• Cooking Time: 8-10 minutes
• -1 1/3 cup of soft shortening
• -1 cup of sugar
• -1 cup of brown sugar
• -2 eggs
• -2 Tsp. of vanilla
• -3 cups of flour
• -1 Tsp. of baking soda
• -1 Tsp. of salt
• -1 12 ounce package of chocolate chips

1. -Find a big bowl to mix everything in.
2. -Mix the following ingredients very well. Shortening, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. (Mix until the ingredients are smooth and formed in the shape of a ball)
3. -When this step is finished add the flour baking soda and the salt to the bowl. This will create the dough.
4. -Mix that very well until it is very thick like actual dough.
5. -Then add the bag of chocolate chips, and start mixing again
6. -Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
7. -Find a flat metal cookie sheet and spray it with cooking spray so the cookies come off easily.
8. -Form this dough with chocolate chips into small round circles. (This dough will expand and the cookies will come out about twice the size of the dough form)
9. -Put these cookies in the oven from eight to ten minutes.
10. -ENJOY!!!!
12. Source: A Family Recipe

The Cold Hunt Don't you hate getting up really early and your house is freezing while, your parents have a surprise for you? I don't like surprises or getting up early in a cold house, so this was pretty much the worst morning experience ever. I am startled when there is someone at the foot of my bed saying, "Colten, Colten wake up, wake up." I sit up in my bed and take glance at the clock. It's just past four-thirty in the morning! I ask my grandpa why he is waking me up so early. "You'll see” he says,”but dress warm." “What could we possibly be doing at this time, I thought. I got out of bed,still half asleep,and opened my closet to get ready for the cold. I dressed in a pair of blue worn out jeans, a red long sleeve Under Armor shirt and,to top that, a thick red leather coat with two button up pockets. On the way out I tossed two strawberry pop tarts in the toaster and looked at the thermometer. "Nineteen degrees" I screamed! Whatever this is, it better be inside. I carefully stepped my foot outside. It was freezing. I couldn't survive this. I thought to myself, ahh, suck it up. I would one day regret not doing this. I walked to where my grandpa was tossing pieces of wood into the wood stove. It was toasty in here. I had a big sigh of relief knowing that I was going to be inside. I took off my jacket. My grandpa stopped me in my tracks and said, "Hey what are you doing.” “We're going outside." I groaned and said, “Do we have to.” I picked my jacket off the dusty cement floor and I prepared for the worst. I spotted my grandpa in the back of the garage. He was reaching for a giant steel safe with a big lever on it. He twisted a knob for a few seconds until it finally made a click and opened. I couldn't see what was in it but my grandpa pulled out a sleek, jet black rifle. It hit my mind immediately, we were going hunting! I had always wanted to go hunting, sitting in the woods and waiting for a deer. I ran out the door very anxious and started my way into the woods. Cold gusts of wind passed me leaving my teeth to chatter. When I started onto the path in the woods all I could hear was the leaves crunching under my brown boots. My grandpa kept on telling me to take lighter steps and to try to avoid the leaves so the crunches wouldn't alert the deer that we were coming. We halted to a stop and took a sharp turn to the right where we were no longer on the trail. I had to be very careful because there were sticks everywhere and if I tripped or stepped on one it would make a large cracking sound that would travel about a mile to a deer's ear. When we finally got to our stop where we would stay for a while I wiped all of the white fluffy snow off a rock . I would sit there and try to make myself comfortable for a few hours in this cold, cold weather. I was very uncomfortable because of the cold weather and wind but I enjoyed being out in the quiet woods with my grandpa. A couple hours after the sunrise we headed back. I was a little discouraged we had not seen even one deer, but I felt good because I had spent quality time with my grandpa and it was relaxing being out in the woods watching the squirrels jump from tree to tree and listening to the birds chirps at sunrise. When we finally got back to my grandpa's garage he put another log into the fire and I lightly laid my jacket down on the solid, dusty cement floor with a relieved feeling that I was finally warm. That was the best time of my life. We had gotten off to a rough start, but it was worth waiting on that rock with my grandpa even if there wasn't a deer in sight. Submitted by: "Colten B."