The best of friends and chocolate chip cookies

It has happened. I, the chatter-mouth herself, am at a loss for words. What words can provide comfort, encouragement, and assurance to your best friend when her long-time boyfriend has upped and moved across the country?

Do I tell her how incredibly proud of her I am? Proud that she has handled the situation with such grace and poise: constantly encouraging him to seek his life dreams, even while the inevitable loneliness lurks in their midst?

Do I tell her that everything will be okay? That these next two years will fly by and soon enough she will be packing up and joining him in Washington, DC and I’ll be the one here with red puffy eyes?

Why is it that when it comes to the people you love most and know best, you cannot figure out what to say? Perhaps it is because you feel their pain the greatest. It is not simply a scene which you are observing, but a reality that you see, hear, and feel each day. Her pain is, in a small way, my pain.

I have no idea what I will say to her, but I do know that I will be armed with chocolate. Lucky for me, I have my sister-in-law's recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. I have little doubt that the cookies, accompanied by a bottle of our favorite wine, will say more than my words possibly could:

That I am so very proud of her. That everything will be alright. That I am so incredibly thankful for the friendship we have and I will always be here.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from Leslie Kuest)

1 C. butter, at room temperature
1 C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2 1/2 C. oatmeal, ground fine in the blender
2 C. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
6 oz. dark chocolate chips
1 Hershey's chocolate bar, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream together butter and sugars until creamy. Add egg and vanilla, mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oatmeal, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture a little bit at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the chocolate and mix just until incorporated.

Drop rounded teaspoons of the dough onto a cookie sheet, 1-2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes.