Christmas Eve and Chocolate to All

LaNell's Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Christmas Eve at last, the beginning of the end of the longest and darkest year in decades and (I pray) the beginning of a better time. This has always been a period of new beginnings for me, Donis, since my birthday falls between Christmas and New Years. Those three events put a decisive punctuation mark at the end of every year. I always feel like I shake the old year off like a dog hauling herself out of a pond so she can trot confidently into the woods, going she knows not where, but on her way.

I'll begin 2021 with a new president, new book coming out February 2, and a shot in the arm as soon as my number comes up. And to celebrate the new dawn of hope, pleas allow me to treat you to my late sister-in-law LaNell’s recipe for boiled chocolate oatmeal cookies - no baking! These are oh, so delicious, and very easy. I have this recipe in LaNell’s handwriting, and have lovingly pressed it into my personal cookbook. 

Happy Holidays to all.

LaNell's Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

1 stick butter

1/2 cup milk

2/3 cup cocoa powder

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups uncooked quick oats

1 cup chopped nuts

Combine first five ingredients in a saucepan and boil two minutes. Add 1 tsp vanilla. Remove from the fire and add 3 cups of uncooked one-minute oats. Add one cup of chopped nuts. Mix in well. Drop by teaspoons-full onto wax paper and let set. Yields about 40 cookies.