Today is my youngest brother’s birthday, the only one of my siblings to receive my cookies on a somewhat regular basis. Like every one of my them, he’s a good cook and could bake for himself, but he’s also the one who lives at my mother’s big house, helps take care of her and has made it possible for her to age at home. He’s also a big appreciator of my baked goodies and cookie experiments.
This cookie came about because I dreamed it the night before I made it, something which has happened many times. My family loves date-filled cookies, I had some Medjool dates leftover from Christmas baking (which didn’t get used because I tired early) and I knew my brother would enjoy them no matter how they turned out as long as there was plenty of filling. The oatmeal butter cookie itself is just my variation on an oatmeal icebox cookie and the filling is based on my granmother’s recipe for her rolled-and-cut date-filled cookies.
I’m rather perturbed at the USPS. I got up early last Friday morning, baked, filled and packed these cookies, went to the Post Office, paid for Priority Mail and they were to arrive on Saturday. It usually takes only one day for goodies to travel from Seattle across Puget Sound and to the mailbox or doorstep in Poulsbo. Instead, they went from this part Seattle to a different part of Seattle, sat for a day before shipped to Tacoma, then sat at the Tacoma USPS transit two days until early this morning when they went to Silverdale for a visit, then to Poulsbo and won’t be delivered until tomorrow! Five days is ridiculous. I know it’s a holiday weekend, but this lousy service is frustrating when there’s fresh cookies if they arrive in one day and I fear they could be DOA tomorrow. I blame that lousy USPS destroyer and package profiteer, Louis Dejoy.
Meanwhile, I hope folks give a thought to Martin Luther King Day.
Ms Chef in Seattle 