Forgive me for having been born in Iowa. I have lived in Indiana for 25 years. That makes me a Hoosier, doesn't it? I hope so. I recently made the long trip to visit with my parents in Iowa. What a treasure my mother is! We talked about the things she would cook for our family back when I was a kid. I realize now that she had a knack for cookies. We always had cookies on hand - fresh, homemade cookies. The neighbor kids thought they were lucky when they got store bought cookies. We regularly feasted on really good, made with love, homemade ones. I never realized how good we had it! Thanks mom, you're the best. I love you!

Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies are the ones I remember so well. I got the recipe from Mom years ago, but I have not made them for awhile. I pulled out the recipe and went at it. They were the same taste, but not the cookies I remember. Mine sort of sat down - they did not puff up in the oven like Mom's did. Mine were also very greasy. Mom's cookies were never like this. I have not had time to figure out what went wrong (or to consult with my Mom, the expert) so maybe in a future issue I will be able to report better results. If you have any idea what I might have done wrong, let me know.

This seems to be a pretty basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. The oatmeal is the only difference. If you have a favorite recipe of your own you might want to try it with the oatmeal added.

Sift together flour, soda and salt and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together till light. Blend in the eggs. Then stir in the flour mixture, then the chips and oatmeal. Bake 9 to 11 minutes.

Oh, do I remember these next cookies - the soft vanilla cake-like ones Mom made when I was a teenager, back in the seventies. I thought they were a little piece of heaven. I asked Mom if she remembers the recipe and she went right to the cookbook. I am delighted to say these are just as I recall - once I made some test batches. With the first batch I used margarine instead of shortening. I thought it would do. I was wrong. The cookies looked okay but the flavor was not right. On the second try I used the plain shortening called for in the recipe. This let the vanilla flavor shine through. The flavor from the margarine was masking the vanilla flavor! That did it. Perfect. I did cut the recipe in half to make it a little easier to handle. If you want to double each ingredient you will have the exact recipe I got from Moms cookbook. I did not rename this recipe. It was already titled Mother's Sugar Cookies.

To measure the shortening, fill a 1 cup measuring cup with ½ cup water. Add the shortening in spoonfuls till the water measures 1 cup. Pour off the water and you have exactly ½ cup shortening. Cream sugar and shortening together. Add the eggs and salt and beat until light and fluffy. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with sour milk and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased and floured cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees about 10-15 minutes.