BACK TO COOKIE BAKING

Dinner was done and I was putting my plate in the dishwasher when I turned to Alex and asked, “Do you have room for dessert? I have cookies.”

“Really?” Alex sounded surprised as he placed his plate in the sink.

I shook my head and gave him the stink eye as I pointed to his plate and opened the door to the dishwasher. “Oh, sorry.” he took his plate out of the sink and put it in the dishwasher. “I was thrown when you said you made cookies.” he explained.

“What?” Now I was confused. “I didn't say I made cookies.” I opened the cabinet and handed him a sleeve of store bought chocolate chip cookies. “I said I had cookies.”

“Oh, right. What was I thinking?” he took the sleeve and went back to the table.

By now Steven was clearing his dishes. “Remember when your Mom used to bake all the time?”

Alex shook his head. “Not really?” He tore open the sleeve and took a cookie out. “But I'm sure these are just as good as the ones you say she baked.” He took a bite of the cookie and smiled at me.

“Oh come on!” I cried. “I can't believe you can't remember when I baked.”

Steven took out a glass and held it up. “Milk?” he asked Alex.

“Sure.”

Steven took the milk out of the refrigerator and began to pour it into two glasses. “I have to say your Mom's chocolate chips cookies were really good.”

“Thank you.” I said as I went back to the table and sat down. “I can't believe you don't remember when I baked?” I reached for one of the cookies in the sleeve.

“Nope.” Alex shook his head as he reached for the glass of milk Steven held out to him. “But like I said, these are fine.” He dunked half his cookie in the milk.

“No, there not.” I placed my cookie on the napkin in front of me. “My cookies were so much better then these!”

“They were.” Steven dunked his cookie in his glass of milk.

“I believe you.” Alex said. “I'm just telling you I don't remember them.”

Now I was getting frustrated. “It can't be that long since I've baked.” I argued. “I used to bake dozens and dozens of cookies around the holidays.” I looked at Steven for confirmation. “Remember, I used to give them out as gifts.”

Steven nodded his head. “Everyone loved them.” he took a bite of his milk dripping cookie. “They were a perfect combination of chewy and crunchy.”

“Thank you!” I looked back at Alex. “But that's also the reason I stopped baking.” I explained. “I was making so many, it got overwhelming. Besides, everyone in my family was baking. It was getting ridiculous with how many cookies we had, so I decided to take some holiday pressure off myself and cut out the cookie baking.”

Alex nodded. “I completely understand.” he said taking another cookie from the sleeve. “Like I said before, these are fine.”

“No they're NOT!” I wanted to swat the cookie from his hand but instead I got up and went over to the grocery list. “I'm going to make you real chocolate chip cookies!” I began writing down everything I'd need. “No one's going to tell me homemade cookies aren't a thousand times better than store bought.”

I looked back at the table where Steven and Alex were smiling at one another. “I know exactly what the two of you just did.” I said as I finished writing on the shopping list. “But you're right. It has been too long since I baked.”