Ingredients:

� 1 cup butter, softened
� 1 cup granulated sugar
� � cup packed brown sugar
� 1 egg
� 2 teaspoons vanilla
� 2� cups all-purpose flour
� 1 teaspoon baking soda
� � teaspoon salt
� chocolate chips, nuts, or whatever

Preparation:

Heat over to 375�. Mix butter, sugars, vanilla and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Dough should be good and stiff; if it's not, add a little flour. If you have melted your butter (not a good idea), the consistency will be a little too soft, making the dough harder to work with. You don't need to add flour in that case, but you can add a little if you want. Don't add more liquid if it seems too stiff. It's not. Stir in chocolate chips or whatever. I usually use a 12-ounce package of chocolate chips plus about the same amount of chopped pecans. (The original recipe calls for 1-cup of "stir-in morsels," but I like more stuff in my cookies. You can also use M&Ms, Reese's pieces, peanut butter chips, jelly beans, chopped candy bars, chopped dried fruit, little marshmallows, or whatever. I don't think I'd like marshmallows in this recipe. I've tried gum drops, and didn't like them. I keep meaning to try Skittles in this recipe, but so far I haven't. If you use caramel, some of it will melt out of the cookies and cook in a little pool, so it's better to stick bits of caramel candy into the top of each cookie after it's already on the cookie sheet than to stir it in, if you want the cookies to look nice. They taste good either way. Some things go better in chocolate cookies than in this recipe.)

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. I use a spoon in each hand, scooping with the right hand, and pushing dough onto the cookie sheet with the left hand.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown. Centers will be soft. Cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transfer the cookies to baking racks. If you put them on a plate or something instead of on baking racks, the cookies will be a little too soft. They'll still be good for the first day or so, but they won't hold up well. If you're baking a couple days ahead, make sure to use a baking rack -- one of the racks out of your oven works fine.

This recipe is based on a Betty Crocker recipe.