I have major food envy. Whenever I see someone thoroughly enjoying their snack, meal, or dessert, I almost instantly begin to crave whatever it is they have. For instance, today, when I was leaving the cafe area of the gym I work at, a few co-workers were all splitting a warm chocolate chip cookie and gushing over it. And just like that, I wanted one for myself. I turned around to look in the glass case and saw a stack of chocolate chip cookies that were calling my name. I was thisclose to buying one when I remembered I had a meeting at Paper Source tonight and we were asked to bring food. So, naturally, the second I got home and walked in the door, I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Well, after I watched the last episode of Oprah (SAD!).
I actually wasn’t even going to blog about these, because hello, they’re chocolate chip cookies. But then I thought, yeah, HELLO… they’re chocolate chip cookies. And we’ve had this blog for 3.5 years now and we don’t even have a basic chocolate chip recipe! That’s almost illegal. Plus, these are so simple and classic. And tiny. Which means bite-size. Which means you can eat a whole bunch of them. Duh.
Dig in.
Bite-Size Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Epicurious
• 1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips (the original recipe called for semisweet. But I was so excited to use my new Nestle Toll House dark chocolate morsels that we got in our BlogHer Food swag bags!).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Beat together the butter, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of an electric mixer, until fluffy. Then beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour and mix at a low speed until everything is incorporated.
Then add the chocolate chips.
Don’t be shy. Try that cookie dough.
No, really. Try it. It’ll change your life. It’s smooth and sweet and every kind of perfect a cookie dough should be.
In batches, drop 1/2 teaspoons of dough about an 1.5 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. The 1/2 teaspoon measurement is obviously for the teeny tiny cookies, which I adore. But if you want to make larger cookies, of course, just use larger spoonfuls. But I warn you, they won’t be as fun. Or cute.
Bake, until golden brown, about 6-7 minutes. Then transfer the cookies onto a wire rack and let cool.
I was actually a bit surprised when I was reading the original recipe’s “active time” of 45-minutes. I reread it about 6 times to make sure I wasn’t missing any steps. It took me all of 20-minutes to bake these; so simple. I was also surprised that the original recipe said this dough could make 150 small cookies. I mean, I know I ate a lot of the cookie dough but not that much 
I got about 50-60 cookies out of this recipe. Perhaps the spoonfuls I was using were a bit larger, but I thought they came out wonderfully.
And they were devoured in no time at all at the meeting, too. Woop!
So there you have it, friends. We are not Martha officially offers a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe. 3.5 years later!
And since we’re on the topic of classics, that brings me to Oprah. As everyone in the entire world knows, today was her final episode. 4pm will never be the same in my life. My DVR will be lost as to what it should do with itself every afternoon.
She is my absolute idol so I figured I’d share two of my most favorite quotes from Oprah:
Surround yourself with only people who will lift you higher. I’ve lived by this line hardcore for the past handful of years. More than I thought I ever would. I realized that regardless of the history of a friendship or relationship, it’s just so important to get rid of negative energy and negative people in your life. It’s pretty fantastic to live a life surrounded by people who are positive enough to bring you up versus pulling you down and stressing you out.
Use your life to serve the world. Oprah actually used this line in her last episode today and it gave me the chills. It doesn’t really need an explanation. It just moved me! We can all be better and we can all do better.
For the past 25 years, all of Oprah’s stories about how each and every one of us ultimately has control over our lives and our destinies have always touched me. I honestly believe, every mention and bit of advice she gave on building strong foundations, a sense of pride and integrity, and maintaining friendships with the good people, has stuck with me and helped me keep and grow such long-lasting relationships in my life. I look at my family, my Kate, my Sues, my Melis, and am thankful to have had the same people in my life, for my entire life. It’s like they’re all my Gails 
What was the best piece of classic advice you received from either the Queen of daytime or from anyone in general? I find that a handful of powerful words is one of the best ways to motivate myself. Or if I’m just having a rough day, hearing the right combination of words can make me snap out of it.
[Chels]