This is my first recipe of the food section! I know it’s a bit weird to have a Travel blog with a cooking section. But since I’m a budget traveller, I can’t be eating out all the time and food seems just like the best way to reconnect with home and to get to know more of other countries.

As I said in previous post, my mom used to run a catering business back in Mexico. Therefore, I learned a thing or two about cooking and I thought it would be an amazing idea to share some of her recipes (I have her signed permission to share them with you). Also, if I happen to learn new dishes while I’m on the road (like this amazing homemade kettle corn), it will be very fun to document my discoveries here.

If you don’t remember, I got stuck in Mexico City longer than I anticipated. This meant that my friend Betty had to put up with me for a couple of extra days. I’ve known Betty for half of my life. I used to sit in front of her in middle school and drew in her notebooks whenever I got bored. Somehow, she learned to love me despite her scribbled notes and we’ve been friends ever since. So she told me I could crash on her couch for as long as I wanted, but still I wanted to make something nice for her and her cousin.

Since they didn’t have a particularly broad kitchen inventory (twenty-somethings recently out of their parents house, you know), I wanted to do something simple, yet delicious. And that’s when it hit me: classic oatmeal cookies!

I know they are not the most popular among the cookies, but I’ve never understood why. They are so easy to make and you can mix them with nuts, cranberry or practically any topping you want!

Classic Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar (You can also use 1 ½ cups of just one kind of sugar, but it tastes so much better if you mix them)
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg
• The topping of your choice (could be chocolate chip cookies, carrots, apple, banana, it’s up to you!)

  

Photo by Laura Morales

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (176 ºC)
2. In a large bowl, mix the butter with the granulated sugar and the brown sugar until you get a fluffy paste. Add the vanilla extract and the large egg continue mixing it until it is well blended.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Once it is mixed, add the oats and the topping of your choice.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until evenly incorporated. Be careful because the flour tends to stick to the side of the bowl.
5. Once you have your ingredients blended, grab about two tablespoons of the dough and shape it into a ball.
6. Place the dough balls into a lined pan covered with baking sheets.
7. Bake for about 10 minutes. The time may vary depending on where you live, just check the pan occasionally and remove when the base of the cookies is crispy. Then just let them cool and you are ready to go!

   

 

So, there you go! If you make it, make sure to let me know how did it go (and send some pictures too!). I’ll be posting more complex recipes eventually, but, at the moment, this seemed like a perfect start. Hope you enjoy it!

I guess I’ll see you on the road.

Love,