[caption id="attachment_859" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The raw material"]
[/caption]I get home after everyone else is home, and I'm beyond tired, and I still have to make dinner. I know, I should have spouse or offspring do it, but I'm not willing to do that. I still feel adamant that dinner (and food in general) is my responsibility and I will persevere! I didn't want to go back to work yet, but needs must, and so here I am. When I was growing up my mother worked, but she was home by about 4:00, and we had housecleaning help. If that scenario was on deck, I'd feel much better. But sadly, it's not, so I content myself with planning my exit strategy, fantasizing about flinging down my papers and shouting, "I quit!"
Until that dramatic day, however, I am left juggling grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry. On the weekend, I make three lists of dinners: make-ahead (to, uh, make, you know, ahead) quick and easy (to make on work nights), and regular (to make on weekends). And as far as baking goes, well, there just isn't a lot of time for that. Which makes me sad. A quick and easy cookie that my mother used to make has always been one of my favorites, and it is also one of my children's favorites. They are called Valley Cookies (though I'm not sure why, since they look more like little hills. I also make what my children call Cave Cookies, so we have all the landforms covered. But more on those another time.), and you don't even have to bake them. You make them on top of the stove, leave them in the fridge to harden, and they take literally five minutes to make. Do it before bed, and you'll have cookies for lunches tomorrow.
Valley Cookies makes about 3 dozen
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk (I use whole milk)
1 stick butter (4 oz.)
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
4 Tbl. Hershey's unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/4 cups oats (quick cooking or old-fashioned--I use old-fashioned)
[caption id="attachment_861" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Miss Congeniality cookies"]
[/caption]Place butter in a saucepan and melt over low heat. Add sugar and milk. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Quickly add the peanut butter, cocoa, and vanilla, and mix well. Now add the oats (no dilly-dallying--you don't want the mixture to set up before you get the oats all mixed in). Cool mixture slightly, for just a few minutes. Drop mixture by tablespoons onto a greased or Silpat-covered baking sheet. You can also cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap, and drop the cookies onto the plastic. Put the uncovered baking sheet in the fridge and let cookies harden. When hard, remove from sheet and store tightly covered in the fridge. They won't win any beauty contests for cookies, but they sure are tasty. And they get tastier when you think how it took you about five minutes to make them.
