Erica's history with oatmeal raisin cookies.

Oh, oatmeal raisin cookies! Just look at you in all your glory!

They aren't even my favorite but I feel like they're everyone else's favorite. I can name four people just off the top of my head who loves them. Well, lets just do that:

(Brace yourself for a long blog...its story time with Erica!!)

1. One of my best experiences in college was living with my friend, Dominique. She is the most pure, good and innocent person I know. She's just one of those "childlike wonder" people who loves life. She's definitely grown up since we lived together but, to this day, she still sees life with positiveness and hope. 

Oh yes, be prepared for some old school pictures. Like from almost 10 years ago!

She is actually the one who got me into real grown up cooking and appreciating food. I worked and maintained a spectacular GPA throughout my college experience so I didn't have time to cook too much. I just made super simple things like rice or chicken or salads. Sure, I cooked more than the average 20 year old but it was not real culinary cooking. When Dominique and I moved in together, we actually cooked and had meals. Meals, guys, ... not just eating to get full... but real meals where we talked about and appreciated what we were eating. It was great! One of the first things we made was oatmeal raisin cookies. I think we were bored and she wanted to bake. I never used recipes- which both baffled and appalled her that I just made things up in my head- so she decided it was good to start with the recipe on the Quaker oatmeal box. I've tweaked it a bit over the years but I still use that recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. 

2. Dominique and I had the best neighbors we could have ever asked for. We lived across the parking lot from a group of hilarious and fun guys. It was Jeff, Mike and Dan and their neighbor, Jonathan, was always over, too. We were like the 2 honorary bros to their group. 

Dominique, me, Jonathan and Jeff. The four of us hung out the most.

On a particular depressing Valentine's Day, Dominique and I made oatmeal cookies and brought them over. It ended up turning into one of the best Valentine's Days of my life. It was that day that we learned that oatmeal raisin cookies are also Jeff and Jonathan's favorites.

                                       Before cookies : (                                         Cookies to make it all better : )

We stayed friends as best we could after we all graduated. Oatmeal raisin cookies came into play twice more with this group of bros. Not long after I graduated, Jonathan invited me over just to make cookies! It was pretty great. My cookie legacy lives on!

Jeff and I actually stayed friends for quite some time after our graduations. He is another one of those good and positive people that I adore and need more of in my life. One night when we were hanging out, Jeff decided that we needed to make cookies for Dominique. We baked about 3 dozen, shoved them in a box and mailed them off (she was in Colorado at the time). I have no idea if she ever got them or if they were even any good but it was like the one thing that tied us all together.

Here's a picture of us doing back bends. I'm sure we didn't back bend while baking but I saw this picture on one of my old Facebook albums and just had to laugh. I was in my early twenties but living like a little kid. Childlike innocence is one of the things I hated most about myself as I was growing into adulthood but its pictures like this that remind me it wasn't so bad. 

3. Now fast forward to present day real life. (I've lost touch with Jeff and Jonathan. Dominique and I still call and write occasionally.) When Wes and I were still just friends, I learned that his favorite cookie is oatmeal raisin. He and two of his best friends were heading out for a video game convention in Texas a few summers back. I baked cookies and sneaked them into his apartment with his luggage. All throughout that weekend, he, Travis and Cameron had cookies. It was the first "I'm an awesome girlfriend" thing I did for Wes. 

Enough sentimental chit-chat. Lets bake!

Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies:

Ingredients:

• 1 stick and 6 tablespoons butter at room temperature 
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 & 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 cups old fashioned & uncooked oats
• 1 cup raisins

1. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together with any kind of large spoon.

2. In a separate large bowl, cream butter and both sugars with an electric mixer. I used to do this by hand until Wes got me an electric mixer for Christmas the year before last. That saved my life! 

3. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to mix with electric mixer. 

4. Slowly add flour mixture from step #1. Keep mixing with the electric mixer. I add a little flour, mix a little, and add a little more until its all gone.

5. Add oats and raisins; continue to mix well. While mixing, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

6. Shape the cookies into whatever size dough balls you want (I make them fairly small and get 3-4 dozen out of this recipe). This year for the holidays, Wes got me a cookie scooper and a Silpat. Two more things that are saving my life! I like to keep the dough in the refrigerator overnight before shaping into balls & baking but it doesn't say to do that in the Quaker recipe. 

7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes (until light golden brown).