Cooking with Kaitlyn

The Friday night after Thanksgiving, after most of the family had left, the gumbo was eaten, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs had won the Egg Bowl (!), I thought it would be fun to make cookies with my little cousin Kaitlyn. When I asked her if she wanted to help, she seemed pretty excited and kept saying, "I've never made cookies before!" So, we pulled up a stool and set to work. I had brought the "special" ingredients for the winning cookies of the Mrs. Field's cookie contest on I-Village - Oatmeal Peanut Butter Scotchies - pointed out to me by Anna.I thought they sounded good, and when I described them to Daddy his eyes got big! The interesting thing about these cookies is that they don't use any flour. I thought this might make them extra crispy, but they remained a pleasant, though slightly crispy, texture. Kaitlyn was a WONDERFUL little chef, helping me scrape the peanut butter into the bowl, pouring in sugar, turning on the mixer, and even putting (the first pan of) cookies on the stones. A good idea if you want to involve kids in baking cookies is to break the eggs into a little bowl, so that you know that there aren't any shells in there, and letting them pour the eggs in. In the end, I think Kaitlyn had a really fun time but decided that, though she liked the butter scotch chips, she didn't like the cookies...I think she didn't really taste them! :-) So much fun....I can't wait to cook with another little one! Oatmeal PeanutButter Cookies
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (or margarine)
1 and 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter
4 and 1/2 cups rolled oats (old fashioned or half old fashioned, half instant)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 whole eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 bag butterscotch chips (I think this is WAY too many chips...I'd use between 1 and 1 and 1/2 cups)
3/4 cups chopped pecans, toasted (you could probably increase the amount of this

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until smooth. Stir in oats, soda, chips, and nuts until well combined. Drop by spoonful onto a baking stone or cookie sheet. Place stone/sheet in oven and bake for 12 minutes or until the bottom is brown and there is some browning on top. Cool on sheet for about 5 minutes and then put on cooling rack. This makes about 6 dozen cookies.