Chocolate Chip Cookie Craving

I know this is a ridiculous thing to post about, but anybody who has spent a significant amount of time away from their home country will be able to relate.

I love cookies. I'm talking about fresh, homemade cookies - my favourites being chocolate chip or gingersnap (the soft, sugar-covered kind).

The place where I last worked in Canada often held training sessions for linemen and lunch would be brought in for the guys. The cafe that catered lunch made the best cookies! The HR Manager and a Foreman knew that my friend/coworker, Lindsay, and I loved the cookies and they would bring them to our office piled on plates or even just smuggle a cookie for each of us wrapped in a napkin. My manager was jealous, but he just couldn't pull off the sweet smiles and pleading eyes like we could, so we shared with him.

Lately I've been craving chocolate chip cookies. I don't think I've eaten one in the past seven months because people in England don't seem to be fans of cookies like people back in Canada. They consider cookies to be a North American thing to eat and they just don't seem very interested in them. Over here they eat "biscuits" - this sometimes refers to homemade cookies, but it normally refers to store-bought cookies that are more biscuit-like than cookie-like. This really isn't a big issue for me, but occasionally it'll hit me that I really, desperately want to eat a proper cookie.

Yesterday I posted the following status on Facebook:

Amanda Piechnik is craving home-made, chocolate chip cookies... the warm kind where the chocolate chips are still so hot that they're almost too hot to eat, but you eat the cookie anyway because it's so amazingly delicious. Where do these cravings come from anyway?

My status update received a few comments in reply, including a friend telling me her husband had recently bought some "awesome fresh cookies from a little hole in the wall shop. Mmmm Mmmmm", and my own brother, a guy who rarely baked anything when he was living at home, commented that he had just baked a batch of chocolate chocolate-chip cookies and that "Keri and I just ate one and it melted everywhere." He followed it up with, "I'm a horrible horrible jerk. I'm sorry." At least he recognized he was tormenting me.

My favourite comment was from Emma, a friend at church:

"Hey!!! Defending the UK cookie eater here- I LOVE them and will make make you cookies any time you like!! Come to prayer meeting tomorrow and I'll have some for you! Proper warm chewy ones, not those 'orrible crunchy shop bought ones."

True to her word, I arrived at church tonight and she had a tin of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies waiting for me - the chocolate chips were still melted. Delicious! As I told Emma, I loved her before, but this gives a new dimension to my affection for her. I was also amazed that she would bake up a batch of cookies for me - I want to do that for a friend some day. What a great way to make somebody feel special!

Emma fulfilling a Canadian girl's cravings.
(and being a good sport about letting me shoot a blog pic)
No, I didn't eat the whole tin - I only ate two and shared the rest!

First bite of my chocolate chip cookie. Tasty stuff!