EDITORIAL/KAMPFIRE KOOKIN’ “SPECIAL”
Mother’s Day is just around the corner and I have been digging through Mom’s old 1915 recipe book that she left me when she passed away. It was 15 years ago last month, just a few days after her 82nd birthday. In the book I found a handwritten recipe for the cookies that she used to bake. I grew up with these cookies and I remember coming home from school when she would be just taking them out of the oven.
She would get me a glass of cold milk and give me a stack of her delicious cookies. She never had a name for them; they were always just “Mom’s Cookies”. They are simple to bake and it doesn’t take a lot of exotic ingredients to make them. I do offer this advice that she gave to me, “Make sure you have all the ingredients before you start to put the recipe together and make sure you have enough of each ingredient; don’t substitute anything. The next thing she said was, “Mix the ‘wet’ ingredients together first, mix the ‘dry’ ingredients together next, and then mix them both together.”
TIPS ON HOW TO EAT MOM’S COOKIES (Learned from years of experience):
1-Dip cookie halfway into the milk, hold for a count of 5, remove and eat dunked half. Repeat with other half. Keep going until cookie disappears. Start a second one. Best to use a wide mouth glass or cup. When cookies are gone, drink rest of milk and eat mushy cookie remains that fell in the bottom of the glass with a spoon.
2-Put tablespoon of ice cream between two cookies, smash together, and take a bite. Follow with second bite; then a third, etc.
3-Same instructions as last but substitute peanut butter, jelly, marshmallow cream, chocolate syrup, or a combination of them for the ice cream.
4-Crumble cookies and sprinkle over slightly melted ice cream, mix together and eat. Eating this with a fork will make it last longer but looks tacky in a crowd.
5-Put cookies in shirt pocket and go on a hike. Take crumbs from shirt pocket, discard lint, and eat by the handful. Sharing cookie crumbs with your best buddy or your pet dog is mandatory so take extra cookies. Wash down with water from Boy Scout canteen.
NOTE:
Mom would always add this command advice, “Don’t spoil your supper!” Mom, if I had a big plate of your cookies right now, I would skip the meal and declare those cookies to be my ‘supper’.
Thank you for the cookies, thank you for the good memories I have of growing up under your care and guidance, thank you for lending your support by cooking at the many Boy Scout Spaghetti Suppers Troop 155 held to raise funds for camping equipment & outings, and thank you for being there every day when I came home from school.
Most of all, thank you for not being afraid to say, “No,” when I requested something that was stupid or might have been harmful to me. I hope that I told you all this before you died.
Kampfire Kookin’
BLANCHE MCCUNE’S WORLD FAMOUS WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEER COOKIES
(Hey, it sounds better than just plain old ‘Cookies’, doesn’t it?)
WET INGREDIENTS
1 cup Crisco (melted but hot)
1 cup strong black coffee (cold)
1 cup white sugar & 1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
DRY INGREDIENTS
2 cups raisins 3-4 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. soda 1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
NOTE: (1 cup of black walnut nutmeats may be substituted for one cup of raisins)
Regular Oven method: Mix ingredients per instructions and drop by spoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Serve hot with cold milk.
Dutch Oven method: Preheat the Dutch oven by putting 5 to 6 hot briquets under the Dutch oven and 12 to 15 briquets on top of the lid. Drop cookies by spoonful onto bottom of a cake pan. Put cake pan in bottom of the preheated Dutch oven on three bottle caps or on a cake cooling rack to prevent the cookies from burning. Put on lid and bake cookies for about 10 minutes or until done.
> Read More Information About Us
> More Articles Written By Our Staff
- Celebrating 20 Years Of Community At The Stand - April 12, 2024
- First Positive Case Of Chronic Wasting Disease In Indiana - April 12, 2024
- Southwest Allen County Schools Embark On Major Tree Plantings - April 12, 2024