Cookie Monsters!

'Tis the season for holiday baking! I don't think I've ever been much of a holiday baker, but with two cookie exchange parties over two weekends in a row, it's been easy to get a huge variety of delicious cookies with relatively little effort on my part. Kevin is very pleased! The great thing about the exchanges is that I'm also gathering some awesome recipes along the way. Again, Kevin is very pleased :) Although I do get a hankering for my mom's traditional Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, I have also become a big fan (and slight addict) of the website allrecipes.com. Many of our meals come from this website, some directly, and others with personal interpretations to our tailor to our taste. The chocolate cookie recipe I snagged from this website is awesome and a favorite of mine, so I thought I'd share it here. I'd like to think it is my awesome culinary skills that made them taste good, but really I follow a few tips left by reviews, one of the reasons that I adore allrecipes. I let the eggs reach room temperature before mixing them in and letting the cookie dough cool in the refrigerator before baking. I've made the recipe before without these steps, and once it came out fine and once they didn't, so I really don't know if it makes a difference or not. Anyway, here's the recipe!

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.