Old stack of recipes conceals a treasure

My mother went through a clutter-reduction phase a couple of weeks ago and handed over a batch of old cookbooks, plus recipes collected on cards and random sheets of paper.

Keep them, give them away, throw them out, she said. My choice. She needed the shelf space.

Well, I found a bit of treasure in there: a yellowed newspaper clipping featuring five recipes from — my mom!

It was titled “My favorite recipes” and didn’t indicate a date or the name of the paper, but she says it was from the Hilo Tribune-Herald (now the Hawaii Tribune-Herald), published around 1949, predating me and her marriage to my dad.

She was “Miss Betty Zane” then, a newly minted home economist working for the University of Hawaii’s Cooperative Extension Service in Hilo. She taught homemaking skills, from sewing to cooking, all along the east side of the island.

What caught my eye out of the five published recipes was one for oatmeal cookies with bananas.

Here at Crave Recipe Central we like mom recipes. They’re generally tried-and-true, user-friendly and they speak of family. Plus, Sunday is Mother’s Day, so it seems apropos that I pass on something from my own mother.

The butter and sugar in the cookies are balanced nutritionally with whole oats, wheat germ and fresh fruit. If you’re going to eat a cookie, it may as well have something good going for it. And these are delicious to boot, chewy and with just the right amount of banana flavor.

My mother is 93 and doesn’t cook anymore, but clearly her “clutter” includes hidden treasures.

This brings me to my Mother’s Day gift suggestion: If your mom is like mine — or like me, for that matter — she’s got a vast and scattered collection of recipes that includes cards, folders, albums, clippings from newspapers and magazines, perhaps computer files.

A great gift for her, you and your whole family would be to spend some of Sunday organizing them.

Or, you could bake her these cookies.

BANANA OATMEAL COOKIES

By Miss Betty Zane

• 3/4 cup shortening or butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup mashed bananas (2-3 large bananas)
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
• 1-1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease baking sheet or line with baking parchment.

Cream shortening and sugar; add egg and beat thoroughly. Add bananas, oats, wheat germ and nuts; mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Mix into creamed ingredients (batter will be soft).

Drop by tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake 15-18 minutes, until lightly browned.

Let firm up on baking sheet a few minutes, then remove to a rack to cool. Makes about 4 dozen.

>> Note: If your cookies turn out softer than you like, return them to the oven (or a toaster oven) at 400 degrees for a few minutes. They’ll firm up nicely, even if it’s been a day since you baked them.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Write By Request, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813; or email requests to bshimabukuro@staradvertiser.com.