Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Homemaking Tip—No Sense Tempting Bad Luck

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Long ago before Ree was Pioneer Woman, there was Becky. Becky was a fashion model in a large city before she married George and moved to the family ranch 60 miles from town. It was a painful transition for Becky to live so far from stores, friends, schools and entertainment, but she did it. She was a wonderful cook and one day she returned my pan with something freshly baked in it. I fussed like a respectable neighbor should, telling her it wasn’t necessary and all, but she said, “My mom said it’s bad luck to return an empty pan.” Far be it from me to question her mother’s superstitions.

Tonight we returned a pan to friends who brought soup over last weekend. I filled it with these cookies (what with the oats, bran flakes, nuts and raisins they’re bound to be as nutritious as soup).

Good Luck Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter-flavor Crisco
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 ½ cups flour
¾ cup bran flakes
1 tsp soda
2 cups oats
2 cups chocolate covered raisins
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

Cream shortening and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients (salt, flour, baking soda, oats, bran flakes, coconut and nuts). Mix well. Add chocolate covered raisins. Spoon onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes or until lightly golden. Makes approximately 5 dozen.


Here's to Becky and her mom. I miss her and her cooking.

16 comments:

Kathy’s Korner said...

Those cookies look delicious. I am so proud of you for returning the pot with cookies. Great trade.

Amy said...

They look so good! Once again...I'd love to be your neighbor.

Nikki said...

I can't wait to try that recipe! And what a great story to go with it. I think I'll have to adopt that little superstition too. ;)

Barb said...

I'm intrigued. Chocolate covered raisins are my favorite movie treat, so I'm bound to like these.

Jill said...

I like this tradition, I'll have to start loaning out my pots and pans.

camery said...

Jane,

I have LOTS of pots AND pans...

These cookies look fantastic. You never cease to amaze. :)

Anonymous said...

This is awesome! I wish people loaned me their pots and pans- I would love to return them full.

Deidra said...

I had a neighbor boy in college who would never return an empty pan. He'd leave one brownie or whatever in the pan (for an apartment of four girls?) so he didn't have to do the dishes. I'd much rather be your neighbor.

Becky said...

I loved that story! One of my favorite parts of having meals brought in after I have a baby born, is making treats and thank-you cards to return with the dishes....it's a great tradition :)

Becky said...

P.S. And I just read Jill's comment and I'm cracking up--lol

Unknown said...

You know I'm bringing a MASSIVE pot of soup next time we scrapbook, right??

Kim Sue said...

what a wonderful idea...I was thinking that I should make sure I do this the next time someone leaves a dish and then I read Jill's comment and it cracked me up...now that's planning :o)

Lucy said...

I think this is a fun tradition, but have to admit, I've kept a kind person's plate or dish way longer than appropriate because of good intentions to bring it back full. I'm sure in some of these cases, they would have preferred to simply have their dish back! Always a good idea, though.

Sandy said...

Those look delicious except I try not to use Crisco anymore. But YUMMY!

michelle said...

I love this! Great idea. I also love the name of the cookies and I have never made any with chocolate-covered raising before... yum.

American Homemaker said...

I return people's pans to them with cookies too... LOL

How funny :)