Christmas is Coming. Let's Get Fat!

I can hardly believe Hanukkah is here and Christmas is next week. Didn't those both happen a few weeks ago? One of the major perks of Christmas when I was growing up was all the cakes and pies and cookies and candies my mother make. Every season my uncle made a batch of penuche for us. Oh, my gosh, I haven't thought of that in years. Food is a very big part of my books, especially the Alafair Tucker Mysteries, because food - gaining it, killing it, preparing and preserving it, cooking it and eating it was a very big part of everyone's life in the early 20th century. And holiday food is an important part of growing up for every human ever born since the invention of holidays.

 So this year for the holidays, I’m treating you to my late sister-in-law LaNell’s recipe for boiled chocolate oatmeal cookies. 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. It would be a shame not to perk up your Christmas with these 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.

Enjoy! and maybe these can become part of your holiday traditions!