The very best Oatmeal Cookies in the history of ever.

Do you have a favorite cookie?  Mine is oatmeal reaisin.  I'm kinda weird and really don't care for chocolate chip cookies ... I'll pass 'em up anyday for a nice oatmeal cookie.  I'll even pass 'em altogether if there isn't something else available.  My husband thinks I'm straight crazy.  

Now, I don't discriminate between oatmeal cookies ... I'll eat any one that comes my way.  But my very fave is a nice buttery cookie.  Most oatmeal cookies have at least a little bit of cinnamon, and I'll gladly take that kind off your hands, but my true love is a nice buttery cookie.  

This recipe comes from my parents' neighbor.  She's been blessing us with them for years, and eventually my sister was able to snag the recipe out of her.  And because these are my very favorite cookies in the history of ever, I thought I'd share it with you.  (Pssssst, Kathy ... if this is some secret family recipe, let me know so that I can take it down ;) )

Alright, who's ready to make some cookies?  We start with gathering the goods -  flour, sugar, brown sugar, quick oats, baking powder, salt, raisins, shortening, vanilla, and eggs.  Once you have everything gathered, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  

Add 1 cup of brown sugar (Brown splenda works too!) and 1 cup regular sugar to your bowl.  Top it off with a cup of shortening; I use butter flavored shortening to get that buttery taste to the cookies.  

Mix up your sugars and shortening.  Add 2 eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla and mix some more, til it's nice and smooth.

In a seperate bowl, mix up your dry ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cups of flor, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Seems like a lot of salt, right?  But it ends up being my favorite part of the cookie!

Slowly add your dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.  Have you ever dumped a flour mixture all at once into a moving Kitchenaid?  If so, you'll know why I emphasize the word slowly.  

When the flour mixture is completely combined, it's time to add 3 cups quick oats.  For some reason I don't have a picture of the oats dumped in.  But I do have a picture of them all mixed together...

Once the oats are mixed in, it's time to hand mix in any fixin's you desire.  I prefer raisins, but you could add chocolate chips, nuts, or some other kind of dried fruit.  

Once everything is nice and mixed in, drop rounded spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and pop them into your preheated oven.  

Bake them for about 12 minutes, until they have a little golden tinge to them.  

Leave them on the sheet to cool for a couple of minutes before you move them to a cooling rack.

Then, you know, maybe sample a warm cookie before they get too cool.  Not all cookies are great warm cookies, but these are delicious.

And they're just as good cooled off.  They are the perfect mix of buttery, salty, and sweet.  

I usually prefer my cookies a little underdone, but I really like these with a little crunch on the outside and chewy on the inside.  So, so good.

These photos are making my mouth water, so I'm off to make batch!

Here's the condensed recipe for you...

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups quick oats
Optional raisins, chocolate chips, nuts, etc

Cream together sugars and shortening.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Combine dry ingredients.  Mix dry ingredients into creamed mixture.  Add oats.  Stir in optional raisins, chocolate chips, nuts, or whatever you'd like.  Drop onto ungreased sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 12 minutes.  Leave on sheet to cool for 2 minutes before removing to cooling rack.