Who is Billy Joe?

Over 25 years ago, I was a recent college grad. I found myself in a new city. I began volunteering at the Northern Virginia listening hotline, which changed my life in many wonderful ways — not the least of which was receiving the most delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I had volunteered at the hotline for a year when I was invited to attend the training volunteers' weekend retreat. I was a new to the experience, and to most of the people there, but everyone was so warm and inviting that I felt, for the first time since I'd moved to the Washington, DC area, a sense of complete belonging.

On the dining room table in one of the cabins, a man named Billy Joe set out a huge plate of chocolate chip cookies that never seemed to empty.

Billy Joe had intelligent, crinkly blue eyes, long graying brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a genuine kindness and concern for others. He was working on his Masters in Social Work and volunteering on the hotline to learn more about how he could help people with mental illness.

I asked for, and received, Billy Joe's cookie recipe. It began, "Take your largest bowl..."

The first year I made the recipe, I didn’t really understand that it wasn't so much a cookie recipe as a recipe for a mix that got made up and stored. I used my largest bowl like he said. Flour and sugar slopped over the edges.

Once I managed to get the mix made up, I followed the directions to combine a portion of the mix with eggs and vanilla to bake up a quick batch of yummy cookies. I didn't stir it well enough and there were clods of flour in my cookies.

That was just the beginning of getting to know the quirky recipe. They weren't like Toll House cookies; that's for sure. When I did get it right, though, the result was as delicious as Billy Joe's, and they never failed to recall to me his warmth and good nature.

With experience, it got easier, especially once I ditched the bowl all together in favor of a giant baking pan.

Over my 25 years of baking these cookies, I've tried lots of different little tweaks and twists, and now I have the recipe and the baking process perfected. I know the exact moment to bring them out of the oven. I know the best chocolate chips to complement the pecans. I crack on a dash of coarse salt to bring out the flavor of the nuts and the chocolate.

Every year since I first received Billy Joe's recipe, I have made a batch of the mix at the start of the holiday season. In our family, the holiday season starts with Thanksgiving, rolls right into my daughter's birthday (December 1), and includes both Channukah and Christmas. It is, in short, a whirlwind crossed with a train wreck.

This cookie recipe has been a total life saver getting me through holiday potlucks, co-worker gifts, teacher appreciation luncheons, and last minute treats for holiday movie nights with friends.

It's become an important part of our holiday tradition — a way to give something personal, homemade, and special, without knocking myself out when I don't have the time or energy.

They store well. They travel well. They ship well. They look special — they aren't like any other chocolate chip cookie out there.

My daughter, Maddie, has been eating and baking these cookies literally for her entire life. As a little kid, she loved to help squish up the cookie mix ingredients together. We had matching mother-daughter aprons just for cookie baking.

Maddie never liked the pecans that were part of the original recipe (that I love), and so we innovated the plain, nut-free version that has always been her go-to.

When she went to college, of course I sent up cookies for her to share with her friends.

"My mom bakes the best chocolate chip cookies," Maddie would boast, as she passed them around.

"Sure, my mom (or dad) makes the best chocolate chip cookies, too," they'd say.

Then they'd bite into them.

Victory was conceded.

The cookies developed a cult following among her friends, and Maddie and I started talking about turning them into a business.

So now with the generosity of the LAUNCH program in Chattanooga, we're doing it.

Maddie has completed her studies and we are spending our pandemic time together bringing some much needed love, comfort, and kindness to the world in the form of Billy Joe's Chocolate Chip cookies.

Which brings me back to where these cookies all started...supporting callers with a wide spectrum of mental health needs at the Northern Virginia Hotline.

All of us that volunteered at the listening hotline knew that the holiday season was a tough one for many people. Holiday season is a hard time for many who feel alone. Kindness is important, and needed.

In the spirit of the season and the spirit of Billy Joe, Maddie and I invite you to share a cookie with us.