

Now we really like coconut, and the batch we made today had some in it - which was delicious.  Your prerogative, though. 

This is what your batter should look like:

(The batter tastes great without being baked too... but for those of you weak enough to contract Salmonella or E. coli poisoning, I wouldn't suggest it due to the raw eggs.)

You can make them whatever size you like, although I prefer larger cookies because it keeps me from eating more than one... at least in theory.

This is the finished product, any artistic flair in the shot courtesy of Mr. Devon:

(What a lovely platter these cookies are on!)

Golden brown, gooey in the center, and completely satisfying.  When you try the recipe, love notes can be sent to my P.O. Box : )

Listen to "New Slang" by The Shins.