Oatmeal Cookies

My mom was the kind of mom who bought whole-wheat bread, made macaroni and cheese from scratch, practiced yoga in the living room and substituted honey for sugar in her oatmeal cookies.

I hadn’t thought of my mother’s oatmeal cookies in almost twenty years, until the day one of my favorite cows ‘kicked the bucket’.

I don’t know if it was the grief or maybe I was just lacking in fiber, but somehow I knew the only thing that was going to make me feel better were those oatmeal cookies.

I searched through cookbook after cookbook, each time finding a recipe for oatmeal cookies, but they all had white sugar listed in the ingredients, and none of them called for a grated apple or golden raisins.

But there hidden by a dusty pile of old Gourmet magazines, tucked behind some forgotten thank-you cards, and an old photograph of me in my questionable ‘hair style years’, lay a worn, stained copy of Whole Earth Cook Book.

I knew I had found the right recipe when I flipped through the book and found the oatmeal cookie page full of smudges from butter and honey, and in the upper corner my mother had mindlessly scribbled a note reminding her about a CPR class she was to teach.

I spent the rest of that day making batch after batch of oatmeal cookies. Adding golden raisins to some, and dark chocolate to others. As I stirred, mixed and tasted I felt my mood lift and sadness wane.

I will never get used to losing a cow, I don’t think any farmer does, but as we say at The Mead “It just a part of farming”…… and cookies are good for the soul.

Oh, and Mom, thank you for never letting us eat boxed macaroni