Mom's Butterscotch Oaties

Let me just start by saying my mom's baking is to die for. From croissants and English muffins to cookies and pies, she has never to my knowledge bought baked goods (except sandwich bread, but she makes her own hot dog buns). As a child of Depression-era parents, she has always been thrifty and Earth friendly before it was trendy.

Her Butterscotch Oaties are the best! I'm not sure if the smell of them baking is even better than the taste, but I vividly recall opening the front door to that smell. Mom would pour us three kids each a tall glass of cold milk, and we were allowed to have precisely three cookies each after school, never more! My sister and I would take all three at once, but my brother always took one at a time, always claiming that he still had one more left to take. That was his way of cheating the system. He still denies it to this day.

When mom or I make these today, they bring me back to our 1978 Texas kitchen with the bright green Formica countertops, green and white apple wallpaper, and the wood kitchen table that my dad built.  

My sister and I now go to mom's every Wednesday to have dinner with her since dad passed away last year. At 82, she has not slowed down one bit. After dinner, she brings the cookie jar to the table, and just like those years in our past, we get to enjoy her home baked goodness. But one thing has changed. There is no longer a limit. — Claire Killeen of Bedford, Texas