Teaching always seemed like the hardest job in the world. A room full of kids. Every stinkin day. How many had to get dragged there,crying? How many would cry by the end of the day? I absolutely knew I would never teach.

Then I had 4 kids. Two of them were girls.  They both wanted to be girl scouts. They both got me for their leader.  So I got 16 more girls in my life. Sixteen girls I would learn to love, even when it was hard to like.  And when I needed magic, I made them all my magic cookies.  But I wasn’t a teacher.  That would never happen.

Did I mention that I live in New England? This is one crazy place.  Everyone (OKAY- everyone but you)  is a liberal democrat. Until they have kids. Then, they choose to either stay in Cambridge (or the South End, or JP) or they revert to whatever religious roots were hidden under the grass.  Usually it’s Catholic or Jewish.  In my Grumpy;s case it’s Catholic.   This means that your kids go to CCD (yeah-it used to be Catechism back when you were little).  Guess who teaches the CCD class? Yep. Another 15 kids, boys and girls, placed in my care.   At the beginning of year, to start things out right, I made magic cookies.

So now I have 4 more sweet, innocent kids in  my charge.  Me dear friend Sue, who even knows me (she really should know better!), trusts me with her kids.  Only one has been in tears so far.  Sweet little guy.  It was “Carter, those fish sticks are really hot.  They’ll burn you”. Like 4 times.  He reassured me he could deal with it.  Like 4 times.  Then the taste.  Then the tears.  I think he was really crying because he missed his mama.  He was sobbing for the comfort of a mama’s hug.  So what did I do? I put one hand, gently, on his shoulder. I leaned over and said “Carter, honey, I hope you’re crying cause you miss your mama.  Cause that I can understand.  And if I saw a boy crying cause he bit a fish stick that he knew was hot, I’d tell him to put on his big girl pants and deal.”  “Deal what?” he asked.  Sigh.  “Deal your little self into the kitchen and help me make cookies. After you eat your fish sticks”. And he smiled.  Because mama or no mama, cookies are magic, and they heal everything.

Mama Sheri’s Magic Cookies (**sorry for the lack of photos. I really am away from home, without my camera or computer. I’m posting this from a little tiny thing- I swear it looks like it was made by fisher price!)

I can’t say how many this makes- I always double or quadruple this. I use about a Tablespoon for each, but it will obviously make more or less depending (yeah, I know: “duh”).

Preheat oven to 350f. Butter a baking tray. I use a jelly roll pan.  I don’t care if you “always” use non-stick, parchment or silpat (I have them all), the butter makes the cookies taste better.

In a small bowl mix 1 cup flour and 1 tsp baking soda with a fork. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat 1 stick salted butter (softened) for about a  minute. Add in 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar and 1/4 cup regular sugar. Beat one minute.  Add 1 egg and 2 tsp vanilla extract, beat briefly.Now mix in dry ingredients.  Now add about 6 oz (one small bag) chocolate chips. *** now for kids I stop here. My Grumpy likes “the works” with nuts,chopped dates and even coconut added. Up to you!

Drop by spoon (I use a melon ball thingy) onto tray and bake for about 11 minutes (this varies with size and oven) until just the edges are light golden brown.  If you bake two pans at once be sure to switch them after 5 minutes.  Take pan out and cool for at least a minute or two.Then transfer them to paper towels to cool (NOT a rack). They look a little flatter than a shortening cookie- but are amazingly soft and chewy.  And magic. Trust me!