Apologies! Jimbo@2904 drbabs and MTMitchell are right on with their advice. The other thing to remember that making mistakes while cooking is an important part of being a chef. That is where a lot of learning happens. I speak from experience - having made many mistakes!

I'm sure that this is very unsophisticated of me, but I use the recipe on the back of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips with modifications depending on my mood. Sometimes I add a chopped up Heath bar or two, sometimes I add nuts, sometimes I do both, sometimes neither. The oatmeal cookie recipe on the back of Quaker oats is pretty good, too. And I agree with drbabs - if you can read, you can cook (just read the recipe all the way through first...I am the queen of reading it part-way through and then messing up because I didn't read all the instructions).

Drbabs, wasn't referring to the question itself as spam -- someone answered using an online store link, which I deleted!

@drbabs - not stupid of you at all! A gracious and wonderful answer. One of the things I love about foodpickle is the dignity - it is safe to ask seemingly
'dumb' questions.

Was that spam? How stupid of me. (red faced..........)

So sorry for the spam, everyone! We're still working on this.

My mother always said, if you can read, you can cook. Find a recipe that appeals to you. (There are literally hundreds on this website. Here's a link to the 68 editors' picks: http://www.food52.com/recipes/search?filter=p&search=cookies)

Follow the recipe exactly. Exactly. Enjoy.