Natural Toll House cookies

I decided to experiment with making "natural" toll house cookies from scratch using some organic and natural ingredients. I have fond memories of making toll house cookies when I was a kid, I think it was one of the first things I learned to cook.

They turned out delicious! There was a slightly different flavor, probably from the sucanat used in place of sugar and brown sugar, but it was actually a good change giving the cookies a deeper and richer flavor.

Here's the recipe:
2 1/4 cups unbleached organic all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups organic sucanat
2 sticks organic, unsalted cultured butter (melted)
2 large eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

In small mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In large mixing bowl, use a hand held beater to mix vanilla, melted butter and sucanat; beat until well blended (@ 2 min). Slowly add eggs to wet mixture one at a time while still beating, mix thoroughly after adding each egg. Now slowly add flour mixture while beating. Once dough is well mixed, use a spatula to fold in the chocolate chips. Drop 1 tbsp size chunks of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 min.

What $9.00 per hour gets you in the real world

You really should offer a decent wage to your employees. At $9.00 per hour your pool of applicants can go a very strange direction. The following is just one such example.

There is a sweet lady I work with who told me, very matter-of-factly, that she had a talk with her cat. She told "Tumbles" that he had to stay in the yard and watch after his baby sister. "Tumbles" didn't like her instructions, she knows this because he gave her a mean look and ran off. It appears he ran off for good because she hasn't seen him since. Perhaps she gave him too much responsibility and being a cat and all, he decided to go his own way.

She has another cat whom she allowed to have a litter of kittens because when she mentioned to the cat that she was going to have her "spayded" the cat leaped up at her and bit her cheek. After the first litter she asked the cat once again, "Is it okay if I get you spayded now?" The cat did not protest that time and so was promptly taken to the vet for surgery.