The Mystery of the Flat Cookies

Have you ever seen the TV show Busytown Mysteries?  It is a series based on the books about Busytown by Richard Scary.  Anyways, on every episode the characters have to solve a mystery that takes place in their town.  Usually, it is pretty apparent within 2 minutes what the answer to the mystery is... and I roll my eyes at the show and pat myself on the back for being so smart.

Well... for the past 5-years a mystery has unrolled in my own life that I just couldn't solve, and it was killing me!  I used to be known for my killer chocolate chip cookies.  I mean these cookies were real man-catchers... you can ask my husband.  I continued to make these cookies well into our marriage and at any potluck dinner they would disappear fast.  Then I moved to Rigby.

When I moved to Rigby, I lost my touch with the cookies!  Everytime I would make them, they would come out flat and hard.  I was devistated.  I tried new recipes, I tried different cook times, temperatures, flour & oatmeal combinations.  I tried butter vs. margarine vs. crisco... and nothing was working.  I blamed the climate... nope my mom's and sister's cookies continued to turn out fabulously and they live in the same climate.  I blamed my oven... then we moved to Shelley and I continued to get the same results, so it wasn't the oven... and so I blamed myself and my cooking abilities.

A few weeks ago my lovely mother made us a batch of her fabulous cookies at her home and boy were they good.  She must have known how much I liked them because when she came to babysit for me the following week so that I could go birthday shopping (her gift to me THANKS MOM!), she made some cookies for the kids... and guess what they turned out flat...hmmm...  then it hit me, just like Busytown Mysteries, what is probably obvious to all of you, finally occurred to me... my baking soda and baking powder had gone flat.  As it turns out, I stocked up on food storage while living in Utah, but never rotated through it very fast, so that by the time we moved to Rigby, my ingredients were expired and not working properly!  I was so excited to test my theory that I rushed to the store and bought a new box of baking soda and baking powder and made a batch of cookies... and ta da!  Fluffy Cookies! 

I about had tears in my eyes as I single handedly ate an entire batch of cookies.  I finally feel like a good mom again.  My kids may have rolled their eyes as I danced around the kitchen singing, "Everybody all together, let's solve a mystery with Mommy!" (The Busytown theme song), but I guarantee they were licking their lips as they chowed down on chewy-gooey fluffy cookies.

Want the recipe?

The Martineau Girl's Man-Catching Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cubes margarine (or butter... but NOT Crisco)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together, then add:

1 tsp baking soda (be sure to check the expiration date!)

1/2 tsp baking powder (ditto)

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 cups blended oatmeal (this part is very important... put the 2 cups of oatmeal in the blender and blend until a fine powder... this is the secret ingredient that makes the cookies chewey).

4 oz. chocolate chips (or much more if your family is choco-holic like mine)

Blend until mixed.  Scoop onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.