My sister Meghan greeted a new decade this week.  Of all the Homemade Mothers I know, she is perhaps the hardest working and most inspiring.  She works full time in advertising, but she still manages to make amazing dinners, keep a tidy house, and find time to snuggle with her sweet baby boy.  She was one of the first people to encourage me to start this blog, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Meghan is a fantastic baker.  Like, really, really good.  She’s so good that when I recently made a batch of delicious oatmeal cookies, Chris tried one and asked “When was Meghan here?”  Humpf!  Because I just can’t compete I wanted to make her a special un-baked treat for her birthday.

I found a recipe for unbaked cookies in a 46 year old cookbook my grandma recently gave me.  It was put together by the Mother’s Club of St. Alphonsus Church here in Chicago, and, in many ways, these recipes are a glimpse into what day-to-day life was for some Chicago women back in the early 1960s.  Female parishioners I never knew contributed their favored family recipes to this book, and I love reading the vintage recipes.

This morning the kids and I tried out the unbaked cookie recipe from a Mrs. Genevieve Krock.  Evie and Mack absolutely loved these cookies, and they were heartbroken when I told them “no more!”   I wonder if Mrs. Krock ever imagined that her recipe would be responsible for two tantrums nearly half a century after she shared it with her church cookbook…!

Mrs. Genevieve Krock’s Unbaked Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter
3/8 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups oats

Boil sugar, butter, cocoa and milk in a saucepan for just one minute.  Stir well.  Add vanilla and peanut butter.  Stir until blended.  Add oatmeal and mix until all the oats are coated.  At this point, I added dried cherries and blueberries, and I’m sure peanuts would be a nice addition, too.  Drop by spoonful onto waxed paper.  Cool in the fridge until firm.

If a sneaky two year old helps herself to a cookie from the fridge, wink and pretend like you didn’t see anything. You’ll make her day.