Now these are some good cookies

My 5-year-old son, Drew, was disappointed a few weeks ago when we didn't go out for pizza.

Truth be known, though, it wasn't so much the regular pizza he was interested in. Instead, it was the chocolate-chip "dessert" pizza served by one of the local pizza establishments.

To console him, my wife, Jena, offered to bake him some chocolate-chip cookies at home soon, and Drew accepted this proposal as an suitable compromise.

Unfortunately, Drew is not the type of child to easily forget about such a deal. So pretty much every day for the last two weeks, he's asked his mom, "When are we going to make our cookies?" or "Can we make those cookies today?" So finally, Sunday afternoon, Jena sent me to the store to pick up the ingredients she needed. And then she and Drew, along with 8-year-old Katie, spent the afternoon baking cookies.

And I must say, they did a bang-up job. I've had many a chocolate-chip cookie in my day, made by both my wife and others, but these were some of the best I've ever had.

I don't think my wife would claim to be a gourmet chef, but she can bake up a tasty treat when she wants to, an ability no doubt inherited from her mother. Indeed, when birthdays come around at our house, the idea of a store-bought cake is scorned. At our house, the birthday cakes are baked in our very own oven.

The only downside to all this is that I'm generally not much of a dessert kind of guy. Sure, I like my birthday cakes and my chocolate-chip cookies every now and then, but I'm much more of a cheese-and-crackers aficionado than a pie-and-cobbler connoisseur.

I'm especially adverse to any fruit-based dessert. Whether it's cherry pie, or peach cobbler or apple crisp, I'm just not into it. This is particularly troublesome at civic club or community luncheons, where it seems that apple and peach cobbler are the only desserts local restaurants know how to serve. I end up skipping dessert almost every time.

I'm also not a fan of anything in the nut family. This includes everything from peanuts to almonds to pecans. I doubt you'll see me eat a slice of pecan pie in my lifetime; and I believe there should be a constitutional amendment banning the sprinkling of mixed nuts on cakes and ice creams.

When it comes to desserts, I prefer the basics, like chocolate, or perhaps white, cake. I can maybe stomach one slice of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but that's it. Though it's more of a breakfast food than a dessert, I can never get enough of my mother-in-law's cinnamon rolls. And if they're cooked just right, I always enjoy a good chocolate-chip cookie.

The batch Jena and the kids made was gone in about two days. This was in part a directive of my wife, who really didn't want the temptation of cookies sitting on the kitchen counter all week. I was happy to oblige, gobbling up about six Monday night. After sending a couple in the kids' lunch boxes and having one on the way out the door Tuesday morning, they were gone.

But now I'm ready for more.

So I'm thinking ... if I can just con Drew into thinking he's entitled to some more cookies, he'll surely start pestering his mom again. And then, it's only a matter of time before we'll have another batch. It all seems too easy ... (insert evil laugh here.)