Cheer Up

The first song I played today was "Rainy Days & Mondays" by the Carpenters, and for good reason. It's been raining on and off all day and I have yet to step outside the bounds of my apartment. I'm also an embarrassingly huge Carpenters fan. There is no better pick me up on a blustery day than a batch of freshly baked cookies. (especially when it's Grandma's recipe!) I spotted this charming cookie jar at Fish's Eddy last week for only $10 and I was sold. Wouldn't this be a perfect gift for a friend going through a rough patch?! Freshly baked cookies can fix just about anything. Without a doubt these are my favorite cookies on the planet. My Grandma has been making her Banana Chocolate Chip cookies for as long as I can remember. They remind me of Christmas morning, because that is usually the first thing I eat paired with a diet soda. (shame on me) They are a cake-y cookie with the perfect flavor combo of bananas and chocolate. This time around I used a 2 oz. cookie scoop so that I wouldn't feel bad about eating multiple cookies each day for the next several days. (maybe even for breakfast)It's also back-to-school week for many of you and my mom used to always make a fresh batch of cookies on the first day of school. Even though Robby & I aren't hitting the books this year, I found it a fitting week to bake a batch of cookies just for kicks.
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Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 2 dozen

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1 cup mashed overripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1-2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar with shortening. Mix in egg, bananas, and vanilla.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine rolled oats, flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by spoonfuls on prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or just until golden brown.

*store in cheerful cookie jar for good measure