Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl whisk together your dry ingredients: 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, a dash of resentment and a pinch (or to taste) of paranoia; set aside.

In another bowl, blow the memory of being in love up like a hot air balloon. The warmth will not be enough to resuscitate you but will be just perfect to chill the 1 cup of salted butter.

In the same bowl creme the butter and 2 cups sugar until you forget what winter does to you – if you begin to think it’s not only winter doing this to you then you’ve mixed too long and must start again.

Beat in 2 large eggs – their yokes should be bright and have a similar tone to the sun before it got bad again. It got bad again despite your best efforts. These days it gets bad while you’re watching, I know.

Add vanilla extract to the bowl and mix until you see the alleged light at the end of the tunnel. At first, the mixture will resemble a tight-lipped absentminded smile but keep mixing, remember it’s a tunnel, not a cave.

Mix in the dry ingredients and 2 cups of chocolate chips gently, the way you wish hands wiser than your own would take away the constant pressure in your chest.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until the feeling that keeps you up at night returns, or the cookies are just browned.

Voilà, chocolate chip cookies.