Real Soup

On Blessing the Peace Bakers

I tend to declarations, both solemn and practical, ripe for immediate usage. I float like a sea plant, toward the arbitrary and want to attach myself, hoping to have found an ultimate, the grand one perhaps, the final one, the all encompassing.

Since I am also prone to the piercing gaze, friendships with renegades, poking inquisitions, long necessary bouts with a personal journal, and quiet defiance in general, I emerge repeatedly from these forays fully grown, clothed, I might add, an ideological independent. I deplore dogma; it makes me crabby.

But I do enjoy high-handed statements now and again--they are usually chewy - and one is ready to come forth at this time.

It regards cooking, of course.

Peace, our vaunted goal, is, in fact, a small scale enterprise, mostly an internal process. Between people it becomes more forgiveness than any thing. But it has the potential of radiating outward generously when it is expressed.

In the household, where most of us have our most profound and holy powers, the elements of strife - ego and limitation - are ever present. So, therefore, are the opportunities to practice peacemaking.

There is goodness around, especially in our warm little gene pools, and we need to see it and cultivate it help it grow.

Not so easy when the squabbles are consistently so petty, so rooted in greed, and lacking in forbearance. Meeting these lifelike situations with magnanimous solutions, such as Kids' Cookies, can solve more than just sibling rivalry.

This response addresses, as well, the recurring overload of cereal boxes in the cupboard with just the most meager and depressed-looking unwanted, pitiful leftover portions of flakes, puffs and crisps that ever made a mother stomp through the house hollering about waste and sloth and turpitude.

Gather up, now, try this out. We need steady hands in this world.

Preheat the oven to 350 and don't grease the cookie sheets.

Put into a mixing bowl and beat together until smooth:

1/2 C. soft butter or margarine

3/4 C. sugar

1 egg

Stir together and add to the egg mixture stirring until well blended:

3/4 C. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

Add:

1/2 C. rolled oats

1 C. flake cereal, pressed down slightly

Add:

3/4 C. raisins if you like

Then beat until the mixture looks even.

You can add chocolate chips or jam centers to the tops of these cookies once you have put them onto the baking sheets. Give them a little spreading room (1"). Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until light golden. Let cool.

Pass them out to all contenders.

Now proceed on back to what you were doing with a more airy and crisp attitude, a calmer, more progressive equipoise.