Yes, yes, it is true, I am THAT Mom. I am the one who baked the cookies for the kids before they came home from school if I wasn't working. I am THAT Mom who baked them as soon as I walked in the door if I was working. My dad saw to it that the kids stayed supplied with ice cream, I was (and am) the cookie Mom. I am also THAT Mom who made sure everyone realized dinner was at 6:00 O'clock, and not five after. I am THAT Cook still. If you're going to eat at my house, if you're going to eat what I cook, you'll eat dinner at 6:00 O'clock. Lunch is generally around the noon hour, but it could be flexible considering we were mostly at work or school. On the weekends we had horses and football, so yeah, lunch could be around noon and be makeshift or planned - - dinner is at six.
Pinterest has made menu planning so easy, in fact, I have been doing a bit more digging and diving into other people's Pinterest ideas lately instead of just looking at the recipes. I've been making plans, menus, shopping for specific items, and even exploring new things - - God help us. If you live with me, if you come over to my house, if you are there when the hour strikes six, you will eat what is set before you. You aren't allowed to say no, and you're not allowed to complain either. It is what it is, deal with it, eat my food, and say thank you. It's really quite simple. I'm a simple girl you know. Never one for a fuss; not really, fuss just seems to follow me and beat me up now and again, but I hold my own pretty well.
Today we have the ever-so-favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies that I used to make when I was a kid and thought about entering something into the State Fair to see if I could win a prize. I never did it, but I always went to the Oklahoma State Fair Creative Arts Program which was held in the Kitchens and Living Center. In the center, they had dozens upon dozens of entries and you could look at them and see how they were created, how they were made, and all the fancy-schmancy decorative presentations. I was always enamored with the way kids my age would find ways to not only find a family recipe that was super-secret, but they were able to make it as good as their grandma made it, and they could present it on really nice platters with silver, red, green, or gold foils. I always wondered if secretly their actually granny had made the food and just let the kids get the credit? I don't know, I always thought it could happen. I might do something like that for my babies -- if I'm being honest.
In the food category there were always these three or four women, who you knew must be really close friends or enemies, and they competed in 18-30 categories dealing with canning, baking, cooking, and such. These ladies were masters. I googled and stared at their food products. My family thought I was nuts for spending so much time in that one particular builidng just staring at the homemade canned goods, but I knew these women had years of baking experience and I wanted some of that for myself. My mom wasn't exactly Betty Crocker if you know what I'm saying. In our house, if we ate it was because my dad got around to making us something on the weekends when he was home. During the week we were lucky to scrape up whatever was leftover from the last leftover, and/or beg Mom to put on some Hamburger Helper.
I'm not complaining too badly -- she was a good baker, just not that consistent with "real food". I guess that's why all that really interesting food at the State Fair really caught my attention. I didn't get a Barbie for my 11th birthday, I asked for a Betty Crocker Cookbook like the one I saw at the Bethany Library. I knew they had them for sale. I saw one at the bookstore! A cookbook for a girl isn't all that unusual in the 1970s, so that's not that big of a story, but I actually still have the damn thing. It's been mulled over a few thousand times, but its there in the cupboard. I don't look at it as much now, and I guess it's just because Pinterest makes things so easy. I can pop it up on my phone and be done. I don't handle the phone while I cook so the phone, unlike the book, doesn't have shortening grease and flour all over it; not yet anyway. It's early.
Well, the game is about to start, and if you think I'm THAT Mom in the kitchen, you should know I'm THAT Mom on the couch when Oklahoma plays anyone during the fall. If I'm not watching the game I'm listening to it. If I'm not listening to it, or on the couch, I'm at the stadium! My son may be there tonight actually, I can't expect him for dinner or to gobble down the cookies I just stacked up on the little crimson and cream Boomer Sooner plate that I use when I'm watching the boys play. You gotta get in the mood you know, you can't watch the game without cookies or beer and I prefer cookies. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do reserve the right to have a beer or two each year with Baby Boy when we watch the game from his couches, but that's not tonight -- sadly. Maybe I can be THAT Mom for my dog! She loves me.
Boomer Sooner!
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