My 21 (soon to be 22) year old sister in law is spending her summer working on a ranch in Colorado. Since she’s far from home and off by herself, I thought I’d send her a little bit of home… some cookies! Especially since her birthday is just around the corner 
I knew I wanted to send her some snickerdoodles, but wanted to send something else. Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies sounded good but I was also craving pecans and they go so well with oatmeal so I started hunting. And there they were.. perfection. The original called for orange zest (2 teaspoons) which I had the intention of adding but discovered hubby had eaten the last orange 
I think it’d make a great addition although 2 teaspoons might be a little strong! I’ll have to experiment with the orange in the future. I loved the hint of spices… these are definitely going to be a regular in our house!
Oatmeal, chocolate chip pecan cookies
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 c white sugar
1 c light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground clove
1 c rolled oats
2 c chopped pecans
10 oz dark chocolate chips or chunks
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about 3 minutes. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half. Stir in the oats, pecans, and chocolate chips. Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack.
Source: Adapted from Sparks in the Kitchen by Katy Sparks with Andrea Strong, 2006.
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why are you not enrolled in culinary school? I just scrolled through this front page here and everything made me drool and think sadly upon how horrible I perform in the kitchen. Thanks a lot! You should be on a “I wanna be a chef” reality show. You’d kick ass.