My Real Life 2015 Best Nine and Happy 2016

According to 2015bestnine.com, my best nine Instagrams were the ones shown above. My real life best nines are the ones shown here on our holiday card (photos by Sarah Hebenstreit) and below.

Thanks for all the love and support this year. I'm so grateful to my family/friends and to all the friends I've made both online and offline this year. Happy new year!

1. Lucas turned 5 and had an epic Wild Kratts party

2. Theo turned 3 and jammed with his buddies

3. Lisa turned 40 and holy shit she's 40 (I went to Tulum, Mexico with my girlfriends from college on our annual trip)

4. Lucas started kindergarten and LOVES it

5. Family trip to Maui and Theo's first plane ride

6. Lisa and Nick celebrated their 10-year anniversary (photo by Sarah Hebenstreit)

7. Lucas had his first surgery (1/2" piece of wood in his foot)--also, not really a "best" nine but he did so well throughout the whole ordeal.

8. Nick ran a full marathon (3.49) and hasn't run since (but plans to get back into it in 2016), photo by Sarah Hebenstreit

9. Lisa went to Tulum and got a tan--Nick hiked the Trinity Alps and got pneumonia / I also conquered a very big fear of mine!

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Recipe: Oh Yeah, Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a recipe -- the last post was about these Soft Baked Pretzels. It's not that I haven't been baking and cooking away, but rather I've been trying to perfect my version of the best classic chocolate chip cookie. After numerous recipe testings and listening to feedback from my select group of cookie critics, I finally found "the one" that met all my chocolate chip cookie criteria -- crispy around the edges, on the thinner side but not flat, chewy in the center, not too sweet, a little salty, perfect chocolate to dough ratio, puddles of melty layered chocolate, good the next day, and most importantly, not cakey. I hate cakey.

The recipe comes from Ashley Rodriguez of Not Without Salt on Food52 (one of my favorite blogs -- have you seen their dreamy office kitchen workspace makeover on Remodelista?). I even tried altering the recipe just a bit to see if some of my favorite elements (espresso powder, semi-sweet chocolate chips, etc.) from other recipes would make this even better. But it is perfect as is according to me and my taste buds.

Puddles and layers and flaky salt -- oh yeah!

A few must do's to make this cookie perfect:
+ Use a high quality (it really makes a difference -- the cheap stuff doesn't melt/puddle the same or taste the same) dark chocolate bar such as Divine or Valrhona and chop it up. Don't think I'll ever go back to chips unless it's an emergency.
+ Don't overmix
+ Always refrigerate the dough
+ Always sprinkle that flaky salt on top before baking
+ Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes

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