My Total Undoing

My grandpa, then my uncle, now my cousin own(ed) a dairy farm and while I was growing up I used to love visiting.  I had five cousins who lived there.  They had a dog (I didn't).  There were always soft furry (dirty) kittens in the barn and sometimes fuzzy little chicks in the hen house.  And my grandpa was always around, giving us pink peppermints from his front flannel shirt pocket (fuzz and all).  Of course, I loved it.  But my undoing came with my aunt's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  There was a big (2 gallon, I think) tin ice cream tub in the fridge, filled with chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  And it was always full.  She said I could take them when I wanted.  And I just couldn't stop.  Even my child brain knew that I'd had enough too many but I kept sneaking into the kitchen to have just one more.  Mark says that when he and his siblings spent the night at his grandma's house, she left the cookie jar open for them and he once ate so many cookies that he vomited. 
I have a recipe book that was compiled by the extended family of a friend of my aunt.  Everyone in that family submitted recipes, they sent them off to a printer and had books made.  There was a minimum order and, in the end, there were too many.  So, friends and family of friends received copies also.  My brother uses this cookbook alot.  I often ask him for a recipe and he tells me that I already have it -- in this cookbook.  Well, this week I was flipping through it and I found a recipe for chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  It''s nothing fancy, just oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips really.  But they've been in the fridge for two days and they're almost gone.  I just can't stop!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

2 cup oatmeal

1 tsp hot water

2 cups chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375.  Cream sugars, shortening and butter.  Add eggs, salt, soda, vanilla and mix well.  Add flour, oatmeal and water.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Bake at 375 for 10 to 15 minutes. 

Makes about 4 dozen.