We bought a new CD by John Lee Hooker. From the first note, you think, yesssssss, and you want to walk around town listening to this music all the time. One of the songs on the album is Shake it Baby, in which he asks her to shake it for him one time. I wondered aloud what it means to shake it one time. Do you move your butt to one side, and that’s it? Isaac very seriously informed me that you shake your butt to once side, and back again. And that, friends, is how you shake it one time. I’ve started noticing a multitude of shake songs–it’s a very broad subject. You can shake it on the dance floor, or in the bedroom, you can shake from excitement, fear or sickness, you can shake like a polaroid picture, like milk, like a ship going out to sea, like a willow tree, like jello on a plate. So this week’s interactive playlist is shaking songs, with special points awarded for imaginative “shake like” similes. As ever, the playlist is interactive, so add what you’d like, or leave a note in the comments and I’ll try to remember to add them.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are our natural anti-depressant here at The Ordinary. What’s one thing that could make them better? Almonds! And almond essence! It adds crunch and wonderful nuttiness. It probably makes them more healthy, too, but they’re cookies, so who cares?

Here’s your interactive shakey playlist.

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 t almond extract
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup flour (optional)
1/2 t salt
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375.

In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Beat in the sugar until light and fluffy, and then beat in the egg until lighter and fluffier. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.

Stir in the oats, flour if using and salt. Crumble the almonds in your fists, and stir them in as well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Lightly butter two large baking sheets. Drop the cookies by teaspoonfuls, leaving a bit of room. Bake until golden and firm to the touch, about ten minutes.

If you didn’t use flour, you want to let the cookies sit for a minute or two before you take them off the sheet, and then transfer them to a plate. If you did use flour, you can transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.