Winner Johnson (center)

I’m not a downhill skier but if I were, there’s no question where I would do my skiing: At the Beaver Creek Resort in the Rocky Mountains, where they serve free cookies every day at 3 p.m.  The 2013 edition of their annual Chocolate Chip Cookie Competition, discussed in Chapter 6, which celebrates Beaver Creek’s cookie-serving tradition, was held the day before Thanksgiving. This year’s winning recipe from Coloradan Nancy Johnson features milk chocolate chips and — no doubt to make up for their extra sweetness — a little bit less white sugar.