Mom's Oatmeal Cookies with Hickory Nuts, page 122

One cup of hickory nuts. One mere cup of hickory nuts. Doesn't sound like a bit deal, does it? Well, after I started cracking them, one cup of deshelled nuts became as valuable as a cup of gold nuggets. I now remember the only other time I've cracked hickory nuts. Fred and I cracked a jar of them 15 years ago and were shocked by how long it took to make a pile of nuts. We ended up stupidly letting the whole jar go rancid because they were just too valuable to us. How was I ever going to be able to toss a whole cup of nuts into a cookie recipe? Cookies are something you munch on without thought, a portable dessert meant to be taken for granted. One cup of hickory nuts in cookies? This wasn't going to be easy for me.

Answer to our problem: slave labor. My cousins came over for a visit on a bright, sunny day to give their kiddos and ours time to play. And, what's better to do on a pretty Fall day than to crack hickory nuts with your loved ones? I felt like Tom Sawyer trying to convince them what a good time cracking hickory nuts was with a cheap smile on my face. I traded his paint brush for a nut cracker! When in Missouri, eh?

Within an hour we had cracked the whole pile and a margarine container full of beautiful nut meats was our prize. Man, was that ever a lot funner that doing them all ourselves. My cousins ended up bringing dinner over that evening and I promised to make cookies with hickory nuts for dessert. If I was going to poor a cup of the nuts in a cookie recipe, at least they were going to be enjoyed by a lot of people.

In the book, Bernadette, the Cooking Wild in Missouri author, notes that she has been making these oatmeal cookies for her dad since she was eight years old. My parents happened to be visiting, also, so I was able to make the same recipe for my dad. There was something bonding about that. And, our neighbor came by for  a visit as well so I sent him home with a plateful of cookies-after I told him the sweat and blood it took to make the little babies.
The cookies are chewy and satisfying with  cup of coconut as well as nuts in them. They taste like something by grandmother would have made.
They were heartily enjoyed by neighbors, cousins, kids, parents and us. And, sharing cookies with those folks was a load funner than hoarding a jar of rancid nuts.