salted peanut butter & milk chocolate chip cookies on a rainy day

It's a sleepy, foggy, rainy day here in New Hampshire, the kind of day you want to stay in your pyjamas and read, or bake cookies.

As it happens, I was thumbing through a two foot stack of old Martha Stewart Living magazines from 2002, and I came across this cookie recipe. Instantly, my brain said "get up! get up and go make these cookies!", so I, a humble servant of my blessed brain, did just that.

I did not follow the recipe to a T, of course. And next time, because I like the taste of peanuts and salt together, I would sprinkle a light pinch of salt right on top of the cookies - I think that would be delicious. (PS. Written a few days later - I didn't like the salt sprinkled on top at all! Next time I'll try finely chopped salted peanuts and see how that works.)

To start, you mix the dough and let it chill in the fridge for an hour, so the cookies stay well shaped when baking. If you skip this step, I think they'll spread in an ugly way.

To make:

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c. packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 t. vanilla

3/4 cup chunky natural peanut butter - I used the Shaws brand organic peanut butter

1 pack milk chocolate chips - 11.5 ounces

Mix together well. Then add:

1 1/2 cups King Arthur flour

1 t baking soda

And mix well again.

Pinching up a piece of dough smaller than a golf ball, roll dough into balls and place on foil or parchment lined baking sheets. Place sheets in fridge for an hour. When you take the sheets out, gently press tops of balls, then sprinkle with fine sea salt.

Preheat oven to 350.

Place baking sheets, one sheet at a time, in oven and bake for 19 minutes.

Remove to cooling rack. They cool pretty fast.

Make a nice cup of lemon verbena tea or a wicked strong cup of good, aromatic coffee, and serve.