Chances are, you are a food lover who is known for a signature dish.
You don’t have to be a chef, complete with restaurant and a menu.
But if you cook, you probably have something that is your most requested, most sought after, and favorite recipe to make.
It might be a casserole, or a baked good, or something complicated, like ceviche.
For me, it’s an easy one. Chocolate Chip cookies.
I started making them years ago, trying recipe after recipe until I hit on one that came out perfectly every time.
My children love those cookies. So do their friends. I’ve taken them to everything from office parties to church socials to friend-catered wedding receptions. I’ve served them to hoards of college students, thanks to my husband’s job at a university.
I’ve even given out the recipe—but have found not everyone has success. In fact, one woman teasingly accused me of sabotage. “They just don’t taste the same,” she told me. “And they come out flat. Are you sure you didn’t leave something out?”
There are times when I think people must be tired of these cookies—and I could make them in my sleep.
But when a friend needed help with an event recently, she begged, “Please make your chocolate chip cookies. That’s all I want—you make a lot of great things, but no one makes chocolate chip cookies like you do.”
I can’t take credit for the recipe—I don’t even remember where it originally came from, or how many modifications I’ve made to it over the years. (I know I’ve experimented, and found the perfect combination is a mix of Nestle’s Chunks and Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate.) And I certainly don’t think my oven has a magic touch that makes them good. I suspect it’s simply that people like warm chocolate chip cookies that they didn’t have to make.
So, try it yourself. See if, on this National Chocolate Chip Day, you can make it your own signature dish.
Trust me. It’s easier than ceviche.
In honor of National Chocolate Chip Day (May 15), try our favorite recipes.
