Last week I decided to ignore my mile-long to do list and spend some time baking cookies with my daughters.

This oatmeal macaroon recipe has been in the family for ages. My mom made these cookies with her mom. I made them with my mom. Last week my daughters made them with me. My mom’s recipe card is so worn that it looks like leather, unlike the brand-sparkling-new card above.




The recipe has morphed over the years, but here’s my version of chocolate chip oatmeal macaroons:

Cream together 1 cup each of shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar.
Mix in two unbeaten eggs and one teaspoon of vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients: 1 1/4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Blend them in.
Mix in three cups of oatmeal, one cup at a time.
Add one cup of chocolate chips (or raisins) and stir them in.
Preheat the oven to 350 and grease the baking sheet.
Form dough into balls on the baking sheet.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until they are just the brownness and crispiness your family likes.

(These pages are for our family scrapbook album. Click to view larger.)

My older daughter loooooves cooking – or any project. She was the star of the day, after her little sister lost interest in the cookies. While the cookies were in the oven, my little baker laughed and danced around the room like she’d just won Miss America.

She and I are alike in that way. I think baking a batch of cookies should put any mom in the running for Best Parent Ever, or possibly a Nobel Prize. Little everyday kindnesses should not be undervalued. 🙂

(Please tell me you’ll still be around to repeat this pep talk when we hit the teen years…)

The original macaroon recipe may have had coconut in it, like more traditional macaroons, but my dad doesn’t like coconut.

When I pass the recipe on to my daughters, it probably won’t have nuts listed, because my husband doesn’t like nuts in baked goods. I’ll probably list the cup of chocolate chips and/or raisins. I’ll substitute all-spice for the cinnamon, or leave it out entirely, because our family has cinnamon allergies.

After we made the cookies, we pulled out a carton of chocolate-vanilla ice cream and made ice cream cookies. The girls were very excited about putting ribbons on them.

The boys (when my older son and my husband returned from fishing) couldn’t have cared less about the ribbons.

The baby just liked the mushy chocolate chips.