Yesterday, I went to my friend's house and we decided it would be a good idea to make chocolate chip cookies. How harmless can that be, right? We were using the Joy of Cooking recipe and everything. It's pretty impossible to muddle chocolate chip cookies.

Anyway, I was having a grand old time softening the butter (by which I mean, beating the crap out of it), while my friend was measuring out some other stuff in a separate bowl. She goes over to the recipe and is like, "Okay, one teaspoon of hot water," and then marches over to the sink with the tablespoon. Luckily, before she adds the water, I point out to her that she has the tablespoon, which is very different from the teaspoon. She gives me this "Oh... um... crap" sort of look, but switches the spoons. A few minutes later: "So wait, Nina... what would happen if you added a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon?" Oh dear.

Although a tablespoon of salt had already been added to the flour, when the recipe only called for a teaspoon, we were able to sift some of the excess salt out. Still, the final product was peculiarly salty chocolate chip cookies. They didn't taste inherently bad, but you had to be prepared for the saltiness, or else you'd be in for an unpleasant surprise.

In conclusion: whoever named the measuring spoons shouldn't have given them all names starting with a "t."

This is a single-egg frying pan, just right for frying one egg for breakfast. Also, if you manage to squish two eggs into it, then you can make egg McMuffins, only sans the Mc, since they're homemade. I should've included something else in for size comparison, because the adorable thing about this frying pan and spatula is that it's so small. I love it.

( I still am working on bouncing flash, so here is the photo again minus the flash )

Guys guys guess what guys? I can make cake in a coffee mug! No really, it's true!

( I can prove it, too! See, I have a recipe and everything :3 )

These cakes are very easy and quick to make and they are fun and make very little mess. Basically, you should just make one for yourself. Right now. When I experimented with making a cake using lemon and cinnamon, the result was AMAZING. It tasted like a crepe, sort of, but that's probably because we always put lemon juice and cinnamon on our crepes. >.>

But, yeah, it tastes amazing and it is a lot of fun. I hope everyone gets a chance to make one. Props to hannahstuff for posting the recipe in the first place.

So, I made the cookies that I described a bit ago. I normally post pictures of what I bake, but this time, I will abstain, because the result didn't look like it should be consumed by any human. That aside, here is what I learned:

1. Don't use a mix when making chocolate chip cookies if you don't have to. It tastes better, and isn't so much harder, to just do it from scratch.
2. If you're using a mix to avoid buying ingredients, make sure you have the ingredients that the mix requires ahead of time, because even mixes require some ingredients.
3. Make sure the butter is actually soft before putting it in the not-microwave-safe mixing bowl.
4. If there are no eggs in the house, a vegan substitute will work. It may taste strange, but it will work. Plus, it means you don't have to worry about salmonella when eating the cookie dough. Hopefully.
5. Adding a tablespoon of milk does not actually change the way the dough tastes, though it does make it very difficult for the dough to stay as doughy as it was before adding the milk.
6. Sour Patch Kids melt deliciously when you bake them into cookies.
7. So do Junior Mints.
8. They both also stick to the pan like they are clinging for dear life. It takes at least half an hour to scrape Sour Patch Kid residue off of a pan, and then even longer to thoroughly clean it.
9. Adding Nerds is never a bad idea, but it does taste strange when combined with the mint flavor of the Junior Mints.
10. Diabetes and tooth decay is a risk a chef must occasionally face.
11. Even after all that, the cookies will taste good. They may bake in a giant mass of cookie-blob, but they will taste good.

So, everyone, go out there and get some chocolate chip cookie ingredients, add whatever candy suits your fancy, be it Nerds, Junior Mints, and Sour Patch Kids, or something totally different, bake it together, and enjoy your cookies!