My oldest son informed me yesterday that he's invited 75 people to come and say good-bye to him before he leaves for his move to Cincinnatti. And where is this gathering to be? Right here at the house, with good ole' mom coming up with food and drink for the event.
As soon as I stopped screaming and banging my head against the wall, Number One Son hastened to add that the actual number of attendees would undoubtedly be WAY smaller than the first terrifying number he threw out. This because he did his invites via Facemail (how else) and targeted everyone he wanted to come, no matter what state they live in. Realistically, it's somewhat hard for his sister to come from New Haven - especially with one day's notice.
OK...so now I know I'm having an undertermined number of folks show up. What to do? Well, this is one of those times when I will NOT be baking tons of fabulous home-made goodies but, instead, making a run to Costco to see what I can buy that will be easy to make and feed crowds. I do actually have unopened bags of chips left over from recent class pool parties so those will be hauled out of the garage and added to whatever the good folks at Costco can entice me with - and what can fit in my oversized shopping cart.
That said, I did decide to make Smitten Kitchen oatmeal raisin cookies this morning. Because when you're expecing an undetermined amount of guests to show up later in the day, what else do you do but bake up a batch of cookies for your family?
I've made lots of oatmeal raisin cookies in my day and I think I can turn out a fairly credible cookie. Not too hard, not too soft -just right. I use the recipe straight from the top of the oatmeal box. I have this theory - the folks at Quaker Oats really do have an investment in whether you like their cookies enough to keep buying boxes of oats so you can produce more. It is NOT in their best interest to devise a recipe so idiosyncratically weird that only the marginal few will actually like the resulting cookies. Moral of the story - trust the tried and true recipes put out by the people who have the greatest stake in coming up with pleasing results.
That said, it took a tiny leap of faith to try Deb's version of oatmeal raisin cookies. While I like pretty much everything she creates, she does sometimes add that extra flair that can spell doom in the Stoops household. Would she tweak the cookie recipe to the point where my family would turn up their noses at my cookies and beg for the old recipe? Reading through her ingrdients and process, it seemed like she was pretty close to the boxtop original so I went for it.
The cookies are everything an oatmeal raisin cookie should be. All the familiar taste of oatmealy goodness and just the right texture. Martin's so happy with the result that he took a baggy full to the train museum. And when Hubby is happy, so am I.
Wow, that's a raving success in Dad's book!
ReplyDeleteI love the sentence about baking for your family when you're expecting so many guests the next day. In a weird way it fits so well for you - caring for your family first and in the face of whatever stress life threw at you.
Also, thanks for covering me on the party thing with the "one day notice is hard" excuse. Wouldn't want word to get out that I just really don't like my brother. Or parties.
I'm glad these worked!! I'll have to try them as the beloved carnivore does not generally approve of oatmeal raisin cookies.
ReplyDeleteAnd darn those sons & their invitees!