"O" is for Oatmeal and that's good enough for me!

 National Oatmeal Cookie Day is TODAY!!!

I love Oatmeal cookies especially Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies!!! If they have raisins, I’m out but my Mom loves raisins (I think that she adds more raisins then are in the recipe!) I like the cookie to be soft sometimes but I love the hard crunch kind that is just that little bit over cooked. They are great for milk and mush (will explain later). My Mom stole her Oatmeal cookie recipe from the Quaker box (well I guess it is not stealing if they but it on the box), it’s a good, solid, consistent recipe that’s easy too (see below).

When I was little my Mom would get the gumbo sized carton of plain oatmeal cookies from Shop Rite and they were always hard, almost like a stale cookie. Those were my favorites, even better then home-made!!! I don’t know what I loved then so much but I did. Shop Rite changed their recipe or something years back and now the cookie even when stale does not have the same snap as it did before.

I just generally love a harder cookie, stale Oreo’s are amazing, they really absorb the milk which is just the way I like them. When I was little my Dad would make mush every night for his dessert. I don’t know anyone who makes this and some people (my Mom) think its gross but I enjoy it. Mush is when you get a coffee mug fill it to the brim with broken up cookies. You really got to fill the mug with as much cookie as possible, leaving little open space. Then you pour in milk to fill the gaps. You let it sit a second and use a spoon to mush it all together. It should look the consistency of lumpy, thick baby food. You can use all one cookie or mix it up, my Dad was a fan of mixing in 2 types of cookies (Oreo’s and Chips Ahoy!) but I was a one cookie kind of girl (Oreo’s or Oatmeal). I also made my mush a little looser, less cookie more milk more of a milkshake with mixin’s consistency. Neither my Dad nor I make mush any longer but I have fond memories of it and whenever I have a stale cookie and dip it into some milk, it fills the urge to make mush!

Another variation on the Oatmeal Cookie is Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chuck Ice Cream. It is amazing and one of my favorite Ice Creams!!! It is best fresh scooped but in the grocery store carton is also great and would suffice!!!

Quaker Oat’s Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Total Time: 28 minutes | Prep: 20 minutes | Cook: 8 minutes | Yield: 4 dozen | Level: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 stick and 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup raisins or other mixin’s

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.

Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. HIGH ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Increase flour to 1-3/4 cups and bake as directed.

Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Mixin’s

Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts.

Substitute 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or candy-coated chocolate pieces for raisins; omit cinnamon.

Substitute 1 cup diced dried mixed fruit.

Variations

Bar Cookies

Total Time: 50 – 55 minutes | Prep: 20 minutes | Cook: 30 – 35 | Yield: 24 bars | Level: Easy

Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown.

Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered.