The Cookie that Keeps Me Glued Together (Eating the Hyphen Blog Post)

            Paper plate? Check. Microwave? Check. Milk? Check. Chocolate Chip Cookie? Check. A chocolate chip cookie is defined as “a sweet biscuit containing chocolate chips” by the online Oxford English Dictionary. This chocolate chip cookie, however, is no ordinary cookie. This cookie is made by my grandma. This cookie is the best cookie I have ever had and will ever have. This cookie is the cookie that keeps me sane. The perfect balance between cookie dough and chocolate chips, the absurd amount of butter and sugar added, the monstrous size of one of these cookies—all of this adds up to create the perfect cookie. They are so popular among my family that whenever my grandma decides to bake these cookies, which happens three or four times a year, she has to make enough to fill five gigantic containers, one for each household in my family. My family places these cookies on a pedestal, waiting not so patiently for the next time she will bake a new batch.

            While everyone in my family, as well as all of our close friends, enjoys these cookies, each of us have a different way of eating them. When we get the cookies, they are frozen so they can last as long as we want. My dad, grandpa, and a few of my cousins like them frozen. However, for me, there is a process to prepare them. This is how it goes.

1.     Grab a small paper plate, just a little bit bigger than the cookie. For some reason, it always tastes better on a smaller plate, and I use a paper plate, so I don’t have to wash it after.

2.     Put the cookie on the paper plate, and place this in the microwave.

3.     Microwave the cookie for 15 seconds. This allows the cookie to defrost just enough so the cookie dough is still a little cool, while the chocolate chips are at the perfect stage where they have just started to melt.

4.     Pour a glass of milk while the cookie is in the microwave.

5.     Then, you grab the cookie out of the microwave, along with the milk, go to the couch, and enjoy. Don’t dip the cookie in the milk, though. It is perfect, and the milk would just make it soggy.

And this is how to make the perfect cookie even better. While my way is not the only way, it sure is the best way. These cookies know how to make a bad day good, how to make a good day great, how to make a great day the best day; these cookies are the glue that keeps me together.