Maternal Ingenuity

This was a busy week for sports in our household.  My youngest daughter is on the school softball and football teams, each of which called for a full-day tournament.  And, being a writer who works only for myself, I had the luxury of attending both tournaments.

“Luxury” may be a relative term here.  The football tournament was held on Thursday, and the weather was, uh, poor.  I won’t say the rain was torrential, but I did notice Gene Kelly hanging off a lamppost one field over.  And between the wind and the biting cold, it was tough on players and spectators.

Fortunately, the coaches had brought along a tent to keep the girls’ belongings dry.  Unfortunately, no one had brought tent pegs, so periodically the wind lifted the poles in the air and threatened to carry the tent away.

Here’s where the maternal ingenuity comes in.  One of the girls’ mothers lives across the street from the field.  She didn’t have tent pegs, but she gathered pieces of firewood from her backyard.  And to knock them into the ground, she brought her hippo-shaped meat tenderizer.

Photographic evidence, in case you think I’m making this up:

I always take a batch of cookies to tournaments.  On Thursday, I baked Buttermilk Chocolate Chunk Cookies, the recipe for which I found on the terrific website Baking Bites.  Will you like them?  I can only tell you that the girls’ football team unanimously loved them – and, powered by these cookies, they won their tournament!

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Buttermilk Chocolate Chunk Cookies

(adapted from Baking Bites)

1/2 cup butter

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup cocoa

2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Melt the butter and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. 

In a large bowl, combine the melted butter (still warm) with cocoa and stir until very smooth.  Whisk in sugar, vanilla extract and buttermilk.  Gradually stir in the flour mixture until no streaks of flour remain.  Stir in the chocolate chunks.

Drop dough onto prepared baking sheet, leaving about two inches between cookies to allow for spread.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until cookies are set around the edges.  Cool for 2 - 3 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 20 - 24 cookies.