I’m heading to Santa Maria to see my daughter tomorrow and I promised I’d bring cookies, so on my list of things to do today (after getting my hair color restored) is to make cookies.

A note for anyone thinking there is an opportunity to burgle the home while I’m gone: first of all, we have nothing worth stealing. No, really – we don’t. Second, three people live here besides me – and they aren’t going anywhere.

Now I have that out of the way…

Monster Cookies are my new favorite recipe. They’re very similar to a recipe I’ve had for ages (the last favorite recipe), which was called Trail Mix Cookies. I got it out of a magazine back in the late 1970s. Then – I found Monster Cookies at the Food Network site.

They turn out much better (for reasons unknown to me) and they require no flour – so they’re an excellent alternative for someone who is allergic to wheat. And possibly to celiacs – I don’t know that much about celiac disease, so I’m not going to say for sure, but at least there’s no flour in these. They have everything else good and wonderful in them – chocolate chips, peanut butter and oatmeal. Need I say more?

I’m not going to replicate the recipe here – click on the link and go to Food Network.

You need some patience with these. Leave them on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before moving them to the cooling rack, then don’t touch them until they’ve cooled off a bit. Unless, of course, you like cookies that are gooey inside and fall apart when you pick them up. In that case, eat them while they’re hot!

Some variations: I use Craisins instead of raisins. Nobody in my family is really in love with raisins and the Craisins give a little tart bite to the cookie that’s really quite good in combination with all the chocolaty sweetness.

If you have small children, substitute mini M&Ms for the chocolate chips. I did with the Trail Mix Cookies and the kids loved it. They change the texture just a little bit, but not too much and they’re fun.

Oh yeah, I see in reading the recipe again that it says to line the cookie sheets with parchment paper. I don’t. (No surprise there!) Do it if you want, but I guess I never noticed that instruction before!