Tastes of Fall ...

Maybe it's because the house is finally clean ... or maybe it's the chilly air with that pungent aroma of freshly-turned earth ... or maybe it's because the leaves have gone from green to red and gold and now come floating down from tree branches like soft, colorful snowflakes, each one beautifully unique ... or maybe it's all these things mixed together that make me remember Fall from my childhood.
When we'd get home from school and open the door, the house would be warm and smell of cinnamon and molasses ... ginger and cloves. It was the best smell! And waiting for us would be plates of the best cookies I've ever tasted. My mom's favorites to bake were Rice Krispy Oatmeal Cookies and Molasses Cookies. While sorting through my mother's recipe envelope, I came across her original Rice Krispy Oatmeal cookie recipe! As you can see, it's well worn! With lots of grease stains and bits of flour still clinging to it! I don't know the original source. Maybe it was on the back of a Rice Krispy box years ago? I found this website that has a recipe, Copyright 2006 by Kellogg NA Co., which is similar, but not exact. My mother never put coconut in them! I must also note that using butter in this recipe is not as good as using margarine. I don't know why. Most cookies taste much better with butter, but for some reason, this one will get too hard and not be as tasty at all. Try margarine, instead. I would think that butter-flavored Crisco might work, as well.

I also found this, her original Brer Rabbit Molasses Cookie recipe taken from the label that was around the bottle. It's seen better days! It obviously got too close to the stove one day and actually has burnt parts! Somebody had the presence of mind to put out the flames and rescue it!
These are fabulous. They get wonderful crinkles in them and the dough is one of the richest I've ever tasted (and believe me, I've consumed LOTS of cookie dough in my day)! Do you know they still make Brer Rabbit Molasses? It's produced by B&G Foods, Inc. and they have lots of great recipes posted on their website. To go there now, Click here

The other recipe my mom would bake for dessert was Apple Crisp. This recipe is in my sister's handwriting. She must have written the ingredients down so we wouldn't forget them. I always felt like maybe my mom made it from memory. I really don't know where she got the recipe in the first place. Maybe Quaker Oats had it on their canister? Here's the link to the Quaker Oats website and they do have several Crisp recipes. Wherever this recipe came from, I can remember my mom sitting at the kitchen table peeling apples, with a newspaper spread out to catch the peelings. I loved to pick up the apple cores and glean the rest of the apple off! This tastes really good when it's still warm, with ice cream melting on top, but I have definitely eaten it cold and it's still wonderful.

Since the time and temperature to bake is on the reverse of this card, I'll add it here: "375 degrees for 30 minutes or until apples are tender."