The Best Cookies Ever

Get ready for the best, most deliciously easy cookie recipe this side of your mother.
If you are fancy and have a food processor, you are golden. If you are like the rest of us and never thought you needed a food processor until now, it's okay...the machine isn't actually necessary to cookie success. It is also made almost entirely out of cheap crap, though I am kinda fancy, and I have a few fancy ingredients that I like in my cookies....if you have the opportunity to splurge a bit, I would definitely encourage it.

Gear: Standard big mixing bowl and baking sheet. Food processor if you have one, and a measuring cup or two would be really handy at this point.

Ingreeds:
~1.5 c flour
~1/2 c white sugar
~1/2 c well-packed brown sugar (just smash it down until you can't fit any more in the cup measure)
~1 egg
~vanilla/almond extract.
~salt (approx 1/4 tsp)
~baking SODA (orange box this time - approx 1/2 tsp) ***It is utterly essential that you don't forget this step, as the soda is what causes the chemical reaction that makes the cookies rise and expand as they cook. If you miss this step, you will end up with little hard crunchy balls of crap-cookie. Don't do it!***
~1/2 cup (1 whole stick) of futter. (*if using a food processor: cut chilled butter into approx 8 pieces. Otherwise, soften the butter to a partial-melty state)
~chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, or whatever you like in your cookies!!!

Directs:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In big bowl (or in food processor) Combine sugars, egg, butter, vanilla, salt and baking soda. Blend thoroughly until it is lovely and creamy in texture. ** I usually use almond extract for these cookies, because i just LOVE the taste of almond. It is almost twice as expensive as vanilla extract, so it's kind of a luxury, but imitation vanillas and almonds are available in your supermarket, too. Whatever you want, really, but I say almond extract is the secret ingredient that no one will realize is making their cookies so delicious!**
3. Add flour to creamy mixture, and blend again until it is a homogeneous mixture that is smooth, yet thick and doughy. It will become difficult to stir with a spoon, but I believe in you. Persevere!
4. Add your goodies. My other secret ingredient at this point is sweetened, shredded coconut. Now, you might be thinking, "eeew, no! Coconut? You must be coco-NUTS!" but hear me out: you can hardly taste the coconuttiness, but what it DOES do is impart a long-lasting chewy moistness to your cookies, that will make them delectable for weeks to come. I'd say about 1/2 cup of coconut, and probably another 1/3 or so chips of whatever flavor....you can estimate though, go ahead and add more if you want them.

To BAAAAKE:
~arrange dough in balls approx 1" thick (I use a reg'ler old spoon to measure even blobs. They don't really have to be "balls" either - just roundish blobs. Make sure they have at least 1.5 inches between balls, so they have space to flatten out.
~put them in the oven for 12 minutes.
~Done. delicious. your whole house smells good and you are a hero to all your friends. Congratulations.
**Tip: for soft cookies, allow them to cool on a hard surface, like your (clean) kitchen counter, or on some papertowels or newsprint to soak up the grease. If you want them crunchy, put them on a drying rack.

Go forth, be fruitful and cookie-fy!