Sometimes there’s no other way to describe a day other than “Carrot Cookies.”

It’s been a different kind of summer for me, and now that September’s here, I’m mourning the loss of summertime, even though fall doesn’t officially start for a few weeks. 

Everything about this past summer has been different, and I miss Colorado so much.  I miss my grandmother, and what it did to this heart when I got to see her.  It’s been over twenty-five years since she died.  She was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

And some of the best summers were spent with my cousin, Nan, up there.  One particular summer was especially fun.  Nan and I were probably around 12 or 13 years old.  Our aunt from out of state was visiting as well, and we got dumped at a rodeo and left for the day (I write this with affection). We “had” to do the dishes ALL of the time, and we loved practical jokes.  Through the heat and sun and reading books up in the old treehouse, I’ll never trade those days for anything. Never, ever, ever.

My grandmother made the best carrot cookies, and while I mostly remember they tasted good, years back Nan reminded me that we ate almost all of them that summer (as in all at once), and Grandmother got really mad at us.  I don’t remember Grandmother getting mad!

Today while I was going through old files on my computer, I came across this recipe Nan emailed me over fifteen years ago.  I’m going to publish this recipe in case anyone wants to try it, and I’m keeping everything my cousin wrote just as you read it.  And just an FYI, Hoyt and Kenneth were kids about our age that lived near Grandmother’s place. 

When I think of Grandmother, a million contented memories flood my heart, and Nan and carrot cookies are always part of it.

Carrot Cookies (From Nan, via Grandmother)

3/4 cup white sugar

1 cup butter or shortening

1 egg

1 cup grated raw carrot

2 cups flour

1/2 Tsp salt

2 Tsp baking powder

• Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and carrot and mix.  Add flour, salt and baking powder and mix well.
• Drop by teaspoon full on cookie sheet.  Bake at 350-375 F for 10 minutes or until bottoms are light brown.
• Cool and Frost

Frosting:  zest of 1 orange, powdered sugar, and the juice from the orange.  Mix together and frost cooled cookies.

I baked mine at 375 and it actually did take 10 minutes.  I overbaked one batch and they were crunchier but still really good.  And I spent the whole time thinking of you and that summer at grandmother’s!  It was so fun!  Yes, Hoyt did drown and I still think of him and miss him.  He and Kenneth were really the only friends we ever made up there that were near our age.  I still remember him trying to push me into an irrigation ditch at Uncle Merrit’s place when I was about 8.  Do you remember the name of his horse?

Thanks for reading.

I know this wasn’t your typical short-story post this time.

Here’s to summertime, happy (and sometimes bittersweet) memories, and carrot cookies.