Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup oats
- 1 cup cereal*
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
* Note on cereal: I keep a tupperware container in my cabinet for the crumbs and broken bits at the bottom of boxes of cereal. For this particular batch of cookies, I think I used a combination of golden grahams, grape nuts, and some sort of wheat flake.
Instructions:
- Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix thoroughly butter, sugars, egg, & vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients.
- Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Immediately remove from baking sheet.
Recipe via my beloved Betty Crocker's Cookbook, published in 1976. '76 is also the year this book was given to my grandma, on her 29th birthday, from her mother. And, when I turned 25 and moved in with the boyfriend that, within a few short months, would become my husband, my grandma passed it along to me.
If we're judging strictly in terms of the quality of recipes, this book is perhaps not the best. Lots of recipes call for cans of soup, for instance, or, like this very cookie recipe, call for vegetable shortening instead of butter. But, it's good for basics; I often use the recipes herein as a starting off point for greater, improvisational kitchen adventures. Also, the aesthetic of this book is so fantastic. So much use of the color orange! And each section is divided by wonderfully dated photos (see the cookie divider below). Also, my grandma personalized this cookbook in numerous ways--from adding notes, to pages of recipes, to the crewel embroidery pattern she used below as a pretty divider. I have plans to reinforce all the pages, and perhaps add some personalization of my own for when I one day pass this along to our future daughter, Calamity Jane Vaughn.
