Cookies

To start off all the things that I have to be thankful to my momma for, I will share a family recipe. We've all eaten these cookies (school cafeterias make sheets of this stuff, but my mom's is better), and all women in my family have it memorized. These cookies make me think of my childhood, my mom in the kitchen, and me getting to scrape the bowl. Yumm!!! I also distinctly remember my brother and me shoving as many in our mouths at one time to make sure we got more than the other. He's twelve years older - he always won. EXCEPT when I screamed, "MOM, John's eating all the cookies and not sharing!!! Come quick!!!"

Okay, so I did win sometimes, after all.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Drops


Bring to a boil:

1 stick butter (there is no substituting; cookies will not harden with a substitute)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk

Remove from heat. Stir in:

3 tablespoons cocoa
2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter (needs the crunchy)
2 1/4 cups quick one minute oatmeal

Drop by teaspoonful on waxed paper.

They take about 30 minutes to harden. Lift sections of wax paper off the counter and peel them off the paper one at a time. A very humid environment can mess this up and they may take a little longer to harden. I grew up in TN, which I thought was humid, until I moved to the armpit of SC, which I discovered is way more humid! If you accidentally use margarine in TN, you MIGHT be okay. If you accidentally use margarine in SC, the cookies take more than a day to harden. (And by the way, I truly love living in Columbia, but I have other family memories to explain my nickname for the place.)

Or just forget about dropping them and letting them harden and eat the whole pot of ooey gooey deliciousness. Just make sure you share with your kids. It's tradition that the kids get to scrape the pot - it makes memories!

To be continued...