Puppies and Chocolate Chip Cookies

My husband and I visited Bird World & Pet Village in Bountiful- it's the only pet store that I am aware of in Utah. They have birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, all kinds of fish, cats, and most importantly, puppies. They keep most of the puppies in a separate room in cages, but you can see them through a glass wall. But they ALSO keep some of the really cute ones in cages on the open floor towards the front of the store so people can pet them and hold them (with the assistance of a store worker, of course).

I fell in love with a 2-month-old Malchi (a maltese poodle and chihuahua mix). SO cute! She probably weighed 3 pounds soaking wet. She had curly, soft black fur, with white fur down her chest and tufts of white fur on her paws...she had a stubby nose and big black eyes. Basically the most adorable puppy I've seen in a long time. There was also a Great Dane puppy asleep in the cage next to her- he was about 3 months old, and he looked like he weighed as much as 40 pounds! Those dogs are HUGE. It's an awesome store, whether you need to buy some basic neccessities for your pets, or you want to hold some CUTE puppies...

Bird World & Pet Village
3649 South Highway 89
Bountiful, UT 84010
(801) 295-9233

On a completely unrelated note, I also made chocolate chip cookies this weekend. REALLY good chocolate chip cookies. The kind that are addicting. I got the recipe from Allrecipes.com (hint: if the recipe you are looking at on Allrecipes.com is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by over 4,682 users, there's a good chance the recipe will be pretty dang good). Two suggestions here- this recipe makes a LOT of cookies- you could probably get away with cutting it in half. Also, use milk chocolate chips- personally, I think they are SO much better than semi-sweet.

Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups milk chocolate chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.