2 teaspoons vanilla extract

teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 large eggs, beaten (just whip them up with a fork)

2 and cups flour (no need to sift)

1 cup raisins (either regular or golden, you choose)

2 cups GROUND dry oatmeal (measure BEFORE grinding)

Melt the b.u.t.ter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Add the sugar and mix it in. Then mix in the vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda.

When the mixture has cooled to room temperature, stir in the beaten eggs.

Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each addition.

Mix in the raisins.

Prepare your oatmeal. (I used Quaker Quick-1 Minute.) Measure out two cups of oatmeal and put them in the food processor, chopping it with the steel blade until it's the consistency of coa.r.s.e sand. Transfer it to your mixing bowl and mix it in. (This dough will be fairly stiff.) Roll walnut-sized dough b.a.l.l.s with your impeccably clean hands and place them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet. (If it's too sticky to roll, place the bowl in the refrigerator for thirty minutes and try again.) Squish the dough b.a.l.l.s down with a fork in a crisscross pattern (like peanut b.u.t.ter cookies).

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the Oatmeal Raisin Crisps from the oven and cool them on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: 6 to 7 dozen, depending on cookie size.

These cookies freeze well if you roll them up in foil and place them in a freezer bag. They also hold together well for shipping.

Andrea likes these and she's never liked raisins - go figure.

OLD FASHIONED SUGAR COOKIES.

DO NOT preheat oven - dough must chill before baking.

2 cups melted b.u.t.ter (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)

2 cups powdered sugar (don't sift unless it's got big lumps

and then you shouldn't use it anyway)

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar (critical!)

1 teaspoon salt

4 and cups flour (don't sift pack it down in the cup

when you measure it)

cup white sugar in a small bowl (for coating dough b.a.l.l.s) Melt the b.u.t.ter in a microwave-safe bowl or in a saucepan on the stovetop. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Let the mix cool to room temperature.

Mix in the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg is added. Then mix in the vanilla extract, lemon zest, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.

Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each addition.

Chill the dough for at least one hour. (Overnight is fine, too.) When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. with the rack in the middle position.

Use your impeccably clean hands to roll the dough in walnut-sized b.a.l.l.s. Roll the dough b.a.l.l.s in the bowl of white sugar to coat them.

Hannah's 1st Note: You can make Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies special by mixing white sugar 2 to 1 with colored sugar for holidays. You could use orange for Halloween, red, white and blue for Independence Day, green for St. Pat's Day, red and green for Christmas, and multi-colored for birthdays.

Place the sugar-coated dough b.a.l.l.s on a cookie sheet you've greased, sprayed with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or covered with parchment paper. Place 12 cookies on each standard-sized cookie sheet. Flatten the dough b.a.l.l.s with the back of a metal spatula or the palm of your impeccably clean hand.

Bake at 325 degrees F. for 10 to 15 minutes. (The cookies should have a tinge of gold on the top.) Cool the cookies on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove them to a rack to finish cooling.

Hannah's 2nd Note: These cookies can be decorated with frosting piped from a pastry bag for special occasions or left just as they are.

Yield: Approximately 10 dozen crunchy, b.u.t.tery, sugary cookies.

ORANGE SNAPS.

DO NOT preheat the oven this dough needs to chill before baking.

1 and cups melted b.u.t.ter (3 sticks, 12 ounces, pound)

2 cups white (granulated) sugar

cup frozen orange juice concentrate (I used Minute Maid)

2 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a gla.s.s with a fork)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

teaspoon orange zest 51