A COOKIE MONSTER ATTACKS

Dr. Advice and I have spent the past four days in bed. Oh, not having a jolly good time, as you may think, but being host to an unwelcome and unappreciative guest of the dreaded Flu Bug. However today
I dragged myself to my computer and found from Cheri’s blog that she is tooling along the lonely highway 50 eating chocolate chip cookies and taking beautiful pictures. Two other blogers are raving about their chocolate chip cookies, and the local newspaper ran half a page on recipes for them.
What on earth is wrong with the humble oatmeal cookie? I made dozens of cookies of all kinds for lunchboxes when my children were growing up, and dozens of them were oatmeal cookies. I think even Cheri may have eaten some. They were called Cape Cod Oatmeal cookies from the Betty Crocker cookbook someone gave me for a wedding present. I forget who.
And then some years ago my daughter came up with another recipe which is not only better than mine, but to add insult to injury it is called “Better Than Mom’s Oatmeal Cookies”.
Well, after sleeping and not eating for a few days, the thought of cookies was too much for my weak will and I absolutely had to have a cookie. Therefore:

BETTER tHAN MOM’S OATMEAL COOKIES
Preheat oven to 350 and put either parchment or a Silpat on cookie sheet
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
Cream well in electric mixer, then add
2 large eggs , 2 teaspoons vanilla
Mix thoroughly and then in separate bowl mix
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/8 teaspoons baking soda (yes, 1/8 tsp.)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
With mixer running gradually add dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture until thoroughly combined.
Fold in 3 cups oatmeal, uncooked,
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans,
1 cup yellow raisins or dried cranberries chopped
Drop by tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto cookie sheet, flatening each mound slightly.
Bake 8-10 min. for a soft cookie, 12 min. for a crunchy one.
And I have to say I added a handful of chocolate chips to the batter as well, so there!

Then with a handful of warm cokies and a cold glass of milk, I returned to my book and my bed. Sad to say that Dr. Advice never even missed me.