It's St. Patrick's Day - and also the 2nd Anniversary of O-YUM-G! What a fun 2nd year it's been! I joined a baking club, enjoyed a 10-course Chinese wedding dinner, ate my way across NYC for a weekend, experimented with a variety of different ice cream flavors (pistachio was my favorite!), introduced a special "What's for TV" series with the advent of the fall TV season, and celebrated friend's birthdays with some fun cakes!

To celebrate the occasion (and as a nod to my first blog post), I made these mint chocolate chip cookies! They're a fun way to get your green on for St. Patrick's Day and super easy to make. By adding peppermint extract to the dough and chopped up Andes mints - you get a double dose of mint (but don't worry, it's not overpowering). These cookies are really great for any occasion and are nice twist on a familiar favorite.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peppermint extract
green food coloring
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped Andes mints
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In large bowl, beat butter for 3 minutes. Add sugar and beat for another 3 minutes.
Add egg and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Add extracts and enough green food coloring to your desired shade (I used about 20-25 drops).
Mix in flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder until just combined. Do not overmix.
Gently stir in chopped Andes mints and mini chocolate chips.
Using cookie scoop, drop cookies onto un-greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Chill cookies on the cookie sheet in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes - this will help keep the cookies from spreading out too much.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack.

Yield: about 40 cookies