Happy New Year!
I hope you had a good Christmas and special times with family and friends. I traveled across the country to spend time with family. While I would have preferred to be home for Christmas, it was all special and great.
Highlights:
- Participated in my first official ‘Christmas Golf Cart Parade’
- Walked on a beach
- Rode through the streets of Savannah in a carriage pulled by a magnificent horse named Duke
- Attended an inspiring Christmas Eve church service with family, including new grandson!
- Gave and received lots of hugs and kisses from everyone—and gifts.
It took me a while to recover after returning home, but it was worth it. I was not just exhausted physically but mentally and emotionally as well.
It took me a long time after my husband’s death to be able to travel. He loved travel and flying so much that it felt wrong to go without him.
But the birth of our grandson last summer helped me get over that guilt and fear of traveling alone. I would still rather not go alone, but I have done it without mishap.
I even learned to use the Uber app to arrange transportation for pick-ups and use Uber Eats for meal deliveries!
It feels good to know I’m in the 21st century and not relying on my kids or anyone else to help me.
It takes a great deal of courage to get out of sad, difficult, lonely situations. I encourage those of you facing obstacles not to rush into anything but give yourself time to heal. Pray to God for help through every situation. That’s the only way I know to get through problems. God has always seen me through everything and will continue to do so.
As for New Year resolutions, I don’t make them, especially now when I’m alone. I barely know what I will do next week, let alone the rest of the year. But I believe the year of 2026 will be a good one and I look forward to facing each day with faith, friends, and family by my side.
Now on to more Vintage Cooking!
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The year of 2026 is a special one for the US. It is our 250th birthday!
For that reason I will offer historic recipes to not only remind us of how far we’ve come with food preparation, but as a means to teach history. Several of my cookbooks are historic in nature – I just found one of pubs and taverns of Colonial Williamsburg (that’s in Virginia, in case you didn’t know).
But to start us off I’m offering one from the 1960s. That doesn’t seem so long ago to some of us. Ha!
Orange Oatmeal Cookies are a great drop cookie. I seem to gravitate to that variety, rather than bar or decorated cookies. I suppose it’s because they are easy to do with a small ice cream scoop for uniformity.
My family enjoys the orange flavor from the rind and juice, although the second time I made it I tripled the dried orange rind for enhanced flavoring. Yum!
I also substituted chocolate chips for raisins as we enjoy the combination of chocolate and orange flavors.
The towel featured in the photo is one I received for Christmas. It’s too pretty to use for grubby spills so I may keep it for staging food photos.
I also purchased a Christmas gift for myself – a new Kitchenaid mixer!
I’ve wanted one for a long time and when I found one, unopened in its original box, in an online auction – and in my favorite color of red! – I had to have it. Thankfully, it didn’t have many bidders so I got it at a reasonable cost.
It is heavier than expected and being left-handed, I’m adjusting to it. It was hard to put my 20-year-old Sunbeam stand mixer in the back of the pantry (handy in case it is still needed).
But my new mixer mixed up this cookie recipe well. I look forward to using it often for the next several years. Actually, I doubt if I’ll wear it out!
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The recipe for Orange Oatmeal Cookies came from my spiral-bound copy of a cookbook from Milwaukee Gas Light Company (1961). I’ve shared other great cookies recipes from this cookbook:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
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I hope you will find a reason to make Orange Oatmeal Cookies for yourself or friends. Remember First Responders in your community who might enjoy a treat. I took cookies to the Emergency Medical Team people in my town for Christmas and they seemed to appreciate it.
Any gesture of kindness is a step towards a better world.
(I just made that up, but I believe it sincerely.)
Take care, and keep cooking!
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Orange Oatmeal Cookies
½ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup oats
¼ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon grated orange rind (I used fresh orange rind and dried, which I added to make 2-1/2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon orange juice
¼ cup raisins (I substituted chocolate chips)
1/8 cup chopped pecans (I deleted these)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In small bowl mix flour, soda, and salt.
Add oats. Mix and set aside.
In large bowl cream butter.
Add sugar gradually; cream until fluffy.
Add well-beaten egg, orange rind, and juice; mix.
Add flour gradually; mix.
Add raisins/ chocolate chips and nuts; mix.
Drop on ungreased bake sheets. ( I ALWAYS use parchment paper, no matter what the recipe calls for; it seems to make no difference. I use a small ice cream scoop for uniformity.)
Bake 12 minutes.
Yield: 2 dozen
Vintage Eats of Kayleen Reusser 
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