Free throws and chocolate chip cookies - they should be easy!

Years ago when I was a young mom I was determined to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie.  It was my first pre-school event and naturally I wanted to stand out without all the fanfare of a fancy dessert.  Everyone loves a good chocolate chip cookie.  Sadly, mine turned out flat and were left mostly untouched by the masses, all of whom went for the good looking chocolate chip cookies.  I felt like a failure took cupcakes to the next event.  Teachers hate cupcakes.  Again, failure.

Some time after that I was given the famous "Nieman Marcus $250.00 Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe."  This recipe is no small task, but I was willing to sacrifice everything for the good of the cookie.   I shredded chocolate, added oatmeal, and followed the recipe to a T.  I ignored my kids for an entire day and served Lunchables for dinner just to have the time to make that recipe.  Sure enough, my cookies were amazing.  Big and delicious.  The perfect blend of brown sugar and chocolate with all those chips mixed in.   What a hit!  But the next time I tried that recipe the cookies were not nearly as good, not nearly as big and chewy.  Flat once again.  I moved on to recipes from my friends.  Just add one cup of flour.  Nope.  Use real butter.
Same.  Use margarine!  Fail.  Crisco only! Still no good.  Bottom line - I still can't seem to ever make a chocolate chip cookie that I can bear to bring to a party.  They should be easy - right?  The recipe is on every bag of morsels!!

The same is true for the basketball foul shot, otherwise known as the "free throw."  When I watch basketball, whether high school, college, or pro, I am always amazed by the ability of those players to make a free throw.  At the very same time, I am disgusted when they miss.  Here's the deal.  A free throw is exactly as it is stated - a free shot.  You stand 10 feet away, no one in your face, and take as much time as you need.  Freebie.  You should be able to make that shot, especially if you have practiced a few times.  That's why it is called a "FREE THROW!"

And yet, it is amazing to me when a shot goes in the basket.  It is especially amazing when a player makes a lot of foul shots.  Think of it, you have the entire crowd watching, usually he other team's crowd is waving giant noodles right behind the backboard - and when that shot goes in, it is pure magic.  The perfect foul shot must take hours and hours of practice.  Yet, when players miss, I go nuts, yelling at the screen - "HOW CAN YOU NOT MAKE THAT FREE THROW [CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE??]  Hmmm.  Anyway..

Recently a new player is on the scene with a whole new take on the foul shot.  Canyon Barry  shoots his foul shots underhand.  Looks funny, even dorky, and yet, the percentage of made shots is by far one of the best out there.  Here's what is interesting.  This kid is the son of Rick Barry who, years ago, developed the perfect underhand foul shot.  Rick tried to get some of the best in the NBA, who had some of the worst foul shot percentages, to shoot underhand.  He even had some guys making shot after shot underhanded.

The problem - it just didn't look cool enough.  So all of those NBA players years ago abandoned the underhand shot in exchange for coolness and missed free throws.  Some very likely lost championships on those few missed points.  Rick Barry was forced to step aside, until now.  Now his son is making huge headlines and wowing the crowd with his ill fitting underhanded free throw.  What changed?  Well, as the son of the guy who invented the underhand, maybe he had no choice all those years growing up.  Second, what was cool then just doesn't matter now.  We embrace non conformity today.   The underhand free throw is just another way to to "tell it to the man."'   Frankly, if high waisted jeans (aka MOM JEANS)  can make a comeback, anything is game.  So, if you have a budding basketball player, give some consideration to the underhand.  If you have a no fail (PROMISE!!) recipe for chocolate chip cookies, please send it my way.

Meanwhile, I turned to my mom for the no fail recipe years ago when I had a neighborhood picnic.  She recommended her raspberry pie, and to this day, it is a hit 100% of the time.  Not a bad shooting percentage.  The recipe is below:)

Mary Jean's Raspberry Pie
1 6oz pkg Raspberry Jello
1 cup sugar
1 and 1/3 cup water
3 heaping teaspoons cornstarch
Mix all and bring to boil.  Cool for 10 minutes then add 2 and 1/2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Pour into a graham cracker crust  - Keebler Ready Crust  is awesome or make your own:

1 and 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
Mix together and press into a 9 inch pie dish, bake at 350 for ten minutes.  Cool and re-press.