Dear Recession,
I hate you I dislike you. I think it’s time for you to go away now, don’t you think? Look! I made you oatmeal cookies…think of it as a parting gift of sorts. So leave…now. You’ve caused nothing but trouble ever since you arrived and everyone is sorta tired of your face.
And to all you people that caused this, you sort of make me sick. My friends can’t seem to fund their movies, or get money for their art projects. A bunch of my favorite restaurants and boutiques have closed their doors, which in turn has lead to a whole bunch of people now working jobs they don’t like just to pay the rent (and that’s if they can even find a job) all ’cause of you. People have shed a lot of tears, families have broken up, and overall, you’ve just made life a whole lot harder for a whole lot of people. Sooo…I’m thinking you owe us something, dontcha think? I think you owe us some cookies…I mean, it’s really the least you could do. It certainly won’t make us forget, but you know, we’ll call it an olive branch. And since  I’m pretty confident you can afford it, I’m demanding you put some bacon in those cookies, and I think Valhorna chocolate chips are also in order (see below for example).
So dig into your bonus-filled pockets, put on a cute, little apron and get baking. You suuure do have a lot of cookies to bake.
xoxo,
Adrianna
Depression (or Recession) Era Oatmeal Cookies
This recipe was given to me by my dear friend, Tom. This was his Grandmother Nellie’s Oatmeal Cookie recipe that calls for bacon drippings rather than butter. I keep my bacon drippings in a mason jar in the fridge. If you don’t save your bacon drippings, or you don’t want to use them, here’s a link to my favorite Oatmeal Cookie recipes that uses butter. See! Everyone wins.
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup  bacon drippings at room temperature
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
4 pieces of bacon, fried and chopped (optional)
6 oz. of chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the white sugar, brown sugar, egg and bacon drippings. Add the oats, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, flour  and mix well. If you like, then gently fold in the bacon and chocolate chips.
Using your hands shape the dough into 1 1/2″ to 2″ cookies. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for ten minutes or until done.
My Grandma Frances made these cookies for my grandfather. They were well liked by the men that worked in the Steel Mills. Minus the choc. Chips and bacon grease as it could get quite hot in the mill. It was a cookie with a lot of oat flavor and did not leave your working hands gunked up. They just called them Steel Mill cookies. She used cooking oil. I loved your options and am going to try them!!
Thanks for sharing era oatmeal cookies information with us. I love lot baking cookies preparation and taking those. I like to present these cookies for birthdays of my friends.
Just found you blog- it’s a great read and your pictures are gorgeous!! I have a friend who is absolutely obsessed with bacon. I cannot wait to ship him a box of these cookies!
Wow Adrianna, bacon dripping in chocolate chip cookies. I think I might be in heaven!
I always seem to have a jar of dripping that ends up in the trash:( Never thought using drippings in cookies.
Who could be depressed when eating those tasty looking treats!
-E
I am so proud to be a grand-daughter of Nellie, who enshrined this cookie in my psyche. I have made this recipe many times. Everyone who has ever had one has loved it. To be politically correct I have sometimes told the prospective eaters that it contains bacon drippings, sometimes not!!
using bacon drippings has me thinking out the “box”. The photo sure looks good. I might add chopped walnuts instead of bacon bits.
scrumptious!!
oh wow…the idea of using bacon drippings in a cookie has blown my mind! Can’t wait to give it a try!