Friday Friend Recipe #208 -- Vera's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #208

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

Vera's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

and you know all the whys and wherefores of this countdown, right? Homemade cookbook, friends contributed, Handyman said I couldn't/wouldn't do it, I'll show him, yadda yadda yadda....

...and the rest is cookbook history!

If you like oatmeal raisin cookies, these are the best!

If you use old-fashioned oats in this recipe, it makes the cookie chewy and thick and sooo good!

I made these while we were at our cabin.  Not a whole lot of counter space, so everything is spread out, but you can see the original Friday Friend cookbook sitting in the midst of all the ingredients. 

Vera was my grandma Irene's best friend. They were both rancher's wives and worked very hard -- well, you've seen the Pioneer Woman, right?  That's the life they lived.  Without the lodge and the money and the tv show.  They cooked for ranch hands 3 meals every day--6am, noon and 6pm.  On the weekends during the winter, they might ride (sometimes on horses or in a wagon pulled by horses) over to each other's ranch to play cards, have a meal or help each other with ranching chores.

By the time I knew Vera, both she and her husband and my grandparents had retired from daily ranch life and had houses in town.

My mom got this recipe from Vera somewhere along the way and it was a staple in our house growing up.

This is Vera's arm--on the right.  My grandma's arm on the left.  It's the only photo I have of Vera.

My mom is the baby on the left and Jim is Vera's son on the right.

Now it begins to get complicated.  That baby Jim above?  (One of Vera's 6 children) That baby Jim grew up to be my dad's best friend,  But my mom grew up with him. Jim married Betty, my mom's best friend.

Well, I guess that wasn't so complicated after all!

Here is a picture of Jim and Betty.  He looks just like that little baby in the picture!  It must be the hair.

Maybe it gets complicated here:

In the photos below my parents are with Jay (another son of Vera's) and his wife Nelda.

My parents traveled with Jay and Nelda, because they all lived in the same town, having moved away from the small ranching town where they  all grew up.

And Jim and Betty didn't like to travel much.

And Jay and Nelda when to the same church my parents did. 

And Jay and my dad were both Policemen.  

And they were friends too--who traveled to Australia and Alaska together.

Then there is Bill (another one of Vera's sons) in the photo below-- behind my day and mom--his brother Jay sitting in front.

There were 5 boys altogether ---and they were ornery according to my mom and grandma. But ornery in a good loving way.

Once when they were little the boys told my mom that fireman start fires, so every time my mom heard sirens--when she stayed in town with her grandparents--she would cry and hide under the bed.  One time when my mom was having a big old fit about the sirens, her grandmother pulled her out from under the bed and drug her down to where the fire was, so she could see the fireman were helpers and not arsonists. 

That's just one of many stories of Vera's sons.

I'm sure they loved her cookies.

Do you have family friends for generations?

I think my boys are missing out on that.

It makes me a little bit sad.

Some of it comes from growing up in a small town, I know.  And sticking close to that small town. 

The Handyman and I moved far away.

It makes me a little bit sad.

This is recipe #208 only 159 left to go!