I once had this neighbor, a bitter old man with a wooden right leg, who would do everything in his power to try and make my life absolutely miserable.
Oh he'd yell at my kids, kick my dog, and even push my trash cans over when he walked on by.
I didn't know why he did these things.
To my knowledge we had never done or said anything to him that would warrant such treatment.
Finally one day I had had enough.
I was fitting mad and was going to put ol' Mr.
Larson in his place (and maybe burn it down while I was at it).
Soon after I started my walk over to his house I paused and then turned around.
I had a better idea.
I remembered an old Bible adage "do onto others as you would want done onto you".
This also coincided with my Mothers point of view "kill them with kindness", and I wanted to kill him.
I decided on a more pleasant approach, one that didn't involve me yelling screaming and kicking things over to make a point.
My approach was simply to look through my chocolate recipe book and find something that I might bake him (I was undecided about the arsenic at that point though).
Maybe going down this route would sweeten him up a bit.
So I flipped through my book and stopped immediately when I saw a recipe labeled "The Chocolate Recipe That Possesses Miracle Power".
This one was perfect as I knew that it would take a miracle to sweeten up that old geezer.
So from my chocolate recipe book I made a couple batches of cookies, I nicely placed them in a tin, and placed a card on top.
On the card I wrote "I was thinking of you today, I hope these cookies will bring you a smile".
When I was done, I walked over to his house, placed the cookies on his door step and played the child's game of doorbell ditch.
I ran like a scared kid after pelting the school bully with a dirt clod.
About an hour later, old Mr.
Larson appeared on my door step.
I opened the door.
His was stern and mouth formed into a wrinkled frown that exuded anger.
I braced for impact.
What horrible thing was he going to do to me now? Just as I was about to start backing away I saw a tear stream down his cheek.
This tear was followed by another, and then another.
"I must have acted some Jerk to you" he said "I'm sorry.
I never have been right since my car accident.
After the accident I had several surgeries, one of them took away my ability to smile.
An ability I didn't think I'd miss, until today"! Now we were both crying.
Mr.
Larson and I have been great friends for five years now.
Many more miracles have happened because of these miracle cookies; there was the one over at the nursing home, the one with the drunken soldier, oh yes and even the miracle with my husband (the cookies made him shut up for a while).
But no miracle was so great as the one that started with this one chocolate recipe given to my now good friend Mr.
Larson.
Chocolate Malted "Miracle" Cookies Makes about 40 cookies 2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup butter flavored vegetable shortening 1/2 cup malted milk powder 1-1/2 cups brown sugar, packed firmly 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup 1 egg 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 cup milk chocolate chips 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips In a bowl mix the baking soda, salt, and flour together, then set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed mix the shortening, malted milk powder, brown sugar, vanilla, and chocolate syrup.
Add the flour mixture very gradually, mixing until well incorporated.
With a wooden spoon stir in the chocolate chips.
Shape the dough into balls about 1 inch around, then place on cookie sheets leaving 2 inches between each.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, or until they become a light golden brown.
Be careful not to overcook as they will become hard.