Simple Pleasures: chocolate chip cookies

Today I baked what I rank as one of the most delicious batches of chocolate chip cookies that have ever emerged from my oven. They were superbly crunchy on the edges, then moist and creamy inside. Eaten still warmed from the oven, they tasted heavenly. The boys seemed to think so too.
Perhaps the perfection was due to Eli’s assistance in mixing and rolling lopsided drops of cookie dough in his chubby little fingers.
Once baked, Ethan helped himself to cookie after cookie, until I placed them high out of his reach. I managed to exert some degree of self-control and limited myself to two cookies.

Here’s my recipe:

150 g butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups self raising flour
1 cup chocolate chips
Sometimes I add ½ cup crumbed walnuts but I omitted them today because this batch needed to be nut-free so Ethan can have some in his school lunch box.

Cream butter and sugar until pale; beat in egg gradually, then add in vanilla. Mix in flour, choc chips and nuts with a wooden spoon. Roll out teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking tray and place in 180°C pre-heated oven, for 12- 15 minutes. Once cooled, they can be placed in zip lock bags and frozen.

I find baking to be quite therapeutic - I enjoy creating something delicious with my hands. Baking generates feelings of contentment and happiness, as I am busy in my own kitchen; delicious aromas wafting through the entire house; relishing the enjoyment the boys show in participating with the baking process and then tasting little treats they have helped to create, with a freshly brewed cup of tea. These are simple pleasures, but something as basic as baking seems to right things in my world, even if only briefly.