It's Cookie Season!

There is nothing I love more than Holiday cookies! I love to cook, but I LOVE to bake even more! And this, my friends, is COOKIE season! In my opinion the best part about Thanksgiving and Christmas is the desserts. It's taken me years to perfect a few of my favorite pies, cookies, and cakes, but I never get tired of trying new things either. A few years ago when I was on the hunt for a new cookie recipe I came across a recipe for peanut butter/oatmeal cookies, but I didn't have all the ingredients to make the cream filling (they were supposed to be a sandwich cookie) so I went to work modifying the recipe to fit the ingredients I had in my pantry. What I came up with is has become a big hit at our house & man oh man, are these cookies addictive. They make a huge batch too....so watch out! I make them all year round, but I think they are a nice addition to Christmas cookie tins too!

Hope you try em'!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

1 ½ Cups Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

½ teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Butter, softened

1 Cup White Sugar

1 Cup packed Light Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 Cups Quick Cooking Oats

1 Bag *Peanut Butter/ Milk Chocolate Chips (Nestle)

*Just plain Milk Chocolate Chips may also be used J

** M&M's are also yummy!

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs next and beat well.

2. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir. (do not use your mixer any longer) Add oatmeal and stir.

3. Mix Chocolate chips to cookie dough mixture.

4. Roll dough into balls & flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass, and place at least 1 inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until cookies are very light brown on top.

Please Note: These are not the PB/Oatmeal cookies, but I just wanted to show you this example of slightly flattened cookie balls (don't go wild on the flattening part). I'll be posting the recipe for these cookies (Oatmeal raisin) soon :-).

*If cookies do not spread out well enough “slam” (or drop) cookie sheet once on counter top or oven rack to deflate cookies and bake for 1 more minute J Cookies will look quite “puffy” until they are nearly ready…so watch them closely.