5. The calendar told me so.
4. I wore jeans and a sweater to the park on Sunday and I was still a little cold.
3. My television shows are back.
2. I saw an actual pumpkin on someone’s front stoop.
1. I baked chocolate chip cookies from scratch for no reason on Saturday.

My apartment stayed fairly cool this whole summer (don’t ask me how, that wasn’t true the last two summers) but I still didn’t do much baking. When I did, it usually involved pre-made cookie dough that I’d bought to eat and then baked after convincing myself I really shouldn’t eat ALL of it. So when I got the urge on Saturday to bake, I picked up some supplies and whipped up the delicious chocolate chip cookies you see above.

Next time I’ll bake them for a little less time – undercooked and chewy cookies are my favorite! – but they still came out pretty well. I use a modified version of the Nestle Tollhouse recipe.

2 1/4  cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 sticks salted butter (softened)
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 bag (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. In bowl combine butter, eggs, vanilla, and brown and white sugar. Mix baking soda and flour together and add slowly to wet ingredients, mixing as you add. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9 minutes or until lightly browned.

I didn’t realize till I got home that the bag of chocolate chips I’d grabbed was only 6 oz, so I made a half batch – not a bad thing when you consider how many I’ve already eaten! Here’s hoping the fall weather won’t inspire TOO much baking for no good reason – or at least that I’ll manage to offset it with gym visits.

Has fall arrived for you? What gave it away?