Sometimes I think about the treats my mother would give us when we were little.
And I would wonder why she could not just bake us a nice cookie maybe?
Oh right, she could not bake. Bless her heart.
So my mom would give us a spoon of Crisco dipped in granulated sugar.
40 years later I need to know if any of your mothers passed off Crisco and sugar as a treat to you?
Also I need to know if you ate it. Because we did. And by god we loved it.
Come to think of it, her second favorite treat to offer was a knife and a Dixie cup of white sugar as she told us to go cut some rhubarb stalks back by the garage.
And we would sit there and dip freshly cut rhubarb into sugar and take yummy sour bites.
Perhaps dreaming about cookies.
I tried to offer my girls rhubarb dipped in sugar and they thought I lost my mind.
They don’t know what they are missing.
But whenever I run across a very old recipe for cookies that is meant to be made with Crisco….I make it and it tastes just like my childhood.
And you bet I sneak a fingertip full of Crisco dipped in sugar when nobody is looking.
While I thank my mom for the simple things in life.
*****
Old Fashioned Oatmeal Crisp Cookies
6 T shortening
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 T granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t soda
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
Typical instructions – cream the wets and add the dry and mix well. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12-15 until flat and crispy and melt in mouth delicious. Bound to remind you of the Summer of 1972.
Unless of course you were not born yet..that would be freaky for you to think about the Summer of 1972 if you were not alive. But trust me..it was good.
Oh those look YUMMY!!!
And Astrid’s outfit is too cute (it goes without saying, so is she).
Aw thank you – I have to be a bit biased with my Matilda Jane Clothing love.
I love your little chef!
Tell me, which daughter do you make work as your maid.
Happy Monday!
I slept like three hours last night and I’m extra bitchy. Don’t push me!
Love ya!
m.
Oh I like a good bitch. Eloise is my maid.
The recipe sounds divine and oh my, those photos – perfection!
Astrid is such an adorable little helper! Love that flour heart.
I never had Cricso. But butter, yes. A lot of butter.
LOVE the pictures…..Tracy…you need to become a professional photographer!!!
Oh I wish. Maybe. Someday. I need to carve out some time. Thank you! xo
I LOVE rhubarb! Can’t wait to eat it again.
Isn’t rhubarb the greatest. It’s completely underrated.
LOVe the little baker pics! No, I have never had Crisco dipped in sugar. Blech. Maybe it’s the prego brain, but i need to vomit now.
I don’t blame you one bit. It indeed does not sound appetizing.
I never ate Crisco from the can but I do remember my mom & grandma using it for so many things. The one thing that I really remember is this frosting that my grandma used to make… crisco & sugar (a few other things too) but it was so smooth, light, fluffy, and delicious! Loved it… I make it now once in a while and it brings back so many wonderful memories.
I do still think that frosting is better with Crisco than with butter.
Oh my god this is SO midwest. Of course I ate Crisco as a kid! My mom is from Ohio and my dad from Iowa! It was a staple in my house…my mom still has a can larger than her head in her pantry! She swears it’s her secret ingredient in everything that tastes so awesome you wonder “why does this taste so good and why can’t I make this?” She probably dipped the rhubarb in Crisco, then sugar, and handed it to us like a candy stick! YUM!
I remember the summer of ’72.
(Of course.)
And my mom’s treats?
Tiny balls of raw ground beef (whenever she was making something with ground beef. which was like four times a week) and also uncooked pasta noodles.
My sister and I would wave them at each other like swords and then pick up the broken pieces and actually eat them.
(Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.)
We weren’t afraid much of salmonella back then.
(Is that what you’d get from uncooked ground beef? Or would you just get grossed-out?)
Ah. Summer.
I still feed my kids uncooked noodles. They LOVE it.
Tracy – those photos are so stinkin’ cute!! I had no idea you were such a mad photographer! Love her apron, the heart traced in flour, and sadly… my mom never fed us Crisco on a spoon. But we licked a huge amount of cookie dough bowls clean. With our fingers.
Thank you..and I still let my kids eat the raw dough. I know..bad mom.
Never had the Crisco treats…but my mom wasn’t a big baker either. We contrived our own treats!
Your pictures are absolutely awesome, by the way. Your little gal is beautiful and her apron is the cutest I’ve ever seen. My daughter, on the other hand, put coffee filter on their head one day when baking–called them a chef’s hat! Omigosh.
OMG that is the cutest idea!!!
Ha! My mom did not bake, but your post makes me glad that my dad did
Never even heard of the crisco dipped in sugar, but I’m totally down with the rhubarb.
So glad to hear so many others love rhubarb!
I never ate Crisco dipped in sugar but the rhubarb? Absolutely! My kids are also rhubarb fans. Since they were little they took a little paring knife out to the rhubarb patch and cut their own stalks off to dip them in sugar. Or should I say..eat their sugar with rhubarb. Raw cookie dough was a staple growing up for me and my kids. In fact…we might have to make some tonight.
The pictures? Sweeter than any spoonful of Crisco from your childhood!
Thank you. I love a little rhubarb with my sugar too. And oh yes on the cookie dough eating.
What beautiful pictures! And fun memories. No crisco dipped in sugar at our house, but I had rhubarb in sugar at friends’ houses. And the favorite pie at our house in strawberry rhubarb.
I would totally hire you as a photographer.
Thank you. Now I want to bake a pie. With Crisco and rhubarb of course.
I’m gagging.
My mom made cookies. Even in the summer of ’72.
However, until I was in high school and a friend made me one? I thought grilled cheese was a slice of cheese on a piece of bread that was toasted in the toaster. My mother also fed my brother mayonaise sandwiches. Bread. Mayo.
I’m gagging again.
We had mayo sandwiches too! With salt and pepper of course.
Never in my life heard of the Crisco trick. But rhubarb and sugar is one of my best childhood memories of time at my grandparents’ house.
My mother can cook and bake with the best of ‘em so we never had anything as simple as that but I KNOW we had our fair share of Crisco in other forms! ha!
p.s. Astrid needs to come over and play!
May I come over to play too? I can totally be fun sometimes.
I would like Astrid’s apron in my size, please and thank you.
I might just be able to hook you up…
I’ve never had crisco dipped in sugar, but we sometimes did get saltines topped with mayo. That is one treat that did not carry over into adulthood.
LOL – saltines with mayo. Oh gah.
My mom did not do the Crisco thing with me, but she did let me have my way with cookie dough like Astrid’s getting above.
My husband was completely shocked by that the first time he saw me let our kids do it. Apparently, they didn’t do that in his family.
I thought that everyone ate the dough? Isn’t that the point of baking the cookies?
I was born at the end of 81…
and I’ve never baked with Crisco…
Oh stop rubbing in how young and hot you are. A can of Crisco is in the mail…you can thank me later.
Those look amazing…can’t wait to bake! And your daughter is as cute as they come
My mom was a health food nut. We had carab. It was awful.
Dying laughing – I remember when I was babysitting at the ‘crunchy’ people’s house(what my mom called them) and I took a big handful of chocolate chips for a snack out of this glass container. They were not chocolate chips. That was my first and last experience with carab. Blech.
I should tell you about this one day, but the only treats I remember my mom giving me were strawberry daiquiris. Go mom of the 70′s!
My memaw did offer me a Sunday treat that still sticks with me (and grosses out my hubby) to this day. I got her yummy black eyed peas with a dollop of mayonnaise. I still insist on eating my peas this way.
I love your mom.
We had wine with 7Up on Christmas and that was as good as it got.
Love this post!
My grandmother used to give us rhubarb with sugar too! We thought we’d won the lottery.
You can buy non-Crisco, non-shortening stuff at Whole Foods.
You know, if you ever wanted to.
I’ll be using it to make these! They look so good.
I’m sadly allergic to Whole Foods.
xo
We were not fed Crisco dirctly from the can (butter with sugar, yes). We Criscoed our feet, knees, and elbows to combat winter dryness. Aloe vera, baby oil gel, cocoa butter, Eucerin, Aquaphor…ain’t a lotion on the market can compare to greasy Crisco for your bendy parts!
I used to eat rhubarb with sugar too, but sadly I never got the crisco sugar!
These cookies look delicious!
I think I may be sick.
No wonder you learned how to cook!
Yes, Crisco was a staple during my 70′s childhood. I would lick it – hmmm, kinda gross.
It was used for everything from cookies, to greasing baking pans, to fried chicken.
We were served lots of butter too (on toast with sugar) and on toast with peanut butter (she buttered the warm toast before putting the peanut butter on top – ?)
I make 1 awesome cookie at Christmas with shortening still. The sugar crinkle. Everyone loves them at cookie exchanges – it’s the Crisco.
Thanks for this rush of memories!
I ate Crisco from the can in the early 70′s! It was not instigated by my mom because I remember sneaking in the kitchen for a big spoonfull on my own.