This past weekend, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. This was one of those ADD/ADHD-fueled decisions that seemed to come out of nowhere, yet I ran with it like it was my entire reason for being.

Usually when I set about to make something in the kitchen, I either improvise, or search out dozens of related recipes and form my own recipe from the mess. One lesson I learned from Thanksgiving feast preparations is that sometimes, the recipe on the package is the best one you can follow. Cranberry sauce is an excellent example of this. Whenever you pick up a bag of fresh cranberries, it invariably has the same simple recipe on the back; 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 12 oz package of cranberries, boil 10 minutes, set to cool. Safe, simple, always comes out great. I had this thought in mind when I decided I'd carry through and make the chocolate chip cookies. So out comes the bag of semi-sweet chips, and on the back was the following recipe.

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2. Mix salt and flour in a small bowl.

3. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

4. Add in vanilla extract and egg.

5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mix well.

6. Add chocolate chips, mix well.

7. Spoon out tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.

8. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

9. Remove from cookie sheet immediately and cool on wire rack.

The cookies came out great, the recipe made about 36 decently sized cookies, which should last in any household for a decent amount of time. But next time I make cookies, I'll be using a different recipe. Lessons learned:

1. If you have a cookie dough scoop (like this one), by all means use it. I have one, but for some reason I went ahead with the tablespoon+finger technique. What a mistake, scoop it is, next time.

2. Even though removing the cookies from the cookie sheets was painless (probably thanks to the 2 whole sticks of butter), I want to give my Silpat a try next time. Maybe the bottoms won't be so ugly.

3. Although I was gung-ho on the concept of simple recipe, I couldn't help but monkey with it a bit. Instead of 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, I used 1 cup, replacing the rest with 1/2 cup white chocolate chips and 1/2 cup butterscotch chips. The butterscotch chips are very overpowering, I'll do maybe 1/4 cup next time with 3/4 white.

4. The cookies didn't come out chewy at all, they were more cake-like. I recall reading somewhere that this may be due to moisture content. I lean more towards chewy cookies than crunchy, so this is something that has to be corrected. I used granulated light brown sugar (it was all I had on hand), so maybe that had some effect.

5. A KitchenAid stand mixer (like this one) would have been a great help while trying to cream the butter and sugar.

When I settle on a new recipe and give it a try, I will share my experiences. If anyone has any comments or advice, do share, leave a comment below!