Milk with our cookies

...and the recipe for Kathy's Peanut Butter-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

About a year ago, Land O'Lakes asked us if they could take some pictures of our family for a feature they were putting together for the Our Story part of their website. They said they wanted to take the pictures in June, which is, hands down, the prettiest time of year here. We thought it would be neat to be part of their feature, so we agreed.

Then, the plans for the feature changed and Land O'Lakes asked if they could do the photo shoot in March. I almost said no. If June is the prettiest month here, March certainly has the potential to be the ugliest. Who wants pictures of half-melted snow and mud?

As it turned out, winter held on well into April, so we still had plenty of snow for photographing winter scenes.

The photo shoot took place on March 29. Between the photographers, videographers, makeup artist, and Land O'Lakes staff, we had about a dozen people here for the afternoon. As I've learned from Glen and his mother, a fresh batch of cookies is a nice way to welcome guests into your home. So I made a double batch of Kathy's Cookies to share.

Our guests loved the cookies and the cookies even ended up being part of the photo shoot. They were part of my favorite memory from the photo shoot, too:

The crew was setting up our kitchen table to take some photos of our family enjoying the cookies. They set the cookies on the Land O'Lakes tray we got from Glen's parents. They placed four dessert plates on the table. We got the milk out of the fridge. And then one of the crew members asked if we (meaning Glen and I, not just the kids) would normally have milk with our cookies. It took me a second to understand the question and its implications. I didn't say it, but I thought, Doesn't everyone have milk with their cookies? What else would you drink with cookies? But I guess not everyone drinks as much milk as we do, so it is a valid question. What I did say was that, yes, we always have milk with our cookies. So, we poured four glasses of milk and sat down to enjoy the cookies while the photographers snapped away.

I sent a couple packages of cookies home with our guests and promised to share the recipe. Obviously, I'm a little late keeping my promise, but, I guess late is better than never.

Below is the recipe for Kathy's Cookies.We call these peanut butter - oatmeal - chocolate chip goodies Kathy's Cookies, because we got the recipe from Glen's great-aunt Kathy. She brought us a batch of these cookies right after Monika was born and Glen insisted that I call her for the recipe. So the recipe is scribbled on a sheet of scratch paper. Several editions of notes and stains have accumulated on the now-tattered paper, including calculations for different size batches. At first, Glen was the one who baked these cookies. I didn't consider myself a very good cookie baker. But that's changed. These are the cookies that helped me perfect the art of cookie baking. And they're the only cookie recipe I haven't tried to tweak.

Kathy's Cookies – Double Batch
(I always make a double batch of these. Cut the recipe in half if cookies don't disappear like magic tricks at your house.)

2 cups butter (4 sticks), softened
2 cups crunchy peanut butter (16-18 oz jar)
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
5 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips (12 oz bag)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugars in large mixing bowl. Blend in vanilla and eggs. In separate bowl, combine flour, oatmeal, baking soda and salt, then mix into butter mixture. Stir chocolate chips in by hand. Let dough rest for anywhere from 30 min (at room temperature) to overnight (in the refrigerator).

Using a #50 (medium) scoop, place cookie dough onto ungreased baking sheets about 1 inch apart. (You can use parchment paper, but these are easily removed from even stainless steel sheets.) Gently smush dough down with your hand or the bottom of a glass.

Bake for 10-14 minutes. I bake these for 14 minutes, rotating pans after 7 minutes, but it really depends upon how long you let the dough rest (more rest = shorter bake time), how much you smush the cookie dough down, how your oven bakes, and how crispy or chewy you want your finished cookies to be. Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on baking sheets before removing.

A double batch will yield 10 dozen cookies.

Serve cookies with a big glass of milk!

Our family's pictures are part of the Winter season in A Year of Simple Goodness, which can be found in the Our Story section of the Land O'Lakes website.


*Other than photo of cookies on pan, all photos taken by Land O'Lakes staff and photographer.