Sue's "NO'lasses Cookies....

I struggle with following a baking recipe. But this time around, I always follow (to a T), this particular recipe of my mother's. Somehow, the genetic pool of kitchen greatness, passed me by. Oh, I can bake to a degree... but I SO wonder what my grandmothers, great aunts and mother FORGOT to tell me. I think they followed their own conjured up recipes in their head. But I also think they did what ever they wanted to, tasting as they went along. (and hoping some day, their children would struggle trying to make THEIR concoctions!)

Today I follow my mother's beloved Molasses Cookie recipe. Again, for the tenth time, they just don't turn out like hers. Jeff is taste-testing and says, "there's nothin' wrong with them...". He's kind. He eats just about anything I present him with (unless it has the words pimento or mousse in it).. Family joke.

Here's Naomi Beatty's recipe, passed down from her grandmother, Elizabeth Miller:

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup of canned milk
3/4 tbsp vinegar
1 cup shortening/margarine/oleo (whatever)
1 cup sugar
1 egg well-beaten
1/2 cup molasses

Put dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine canned milk and vinegar in separate bowl.
Cream shortening & sugar in large bowl; add beaten egg and molasses.
Gradually add canned milk & vinegar mixture slowing/alternating with dry ingredients.
Slowly mix just until ingredients are blended.
Drop by rounded teaspoon on non-greased cookie sheet.
Bake in moderate oven 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes... depending on oven.

There you go. Should be simple. It is! And they are wonderful. At least they were in 1957, 1964, 1971, 1985, 1997, 2001. Geez....

Maybe it's time for a new recipe!

Oh, BTW, I'm a good singer. I'll stick to that... :)