Seasoned to Taste: Perfect Raisin Drop Cookies

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Technology is a wonderful thing, when it works. But as recent sad experience has shown some of us, computer confidence can be a risky business. One minute you’ve got instant access to millions of words sent and received; the next, a big, fat, black nothing on the screen. A call to computer 911 is futile; the hard drive is pronounced DOA. So all those e-mails with recipes kind people sent? Gone. The notes from family and friends announcing milestones that you always intended to print out? Poof.

The technological moral to the story, of course, is simple: back that thing up. But there’s another lesson, a reminder, really, of the comparative permanence of paper. Of course recipes and notes and documents of all sorts can be burned or tossed or blown into the next county by so-called “tornadic activity.” Ultimately nothing is permanent but change.

Still, when the hard drive goes belly up, there’s a certain consolation in going back to the recipe box, not only for the how-to’s that are written on those cards, but the essence of identity that’s preserved there.

So I may have lost more recent history, but I still have my daughter’s youthful scrawl on a card entitled “Mollie’s Recipe.” At about age 7, she created a concoction all her own (do not try this at home, by the way.) But what a perfect Mother’s Day gift to be able still to read, “5 c. Flour, 2 c. Peanut Butter, 2 T. Yeast, 1 c. Sugar, 7 c. Mayonnaise, 3 c. Salt, 9 c. Cheerios. Instructions: Mix everything. Bake at 350 for 10-20 minutes.”

Equally precious, and considerably more practical, is the card headlined “Perfect Raisin Drop Cookies (Grandma).” There in my mother’s perfect Palmer penmanship are her mother’s directions for what one or both of them described as “6 doz. fat, soft cookies.” Equally charming is the storage tip, keep in “tightly covered tin boxes,” a reminder that the technologically more sophisticated plastic “zippered resealable storage bag” isn’t the only way to preserve fresh-baked goodness.

Seeing that handwriting and hearing in those written words the voices of these mothers too long gone brings more than a terabyte of satisfaction. And the cookies ain’t bad, either!

So mothers, this Mother’s Day ask your kids, regardless of their ages, to write down a recipe in their own handwriting. Have the little ones just make something up. Children, regardless of your or her age, ask your mother to write down a recipe in her own handwriting. Scan them if you like, if you think that’s preservation, but file the originals away. And then one day when you’re confronted with life’s latest version of a big, fat, black hole, you’ll find sustenance in those words handwritten on paper, even if you don’t cook a thing!

Perfect Raisin Drop Cookies

2 cups raisins

1 cup water (more)

1 teaspoon soda

2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs, well beaten

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup chopped walnuts

Add water to raisins, boil briskly for 5 minutes, cool, stir in soda and let stand. Cream shortening and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add vanilla, the beaten eggs and the cooled raisins, with their liquid, and the flour sifted with the B. powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in nuts and drop by spoonsful on a greased baking sheet leaving plenty of space between cookies. Bake 12 to 15 minutes in a 425 F. oven. Remove at once from sheet, cool, store in tightly covered tin boxes to keep them from drying out. Makes 6 dozen fat, soft cookies.

Note: The (more) behind 1 cup water indicates you may need to use a little more water to keep the raisins from sticking. Put raisins in saucepan and add 1 cup of water. If it doesn’t look like enough, add a couple tablespoons more.

Lynne Ireland lives to eat and welcomes comments and questions from others who do (or don’t). Contact her at savor@journalstar.com.