Oatmeal Cream Pies and a First

While I really don't like to cook, I LOVE to bake. I love finding new recipes and of course I love to eat them when I'm done (and while I'm making them). Lately I've been a huge fan of Pioneer Woman. I can't wait to get my hands on her cookbook (although that's quite the story and I'll save it for another day). A couple weeks ago I wrote about her Pork Chops and Pineapple Fried Rice I made, and it was a huge hit. So after an unfortunate carrot-cake-cupcake (ccc) disaster, I had a bunch of cream cheese frosting that I needed to use up. So I turned to good ol' P-dub for some help.

Just the other day she posted a recipe for homemade oatmeal whoopie pies with 2 different ideas for the cream filling. Well since I already had the frosting, and everything else in my pantry I now knew what I was going to do with the extra frosting! (Besides eat with a spoon).

This is an old Amish recipe for oatmeal cookies, and they sure knew what they were doing. I am a huge fan of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (NOT to be confused with raisin - yugh). And I am most certainly going to make these cookies again to eat plain and add in some chocolate chips. They were the perfect amount of soft in the middle and slightly crunch on the outside. And just because I LOVE to bake, doesn't mean I claim to be good at it (hence the ccc disaster). And you really can't mess these up. My oven has a mind of it's own (which is what I'm blaming for the above mentioned ccc disaster), so even though I watched these like a hawk (mostly because I also wanted to eat one, but anywhoo) they came out perfect every time.

The reason they sort of look misshapen is because I put them too close together and sort of had to cut them apart. But don't let that fool you, it in no way affects the deliciousness that is these cookies.

Once all your cookies are done, all you have to do is fill em with frosting and enjoy. Hopefully not all of them before someone else gets the chance to try...

They were even better then the Little Debbie variety. And so incredibly easy to make. This is next on my list to make for Gracen's snack day at pre-school. Oatmeal is healthy right? Right.

A couple of side notes... These are SUPER rich. I couldn't eat more than one (technically two cookies with some frosting) without getting a little stomach ache, but they're unbelievably good. And mine look nothing like P-Dub's professional ones. Mine did not stay rounded like hers, but they still tasted damn good. 

And to end this with a totally random piece of trivia about yours truly - this is the first time ever in my life I have used Crisco. Usually if I see Crisco in a recipe I toss it, because it creeps me out. It literally pained me to do it, because the mere thought of Crisco TOTALLY CREEPS ME OUT, but I survived. And now I have a tub of Crisco in my pantry (albeit the smallest one they sell). Ladies and gents, I've gone over to the dark side.