Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jeramy and I made cookies today. He is sort of a sweets connoisseur: rice crispy treats, cakes, brownies, cookies, etc. He doesn't cook as much of those things now so that he and I stay thin. But here is a recipe that he really likes that we found on www.myrecipes.com and here's a picture. These are waaay better than the recipe on the Nestle-Tollhouse package. Do not enjoy . . . savor. :-)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups (12 oz.) milk chocolate chips

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

*opt. 1 cup chopped pecans

1. In a medium to large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar well. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth, scraping bowl as needed.

2. In another bowl, mix flour, soda and salt. Stir or beat into butter mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

3. Drop dough in 2 tbls portions, 2" apart onto buttered baking sheets.

4. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes until cookies are lightly browned and dry in the middle. If baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway.

5. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. If hot cookies break, slide thin spatula under to release and let stand five minutes then transfer to the cooling rack.

Yields 28 cookies. One serving is 1 cookie: 208 calories, 2.1 g protein, 11 g fat.