Juanita Jones' Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon hot water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (6 oz.) package chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugars. Stir in egg and vanilla. Place 1/2 teaspoon baking soda in a large spoon. Add 1/4 teaspoon hot water to the spoon to dissolve the soda; then use the spoon to stir the soda into the sugar mixture. Add flour and salt and stir well. Fold in chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Drop from a tablespoon onto a cookie sheet; shape cookies slightly with a clean, damp fingertip. Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for a moment; then remove from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Notes:
This is a recipe that Juanita Jones of Rose, Nebraska, placed in the Jolly Neighbors Extension Club's handwritten cookbook during the early 1960's. I have expanded the directions a little because all the recipes were greatly condensed to fit on one side of a 3x5" recipe card. I think Juanita was the wife of Seth Jones. (Please correct me if you know otherwise.) They were neighbors who lived to the southwest of our place.