In my house we went straight to the food.
We were all about savory and tasty.
I grew up with two parents who read recipe books like novels.
They would read, take the recipe apart and serve up wonderful meals.
When I meet Louise I learned to bake.
Cooking was not her thing.
Opening cans or boxes- throwing a piece of meat on the grill would be the highlight of the meal but she could out bake anyone I knew.
I had to learn through her that you did not take apart these recipes and you followed directions.
If it says sift you sift.
If it says soft butter, use soft butter- not melted.
It also taught me how to wait.
Baking takes times.
Now my trick is to take one day to mix several doughs and another to bake.
So here you go- two of my tried and true cookies from Louise
Oatmeal Cookies
mix together thoroughly
1/2 cup soft butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
6 Tbs. Molasses
Sift and add to above mixture
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
Stir in
2 cups oats
1/2 cup nuts
1 cup raisins
Drop in rounded spoonfuls 2" apart on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Bake 4oo* 8- 10 min
Cowboy Cookies
1 cup cooking oil
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup nuts
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix oil, sugar, and eggs and vanilla.
Add flour, soda, salt and baking powder.
(sift these together to get a good mix first)
Stir in oats, nuts, and chips.
bake 350* 10-12 min.
Louise and Our son Joel with his wife Katie- Christmas 2008
4 comments:
Telepathy again! I bought a box of oatmeal at the store on Sunday and was going to bake some oatmeal cookies today, but can't find my recipe. Now here you have posted a lovely one for me :) I'm sure it will be great, since I can't make it down there this weekend, I'll have to bake my own cookies.
My mom hated to bake but my Aunt Helen loved it. My Aunt Helen when to Antoinette Pope's school of baking in Chicago; so I learned how to bake out of Antoinette Pope's cookbook and I love it; plan on getting back into it more now that we have less to take care of. Your recipes look great. Now I just throw things together sometimes like my grandmother used to do with her baking powder bisquets - a pinch of this, a dab of that. ha.
It is funny that most bakers aren't evening meal makers. My mother in law used to make the Cowboy cookies -- only she called them Monster cookies. She could make the best biscuits or pie crust -- no measuring-- while carrying on a conversation with whoever was in the kitchen. Amazing!
I'm an evening meal maker -- rarely bake - but wish a baker lived close by . . . .
My mother and grandmother were both bakers, not meal makers (great term!) Mom would spend all day baking some new involved recipe that she found in a magazine and then be so uninspired and bored by having to cook a meal. I think I have inherited the tendency.
Having parents that read cookbooks like novels - very lucky.
Barbara
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