The All-American Cookie

Submitted by Patrick Ryan

Ingredients and instructions:

1 lbs. softened, salted butter (accept no substitutes)
3 cups packed brown sugar
4 large or jumbo eggs (if use medium-add another egg)

mix, mix, mix

Vanilla (the real kind - again, no substitutes) I often use a 2 "glug"measure-probably about 1 1/2 tablespoons (lots)
Maple flavoring-1 glug or about 2 teaspoons
4 1/2 - 5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour~
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

mix, mix, mix

3-4 cups OLD FASHIONED oatmeal (the instant kind would be a serious mistake)
3-4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips-chocolate chips are not all alike, Herseysis fine, I still won't use Nestles, but some store brands taste like wax.Costco has very large bags of good chocolate chips.
0-4 cups chopped nuts (the measure is before chopping)
The three above can vary according to taste

mix, mix, mix

If I use the international measure of volume of the english walnut(ew), make a ball 1 1/2 ew and place on a cookie sheet - I usually put 9 per standard cookie sheet. Press down the cookie dough to about half its height.
Oven at 350 degrees (know your oven, temps can vary a lot) for ~15 minutes
Recipe makes 32 cookies/batch.
If after 15 minutes and there is a "wet" look to the cookies, toss 'emback in again for another minute or two.