Fresh Tart

I love me a chocolate chip cookie as much as the next girl, but my real favorite childhood cookie is a ranger cookie. My Grandma Meyer made big batches of these coconut-and-cereal-laced beauties, piled them into empty Butter-Nut coffee cans, and hauled them to the lake for mid-day, swim-starved snacking. We grandkids would inhale a stack of them as we ran back to the beach, while my grandma and aunties enjoyed theirs sitting in the shade with a cup of tea. They would politely eat one or two, although I never understood how. I was - and clearly still am - obsessed with their buttery, naughty goodness.

Apparently as was all of Clara City, Minnesota, given a glance at the Bethenny Reformed Church cookbook. There are several recipes by several different names - cereal cookies, oatmeal corn flake cookies, cracked coconut oat cookies (my favorite), and of course ranger cookies. Some recipes call for rice krispies instead of corn flakes, some for shortening instead of butter, but they're all a variation on the same basic recipe. My son noted that these cookies are an early version of the currently uber-popular Momofuku Milk Bar compost cookies - and he's right! I consider these a purer, more elegant form. Then again, nostalgia is a powerful seasoning.

Recipe for Ranger Cookies at TC Taste/Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Last week of school, this week, and then the crazy party we call summer begins. More baseball, lots of entertaining, visits from and trips to stay with family and friends, and driving, driving, driving for various sports and camps. I got a bit of a headache working on my calendar last night, ack. As usual, it will fly by, and next thing you know I'll be bitching about the cold and putting up the Christmas tree. Slow down! Slow. Down. I'll definitely try to slow it all down, savor my summer (even the rainy days, of which we've had plenty lately), having Nathan home during the day, swimming, beach, biking, al fresco dining, and the bounty of fresh veggies and herbs that is about to begin.

And picnics! Like the one John and I snuck in on Saturday. I packed a quick little lunch - chicken-avocado sandwiches, trail mix (I just threw together peanuts, raisins, andcoconut), pickles, and cold beer - and we loaded up our bikes and rode around Hyland Lake Park Reserve in Bloomington. Little hillier than we were looking for, but lovely and fun nonetheless, especially when we were done biking and sat down to our mini-feast! I get so excited about eating on my own deck or porch, I forget what a blast it is to pack a picnic and head for a gorgeous park. Definitely a goal to do that more often this summer, and drag the kids along to boot, heh, heh. I want them to have some fun Eating-Outdoors Memories like I have - roast beef sandwiches and lemon bars at my stepmom's brother's polo matches...my dad's freshly-caught trout, corn-meal dredged and fried right on the shore, made into killer sandwiches with bacon and fire-toasted bread (tasting mighty fine after a long horseback ride)...my grandma's roadside bologna-n-butter sandwiches, with potato chips, fresh peaches, and my very favorite crunchy-coconutty Ranger cookies (my grandparents didn't stop for fast food on road trips). Man, good stuff, all of it. Summer '07. Time to make some memories... (Recipe posted in comments, below.)