Howdee, New Neighbors!

Time to welcome more new neighbors into our 'hood...My daughter helped me bake chocolate chip cookies while my son napped. Ya know, she is such a good helper ... once she knew we were not giving away ALL of the cookies, that is!! We picked out a dozen of the "prettier" ones and tucked them into a big parchment paper envelope. I punched a hole in the top and held it closed with a curly ribbon and an enormous homemade "Welcome" tag. Added our names and phone number to the back and away we go!

Please share your fun ideas for welcoming new neighbors in the comments. Last summer when ... coincidentally ... we welcomed a different family into that same house, I posted about the muffins I brought and Barbara left some superb ideas in the comments! In this new case, the family has lived in our town longer than us, so I don't have too much advice for them! :-)

Chocolate chip cookie recipe:
I believe this recipe came a van Houten bag of chocolate chips a LONG time ago ...
makes ~5 dozen; oven 375.

Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/3 cups unsifted flour (I now use whole wheat flour - as if that's a "healthy" choice with all that sugah! - which does seem to make the cookies flatten more)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz. pkg semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Cream together: butter, sugars, eggs & vanilla 'til fluffy. (personally, I think the people who don't do this and just mix everything at once {KM!} get the super flat cookies ... But I'd eat them either way!)
In a separate bowl combine dry stuff: flour, salt & soda.
Stir into creamed mixture.
Stir in chips (and nuts if desired.)
Drop from teaspoon 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes. (I do about 8, depending on my oven as we prefer them super soft and ooey gooey!!)
Fill a glass with cold milk & dig in!