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A few posts ago I mentioned my mother-in-law's holiday "rocky road" cookies and how I wanted to try making that recipe as a gift this year to all my family and friends.  Well, I asked my father-in-law to have a look and see if he could turn up the recipe and send me a copy. Would you believe he sent me the original!

Suffice to say it was one of those times I felt like I was holding a real family heirloom. She must've typed out that recipe card years ago..maybe even before I was born. I also find it cool that she put down the amounts for doubling the recpe down the left margin. Honestly I cannot imagine not doubling this recipe. They're that good.

So today was bake-day.  I went a bit overboard though. I quadrupled the recipe.

I'm sharing this recipe with you, my Vox neighbors because you are all friends and family too. If you for whatever reason cannot view the images that should be just above this text, send me a message and let me know. I've labeled them as "private" on my Flickr, but am not sure if that means I cannot even blog the images for others to see here. The Flickr FAQ is a bit vague in that regard.

The amount of coconut seems to be blotted or smeared over, so I just used a whole bag. Also, I was careful to add the nuts in after mixing everything else in so my sister-in-law could keep to her nut-free diet. Believe me, this is a thick cookie batter. Once you add the creamed butter-sugars mix to the dry ingredients, you'll need to roll up your sleeves and get your hands messy. A stand-mixer just won't cut it. I remember Mrs. Page saying how baking them was hard on her arthritis and now I can truly believe it.

BUT on the bright side, you get to lick your fingers clean afterwards.

Rather than use a teaspoon to drop them, I pinched up little handfuls about the size of a walnut and rolled them into balls, which I then packed up in the fridge to bake as needed. A quad-recipe yields around 120 balls...which is good.

To quote Pooky "My cookies are no-good. They vanish too quickly."

Anyway, Pooky bragged on my cookies to his dad, which makes me think I've done Mrs. Page's legacy a good turn.