1 cup Parkay margarine (or 1 cup Tillamook unsalted butter)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar         

1 large egg, grade A

1 tsp high-quality vanilla** (not imitation)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour (or 2-1/4 cups if using butter)

8 oz Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Let margarine soften a bit at room temperature before starting. Do not use any brand of margarine other than Parkay or the recipe will not work. Really.

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix margarine, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. I mean it, don't stop mixing until it's smooth. I use an electric mixer on the "Cream" setting for all steps in this recipe, (except when adding the chocolate chips, use a very low setting for that).

Add egg and vanilla. Mix well.

Add baking soda and salt by sprinkling evenly over the dough. Mix well.

Add one cup of flour. Mix well. Add second cup of flour. Mix well. Add final 1/3 cup of flour (or 1/2 cup for more "cake-like" cookies). Mix well.

Add chocolate chips and mix. I usually use between 6 oz. and 8 oz of chips.

Scoop dough into rounded blobs and place on cookie sheet. [Note: the medium sized Pampered Chef scoop works great, but don't make "heaping" scoops or they will be too big.] You can get perfect looking cookies if you make sure the blobs are really spherical and all of the "peaks" are smoothed over. However, I'm rarely bored enough to actually do it that way. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and "smack" the sheet on the counter top to deflate the cookies. Return to oven and bake until golden (1-2 minutes).

If you like flat cookies, smack the cookie sheet on the counter again after removing from oven. Eat with lots of milk. Best when warm.

You probably won't believe it, but I think that the order in which you add the ingredients and whether or not you mix between each group actually makes a noticeable difference. I find it helps if you eat about three tablespoons of dough before you bake them, but your mileage may vary J

Makes 32 cookies unless you eat a lot of dough.

Butter option: if you would like to use butter instead of Parkay margarine, I recommend using softened unsalted butter and reducing the flour to about 2-1/4 cups.