Little did we know that the skinny little girl with knobby knees, braces and glasses – Katie was her name – would become such a big part of our lives when we first hired her to babysit way the heck back in what must have been 1989 in Salt Lake City.
We were madly hunting babysitters for our roughly 6 and 18 month old kids and were referred Katie by the wife of a fishing buddy from Montana. She was astoundingly competent for a young preteen and to make a long story short, she became part of our family and remains so to this day, though she’s now in her 30’s with 3 rambunctious offspring of her own to chase.
Katie resonated deeply with our clan in part because she loved the outdoors and became a damned handy fly fisher in her own right by the time she was in high school, fishing with us (and friends) on the South Fork of the Snake, the Green, and the Missouri (and others) before heading off to college in Chicago and later on to nursing school.
This week a random email popped up from a stranger, asking for our clan’s favorite cookie recipe – and while a question like that doesn’t always draw a unanimous consensus in terms of votes from the peanut gallery – Katie’s Cookies won the final tally.
The ground oatmeal works the magic here, and She Who Must Be Obeyed can’t imagine making these without an extra pour of M&Ms into the mix, though the bacon pieces I added once were damned tasty too.
These are float trip proven, though you’d better keep them in the cooler if you’re doing a summer float on the Missouri this year.
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla2 cups AP flour
2.5 cups oatmeal, processed/blended like a very coarse flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking power
1 tsp baking soda1 12 oz. bag chocolate chips
1 8 oz. chocolate bar, grated (or 1 cup M&Ms)
1 generous cup nuts (think walnuts or pecans here)
Preheat your trusty oven to 350.
Cream butter and sugars until smooth, beat in the eggs and vanilla.
In separate bowl, combine the five dry ingredients, then slowly mix into the butter sugar mixture approximately a cup at a time.
Stir in the chocolate chips, M&Ms, and nuts; best done by hand.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 350 degrees for 6.5 – 7 minutes; cool on the tray for at least 5 minutes as they’ll still be soft in the middle when they come out.
You’ll never eat just one.
Enjoy.
