Award Winning Cookies, chocolate chip, pecans, cherries

1979 Award Winning Cookies

Name: 1979 Award Winning Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 27 min
Ingredients: 1 Cup Shortening; 1 Cup Brown Sugar; 1 Cup White Sugar; 2 Eggs; 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda; 1 Teaspoon Salt; 1 Teaspoon Vanilla; 2 1/2 Cups Flour; 1 Package Semi-sweet chocolate chips; 3/4 Cup Pecans; 1/4 Maraschino cherries

July 25, 2018November 11, 2022

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My Award Winning Cookies.

In 1979, when I was 11 years old I entered a baking contest. Actually, I believe my grandmother entered me. I had entered a recipe for cookies called “Holiday Treats”. You can call anything “holiday” if it has the color red in it. This achievement of mine had faded along with other distant memories until I went to visit my mother. My grandmother who is now in her 90’s had just moved in with my mom and was unpacking her boxes. She came across the cookbook for the “1979 Colorado-Fayetteville County Pecan Bake Show.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had no idea she had saved this all these years. Immediately I got out my phone and took a picture.

You could definitely tell that an 11-year-old wrote this recipe. I listed all the ingredients and then the directions. Can you read that?

Mix it all together and bake at 325 degrees for 12 minutes. No, it didn’t say to mix all the wet ingredients and then add the dry ingredients. It didn’t say beat the eggs or chop the pecans. No, none of that. Simply mix it all together. By Kari Kindred, hence The Kindred Way.

Nowadays I normally use a mixer when I make cookies but I can guarantee 100% that my grandmother did not use a mixer.

I decided to make this recipe according to the directions. So, I mix it all together all at once in one big bowl. I started mixing with a big spoon but that was taking forever so I used the mixers that God gave me, my hands and I mixed it all together. As I was mixing, I remembered…..yep, this is how I did it back in the day. These cookies turned out better than any cookies I have had for a long time. I guess the great memories helped it taste better too.

Enjoy!