Yesterday at Alice’s Tea Cup, Chapter Two, on East 64th.

Indian Chai with milk & honey.

Chocolate chip & coconut scone on the left, lemon blueberry on the right. Jam and clotted cream are most necessary. 

Pumpkin scone above, strawberry cream cheese scone below. The former tasted like October.

Christmas tea, to go with the pumpkin scone. Quite heavy on the cloves.

Some mornings you just wake up hungry. You think about what you want - a bagel? Granola? An egg sandwich? No. You’re ravenous. You have a big day ahead of you. Meetings booked straight through from nine in the morning until eight thirty at night. It’s your last day in New York before you fly across the country to San Francisco, in a middle seat. You worked long hours yesterday, no chance to stop for lunch or dinner. You’re pretty damn hungry. Do you want french toast? Banana walnut pancakes? A sticky, gooey cinnamon bun? Maybe none of these things will do. Maybe what you really want is a belgian waffle, piled high with two scoops of ice cream (strawberry and cookies ‘n’ cream), powdered sugar, whipped cream and chocolate chips. Oh, and a side of bacon.

A disproportionate percentage of my food blogging seems to be about chocolate chip cookies, but these are the definitive one-and-onlys. Made recently for a work potluck themed around childhood nostalgia, this is the cookie off the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag, which my mom used to make and which is virtually impossible to execute with anything less than perfection. I use my mom’s edits: a little bit less sugar than called for, and a little bit extra walnuts and vanilla. 

Chocolate chip cookies:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup butter, salted 
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar (Mom and I use 1/2 cup)
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla (we splash about an extra teaspoon in)
• 2 eggs
• 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or more, if you like)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Sift together dry ingredients.
3. Beat together softened butter, both sugars and vanilla in a separate bowl until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. 
4. Beat in dry mixture gradually, then stir in chocolate chips and nuts. 
5. Drop by one-inch spheres onto parchment-lined baking sheets and bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.