The saga of the oatmeal cookies

In the early 1970's I worked for a small state office located in downtown Jefferson City (no such place exists these days.  State office exist in great abundance - just not small ones).  When mid-day break would come around someone would often volunteer to walk the few blocks to a favorite local restaurant to buy their famous oatmeal cookies - McKinney's Restaurant.  My vague memory is that they cost $.25 each but someone else said they were only $.10.  Either way, they were cheap, even by 1970 standards.

Imagine my surprise when a friend posted the recipe on Facebook.  I knew I had to take a trip down memory lane and make me some of these cookies.

In my defense, I did not notice that in addition to the copious amounts of sugars and eggs, that the recipe also called for three cups of flour and six cups of rolled oats.  I would like to think alarms would have gone off in my head and I would have immediately cut this recipe in half.  At this point we will never know for sure.

When the recipe said to add the ingredients to a large mixing bowl, I didn't realize it meant a commercial size mixing bowl, rather than a large kitchen size.  This is not good.  Not good at all.

So I divided the ingredients into two separate large mixing bowls

Then I combined the two sets of ingredients back into my large kitchen size mixing bowl and kneaded it so that all of the ingredients were well mixed.  (Why yes, that is a selfie of my hand.  My phone was somewhat goopy by the time these cookies were made)

Once I had the dough shaped into rolls and wrapped in plastic, I refrigerated them for the day. (I'm pretty sure  refrigerating them for the day versus night thingy didn't impact the outcome of the cookie)

And here they are.  Just as I remembered them, only mine aren't nearly as large as the McKinney oatmeal cookies.  Jim did not have the McKinney oatmeal cookie memory, so when he tasted one he said "Wow, you could sell these!"  to which I replied, "They did!"

And that is the saga of the oatmeal cookie.

Late Fall on the Trail

Sunday we took advantage of the beautiful weather for what will probably be our last walk along the Katy Trail in 2014.

The Katy Trail at Portland, Mo - flanked by the Missouri River on one side and bluffs on the other.  We love this section of the trail.

A splash of bright red in a world of mostly golds and browns.

One of only two others we encountered on this mostly isolated section of the trail.

Hanger-on's

These beauties were waiting for us.  The fence was a nice touch, if you know what I mean...

Funny Little Grin

Last summer we lost a woman who had been a part of my life as long as Jim has.  She welcomed me into her home with open arms and nicknamed me Nanna.  She offered me my first "high ball" - and I accepted it because I didn't even know what it was.  Families often have their "characters" - the one that everyone delights in telling stories about.  My mother-in-law was that person.  She was proud of her nickname "Hawkie" and delighted in telling everyone that it was because she had the eyes of a hawk.  The flip side of the coin is that she had a hawk nose....  either way, she was Hawkie and proud of it.

After many years of enduring the horrendous disease of Alzheimer's, she passed away last summer.  We all miss her so much.  We couldn't resist the temptation to memorialize her on her memorial bulletin in a way that described her best:  "She drank like a Sailor, cussed like a Sailor, married a Sailor.... Sail on!"

Jim wrote and recorded a song that captures Evelyn's last few years perfectly.  I hope you enjoy it.

Rest in peace Hawkie.