{"id":565,"date":"2009-09-08T19:27:43","date_gmt":"2009-09-09T01:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/?p=565"},"modified":"2009-10-06T06:17:05","modified_gmt":"2009-10-06T12:17:05","slug":"marys-amazing-oatmeal-cookies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/?p=565","title":{"rendered":"Mary’s Amazing Oatmeal Cookies"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>

Keith:\u00a0 Growing up, I spent quite a few summers visiting my grandparents in western Kansas.\u00a0 I’ve got many memories from those trips, but none make my mouth water as much as Mary’s cookies.\u00a0 You never needed to explain to anyone in my family what Mary’s cookies were.\u00a0 And if someone said “should we call up Mary and get her to bake some?”, there was only one sane answer.\u00a0 As a kid, I wasn’t even sure who Mary was.\u00a0 I figured I was distantly related to her (I’m distantly related to 90% of the population of western Kansas), but I didn’t know anything else.\u00a0 And I didn’t care.\u00a0 She had a go cart she let me drive and she made the world’s best oatmeal cookies…what else do you need to know?<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, we were just back in Kansas and had the chance to get a baking lesson from her.\u00a0 She turned out to be more than just go carts and cookies!\u00a0 And her oatmeal cookies are still the best in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Leslie:\u00a0 For two days straight while in Kansas we had been eating oatmeal cookies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.\u00a0 They were baked by a woman named Mary who\u00a0 Keith had been raving about for so long. The little treats were a welcome addiction.\u00a0 I had to meet this lady asap.\u00a0 Last Friday, we were finally introduced and right after the “please to meet you’s”\u00a0 I pretty much invited myself to her house for a baking lesson the next morning!\u00a0 I warmed up to her instantly.\u00a0 She had such a lovely smile and I felt so comfortable around her.<\/p>\n

Her house was out in the country next to a little chapel.\u00a0 She had a variety of perennials in every color all in bloom bordering the wrap around porch.\u00a0 When we entered the house our eyes were drawn to the slick ashy brown colored wood floors (salvaged by her father piece by piece from an old school gymnasium).\u00a0 The inside was airy with vibrant walls and her decor was clean and simple.\u00a0 As she took us on a tour we found out that her house was actually two houses put together (one house was moved from 12 miles away).\u00a0 She and her husband Carl have been restoring the house for about 10 years.\u00a0 Mary just retired recently and has started a new “hobby” which brings us to the most impressive part, her quilting studio.\u00a0 It was a machine about 20 ft. by 5 connected to a computer for designing patterns.\u00a0 In an adjacent room she had many projects that she was currently working on.\u00a0 With all the impressive pieces we saw I would hardly call her a hobbyist.<\/p>\n

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Here is a sample of one of her creations.\u00a0 If you take a closer look each block represents a month of the year (the snowflake for January on the bottom left and the pine tree for December on the upper right hand corner).\u00a0 OK, after all tour and learning about her house we finally moved on to kitchen which was perfect because we had been without those cookies for a few hours.<\/p>\n

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We asked Mary if she would not mind sharing her recipe with us because many people like to keep their recipes a secret especially when it’s something really good.\u00a0 She replied that it did not even cross her mind and that she would be very happy to share with us.\u00a0 I liked her even more. \u00a0 So here it is from me to you in keeping with the tradition \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Thank you Mary.<\/p>\n

RECIPE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.<\/em><\/p>\n