Oven 350-375°F.

Bring a small sauce pan of water to boil about a 2 cups. Add raisins and boil 10 minutes. Measure out 2 cups flour (I sifted the flour) in a large bowl add your eggs, sugar, butter and lard (yes I used lard, you could sub equal amount of shortening).

Begin mixing at a low speed, then add 5 tablespoons of the water from your raisins. Add in the cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and vanilla. Add in the oats (I used Quaker old fashioned).

Drain the raisins, then add the now cooked raisins to the mixture. Blend well on low speed, just don't beat up the raisin too much. That's why we do them last.

Drop by the spoonful onto a cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes. I think they are better pulled out just a wee bit soft, much better than browned, a good way to tell is they should just start to brown on top.

What's interesting about this oatmeal cookie recipe is that is does not use brown sugar, uses lard and boiled raisin water. I have never seen a recipe quite like this, if you have some comments about it I would be interested to hear from you. peerybrown@gmail. com

I think modern cooking needs to go back to its roots, I like the old ways of cooking things I guess.

note: I am sure you health nuts out there are gonna go nuts over the use of a 1/2 cup of lard, but I will tell you this, all of my old relatives lived well right up into their late 80's, and 90's and they didn't do that on hydrogenated oil derived from vegetables. I use only butter and lard in all recipes, natural is better, moderation is key. -enjoy, PB

Submitted by: Virginia Elizabeth Brown (in memory of)