Addicted maybe?

I baked again...

...I might have developed a problem here.

My sister and I wanted to be ultra domestic during the rainy weekend so while she was preparing a storm of delish Vietnamese spring rolls, I took over her pantry and made more oatmeal cookies and her world famous banana bread. Don't the cookies look pretty all lined up in a row?

Unfortunately, expectations don't always match up to reality. I didn't add enough oats and as a result, we baked a giant pizookie-like cookie. But hey, still good! My brother-in-law thought so at least. He devoured about half of it.

The banana bread, however, exceeded expectations. The bananas were super ripe and my sister was spot on with the oven timing. She even said it was the best loaf that ever came out of her kitchen! Considering how this is her own recipe, I take great pride in that compliment. Teehee :)

What's better than hanging out and making good food?

This face!!

And this one!! :)

Grandma Sturm's oatmeal cookies, taken from my Dollar Tree quick oats container:
- 3/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups oats (or 2 cups if you want to recreate my pizookie)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together shortening, sugars, egg, water and vanilla until creamy. Add combined remaining dry ingredients. Mix well and drop by rounded teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. For variety, add chopped nuts, raisins, or chocolate chips. (I added dried cranberries and white chocolate chips to this batch, yum.) Makes about 5 dozen cookies or one giant one.

And sorry, I can't divulge my sister's secret banana bread recipe. Trust me though, if you had some of it you'd want to keep it a secret, too. Have a good week!