Baking Day - Oatmeal Cookies

A Sunday afternoon rainstorm ushered in BLISSFULLY cool temperatures.  What a relief from the 95-100 degree weather the East Coast has had for many weeks!  This morning I woke up extra refreshed and decided to do some baking today.

I decided on apple muffins and oatmeal cookies. 

The muffins were a necessity as I had a few mealy apples from sitting in the refrigerator crisper draw too long. 

The cookies, on the other hand, were pure nostalgia!

My Grandma baked these cookies just about weekly to have on hand when the grandchildren would visit.  My sister and I would sit at the dinning room table with a couple cookies on a napkin and a big glass of whole milk or a bowl of Hudsonville Vanilla Ice Cream from the round container.  If I have any Hudsonville, MI readers, you know what I am talking about ... that is the BEST vanilla ice cream in the world!

These aren't the fastest cookies to bake, but they are so TASTY and filled with really WHOLESOME ingredients.  Let me share the recipe with you:

GRANDMA'S OATMEAL COOKIES

1 cup water + 1 cup raisins

Boil until nearly dry.  Stir in 1 teaspoon baking soda.  Set aside to cool.

Add 2 teaspoons flour - stir to coat raisins

Combine:

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups rolled oats

3 cups flour

Cream:

2 sticks butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

Mix wet and dry ingredients together.

Fold in raisins

Bake at 350 degrees 

14-16 minutes