Easy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe For The Holidays - Straight From The Aunts In The Kitchen!

You know I can't give a recipe without telling a story.

Probably for most of us, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays conjuer up memories of all kinds of yummy smells in the kitchen. My mother, being raised around aunts and cousins who lived in kitchens that hummed with constant activity, loved to cook. When she lost her eyesight, she enjoyed her recipes through me. At 12, I became chief cook, and she retained the title of THE CHIEF.

I can get the job done, but mom, her mother, and her aunts had the talent. My aunts said it was all in the nose, but I think it had more to do with the heart. Being raised on the farm, and cooking for 10 siblings and more farm hands and neighbors than you can count turned my great aunts into skilled "down home cooking chefs" that would rival the cooking shows of today. Besides, if you wanted to know what was going on anywhere within 50 miles, you went to my aunts' kitchen for a bake day.

Depending on what was going on, and the moods of the aunts, any day could be baking day, but mostly it was during the week. Saturdays were for shopping and cleaning house, and preparing for Sunday dinner. Certainly cooking was on the day's agenda, but it was more focused on meals for Sunday or company. During the week was when the fun happened.

I think I learned most of what I know about life in that kitchen, and later in my own. At the time, it was fun to watch the production of countless breads, muffins, fudge, divinity, candy, endless pans of fried chicken and casseroles. It was pure entertainment. If I had thought I was learning anything, I probably would have run the other way.

Looking back, I realize now that my Aunt Lady was a worrier. I think she beat life to death in bowls of cookie dough and cake batter.

I admired her immensely. She stomped through life singing loudly in church and right on pitch. That small chapel sung every hymn acapella style. if you were observant, you might catch the half beat hesitation by the congregation as they waited almost imperceptively for Aunt Lady to set the harmony. If harmony is reached, there is no prettier sound than an acapella choir. .

In church, I tried to immitate Aunt Lady's 2nd soprano voice, but with my strong alto, it didn't flow. Aunt Cally could bring the angels down singing alto. I was proud to match her unusual rhythm that was designed to almost sing solo as she habitually was either ahead or behind by a quarter beat, NOT at all an accident. They knew they were good.

At home, I tried to beat batter like Aunt Lady did, but quit after the bowl slipped from the "crook" in my arm for the umpteenth time! She would frown and say "Land sakes child!" and then smile because she knew I was trying to do it her way.

Aunt Lady was, in some ways, a hard woman. She had seen a lot of hardship during the depression and had built a few walls around her heart. She didn't fool me, though. I had witnessed her frequent and quick calls to her sister next door: "Cally, the Roberts have the stomach virus, I'm making soup." Cally always responded., "I'll do the tamale casserole." Or, the cake, or the cornbread.

The tamale casserole had nothing to do with tamales; it contained cornmeal, sausage, and canned tomatoes and peppers. The recipe is one I have not been able to duplicate, though I keep trying.  Mom served it often on cold winter nights. 

Aunt Lady and Aunt Cally's food became famous over the years, as they filled the kitchens of the sick, the depressed, the widowed and the lonely. Their mouth would close in a tight line when they heard of local misery, giving each other an understanding-barely-there nod, and the kitchen hummed. I was ever present, measuring, stirring, nibbling and laughing at their antics. Gossip flowed, only escaping the kitchen as it was forever hidden in the treasures from their ovens.

If bread could talk.

Aunt Lady and Aunt Cally delighted in playing jokes on me, laughing until they cried time after time. I was as hilarious to them as they were to me. My "city girl on vacation in the country" gave them ample opportunities for "tomfoolery," as they called it. Once, while I was perched on the stool in the corner of the kitchen, Aunt Lady took a jar of cream from the refrigerator, recently given to her by her brother, Finely. She innocently said "Here, shake this until it makes butter." Did I say the cream was cold?

I shook. And shook. And shook some more. For 2 hours. Finally, I could see some whitish chunks which encouraged me to keep shaking.

After hours of giggles and chuckles thrown in my direction from the aunts, they had a counter full of cookies, breads and pies, and I had an ounce of white smush. My arms were sore and I was done. My aunt took the jar, and stirred in some salt and laughed as I asked the enevitable question, "Why is the butter white?"

"Because the cream is white." she replied. She got out the food color, added a drop of yellow and we had good tasting creamy butter in no time. However, I never shook a jar of cream after that, cold or not.

The famous aunts cooked good, plain, solid food that was flavorful and full of calories. They never used olive oil, and their meat didn't have grill marks. It did, however, fall off whatever bone it was attached to, melting in your mouth and going straight to your hips. Their salads came straight from the garden, and they felt blessed because their pantry was full.

If you were lucky enough to eat a bite of heaven from their kitchen, you would feel the warmth of their life. I thought they would live forever, they seemed invincible. They've been gone many years, but I think of them often, and dedicate my many recipes to the labors of love they never hesitated to share with others.

As Thanksgiving nears, I tiptoe into the kitchen and if I'm very quiet as I begin to whip up a cake, I can hear my aunts chuckling. Aunt Lady whispers in my ear, "SusieQ, you're doin' alright."

May your kitchen be warm and inviting, and your pantry always full. Now, the baking begins:

Aunt Lady's Simple Oatmeal Cookes

• 1 c butter, softened (unsalted, but if it proves not to be salty enough, use the salted. I like it both ways)
• 1 1/4 c light brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 2 tblsp milk
• 2 1/2 c quick or old fashioned oats, (she used old fashioned)
• 2 c flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 c white sugar (set aside on a plate)

Procedure:

1. Cream brown sugar and butter until fluffy.
2. Add eggs and milk. Beat until well blended. (The milk was an ingredient that is not commonly used now, but it really makes a delicious batter. Milk was often used then to make batters light and fluffier).
3. In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, baking soda. Add to egg mixture, mix well. Chill for 2 hours. (Very important step.)
4. Preheat oven to 375. Shape dough into 1 to 1 and 1/2 inch balls.
5. Place on UNGREASED cookie sheet (Use parchment paper now) about 3 inches apart.
6. Using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in the white sugar, flatten the cookies to about 2 and 1/2 inches diameter. (This is a great time to engage the kids in the cookie baking. They can roll the balls, and flatten the circles of cookies.)
7. Bake about 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are light brown. Place each cookie on wire rack to cool.

Ok, they're full of calories, so don't eat them all at once! Your house should smell terrific....can I come over?