We (meaning me) baked cookies for the kid’s class right before her birthday. Her birthday landed on a holiday (MLK) so I had her bring in treats on Friday. So the schedule was, Tuesday: shop for ingredients. Wednesday: make the dough. Thursday: bake the cookies. Friday: bring the cookies. Thursday, Friday, Saturday: eat the cookies.

I asked her what kind to make and she said chocolate chip. So at the store I picked up a package of Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate morsels (is there any other kind? Actually there is. There is milk-chocolate morsels, which the kid picked up instead of the SS and which I immediately took from her, put back and picked up the RIGHT ones, because there can be ONLY ONE. And that one is SEMI-SWEET. Got it?)

I checked the back of the package for the recipe. Made sure we had all the ingredients and picked up the ones we didn’t have (brown sugar), and the next day we made them, exactly as the recipe called for. No crazy substitutions this time.

There is tradition. And then there’s Toll House Cookies.

When the kid took a bite her reaction was. “MMM … they’re kind of salty.”

Yes, kid, yes they are. My favorite part of these cookies is that salty sweet aftertaste. No other cookie delivers that taste. It tastes like childhood. The good kind of childhood.