Launch Day!

Hello and welcome to Launch Day for the Start Up Gal!

My name is Kaitlin and I'll be your blogger for this adventure.

First order of business is to start you off with a little get to know me:

I'm a recent college graduate without a full time job, and as I have lots of free time on my hands, I'm attempting to do some projects around the house on my own. My focus is on house warming gifts for all my friends that have left my hometown to work in various places around the US of A. The process for each gift will be listed (with pictures!) as I finish it, though as the glue dries I'll be bringing you all some helpful tidbits to online shopping. More often than not it will be for new clothes since I'll probably end up destroying the old ones, despite the smock.

To start off, I'll be supplying a recipe that has always worked for me as a gift when going to houses at Christmas, Fourth of July, heck, anytime! Many of you might recognize this cookie recipe from the back of the Nestle Toll-House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips bag, but I've revamped it with my own personal ad-ins.

Kaitlin's Top Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies (made public!)

2 salted sticks of butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract, any brand will do (I prefer McCormick)
2 eggs, room temperature
a little bit of cinnamon (at your discretion, be frugal or pour it in)
2 1/4 cups of flour (they say measure exactly, but give or take a little won't kill you)
1 tsp salt (I do a little less, but again, discretion)
1 tsp baking soda (arm and hammer works great)
The ENTIRE bag of chocolate chips!

Blend butter, granulated and brown sugars and vanilla extract together. Add eggs and blend again. Add flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda to the mix and blend until smooth. I usually stir the chocolate chips in with a wooden spoon (or spatula) rather than using the electric mixer...the chips tend to jam up the beaters (as I learned the hard way...)

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Baking time will always vary oven to oven, so I suggest setting the timer at 8 minutes and giving them a peek before adding two minutes. They should be nice and gold colored, though a little browning won't hurt either. Make sure to use non-stick cookie pans!!

If you want to spice things up, feel free to put some cayenne pepper and dark chocolate chips into your batter. I tried it once and it turned out fabulous! Trader Joe's has the best semi-sweet chips (shh...don't tell Nestle I've cheated on them!), but do not hold back! I've also thrown in M&M's, sprinkles, anything that doesn't melt horribly in an oven. My attempt at gummy bear cookies was a disaster!

Over the past decade I've brought these chocolate chip cookies to parties, to school, to work, and I've even used them as gifts to friends who put me up when I visit them. People appreciate you when you appreciate them, and cookies are the way to a person's heart (and stomach).

Happy Baking!