Cookies.

Dear Reader,

Ah, Christmas!  This year my husband and I are getting ourselves a new flat screen television for the bedroom, so the only thing to surprise him with is perhaps a tv stand.  The true meaning of Christmas can not be found in a gift box though.  It can only be found in a cookie.  Tonight I will share with you the recipe for my family's most favorite Christmas cookie.  It was given to me by my mother-in-law who is a world-class cookie maker, from a long line of world-class cookie makers.  This one was my husband's favorite as a child, so of course, I have no choice but to make them.  She can't remember where the recipe originally came from, perhaps an ad for Hershey's chocolate.  Anyway, here they are, and we call them, simply, Chocolate Sandwiches.  Enjoy.

You will need:

For the dough:

4 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 stick butter

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup milk (or more as needed)

For the filling:

16 oz. milk chocolate chips

16 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

large can evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla

As you see, my recipe is not in good shape, and I didn't write down any directions.  I mixed the dough ingredients together at the same time, and preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

Divide the dough into two plump, round, triple D sized balls.

I then melted the chocolates with the vanilla and evaporated milk in the top of a double boiler.

Glistening gooey melted chocolate.  Wanted to stick my face in it, but refrained, as it was hot.

Normally I leave the dough just dough colored, and cover the top with green and red sugar sprinkles, which add a nice crunch, but alas, I had no sprinkles.  I decided instead to color the dough green and red.  This was time consuming and utterly exhausting.  Roll out half the dough to the size of your cookie sheet, and then spread the chocolate on top.

Cover the top of the chocolate with the other half of the dough.

At this point, the thing was in the oven and I was making tomorrow's lunches for my kids, because in the mornings I am far too bleary-eyed to provide both nutritious breakfast and nutritious lunch, and they would end up with a lunch box full of Ritz crackers and olives.  My son was impressed with this photo, but I pointed out that it is not in focus.  I don't want him getting cocky.  Cook the thing (it's not really cookies at this point, but just one super big cookie) for about thirty minutes or until the dough is browning.  Let it cool completely - it isn't a bad idea to refrigerate before cutting.

Cut the cookie into cookies, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  I can tell you from experience that Santa absolutely adores these cookies, especially when served with a nice Stella Artois or glass of spicy California Zinfandel.