This week marks my first anniversary blogging!
I originally started this as a way to learn accountability. Sure, it’s easy to be accountable at your job, or to your family and friends… but all too often we let ourselves off of the proverbial hook and give ourselves a break. It’s generally paired with a shallow justification, too. So, I set off on this one-year journey, and I can finally say… I made it!
Celebrate with my very favorite cookie!
I had to find the perfect recipe to share with you… but what could be the most special one of all?
Then it hit me: Grandma Casey’s Monster Cookies!
They have always been my favorite, and they’re perfect with milk, coffee, or tea. I think I’ve only given this recipe out to maybe 5 people throughout the years, and with each one, I asked that they not share it. Why? Because I knew it was special enough to publish someday. Well, that someday is now, and I want to share it with all of you.
All I ask is that you call them by their real name 🙂 and you give credit to www.SockmonkeysKitchen.com.
Thanks!
A little history lesson:
In the early 60’s, my Grandma baked a batch of cookies, and after she took them out of the oven, she gave one to her little grandson, Keith. As the story goes, he took one look at the large treats and said, “Grandma! These are MONSTERS!” And so the name began. It was a recipe she’d made for a while, but as all good cooks do, she had doctored it up enough where it became her own recipe. I’ve also added my own spin on it (I can hear my cousins gasping!) but all it is, is the addition to sugar on the bottoms, which keeps them from sticking in the freezer. yay!
Grandma Casey always seemed to have Monster Cookies around, every time we visited, which was quite often. The secret was in the storage. After she baked the cookies, and cooled them completely, she would wrap them and put them in the freezer. This way, when we would visit, all she had to do was take a cookie out, pop it in the toaster, and we would be handed the equivalent to a freshly baked warm cookie. Add a glass of ice cold milk and you have the perfect snack.
Hope you try this special recipe, and if you do, PLEASE come back and tell me. Really!
Sockmonkey's Kitchen 
Casey would be so thrilled to see the photos, and this recipe given such a high standard of honor. Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.
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Thanks Molly =0) It’s one of her greatest legacies, I think, because whenever I make them, I think about all the times I made them, standing next to her in the kitchen, wearing a little apron she had sewn. She taught me how to roll the dough, how to flatten the cookies, and most importantly, how to eat the raw cookie dough 😉
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Moms kids missed all that, we lived to far away to spend time with our grandma. You certainly are one of a handful that had a grandma that took the time to teach you to bake and cook.
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…and I know that’s why I love to be in the kitchen so much! Grandma Casey let me bake with her pretty often, and I’m still so sad that she never wrote down her exact recipe for her other amazing dish – it was a berry cobbler that was really tart, with sugar all over the crust on the top. I also was so fortunate to have my Mom teach me about cooking… and the importance of nutrition, and making sure your plates have lots of natural colors on them =0)
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You sure do have a great mom and grandma to teach you those things. It’s a rare thing with the busy lives we all have,with mom working outside the home.
The homes are disrupted as we use to know them.
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=0)
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Oh my the picture with your Grandma and Chris is precious!!
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I love that one! It was taken on Christmas day, and Chris was almost 6 months. She adored being around babies, and I don’t know if I got much baby-time at all that day, since she was cuddling him so much 🙂 Well, she and Grandpa both were!
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Note to everyone reading this blog: these cookies really are wonderful! They may appear to be plain and ordinary, yet they are anything but!! Guaranteed success, with chewy consistency (brown sugar) and nutty flavor (pecans). Just DO NOT over-bake! Suggestion: they make a great addition to the Thanksgiving dessert table.
Sometimes we add a half teaspoon of almond extract, just because Mama (that would be the now famous “Grandma Casey” above) would occasionally do that.
The reason Keith named them monsters, is that Mama made them almost four inches in diameter — close to the size of a slice of bread, hence the ease of toaster use. Smaller versions would have been difficult to retrieve when softened. (Remember that these memories are from the late 1960s and early 1970s, with, thankfully, no microwave ovens.)
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Exactly!! =0)
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I’m so happy the family recipe is on here, that makes it a lot of fun.
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Thanks for sharing the great family photos and the recipe. I can just picture Casey in the kitchen with all of the kids and grandkids making Monsters. These truly are delicious cookies (thanks cuz!) and now I can try making them myself.
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I can’t wait to hear how they come out!
Also, I’ve not only frozen the baked cookies, I’ve also frozen the dough for later use. I would tell you it worked out fine… but I got hungry… 😉
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What a beautiful tribute! And I will make Monster cookies one day. This is a great site, and continued proof that your talents are endless. I love the last picture of Grandma and Chris. 😉
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Thank you so much, Becky, for those wonderful sweet words.
I hope you do make them, and my guess is you’ve probably tasted them… But that could have been 10 years ago 😉
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I’ve been more excited to read this blog than any other, for obvious reasons. I’m the cousin Cyndie in the picture, but it looks like I was on my smart phone or Facebook or something very important! (Never seen this picture.) Anyhoo, the day before this was posted, I decided to try a twist of my own. (And they all gasped!) Instead of flour, I used old fashioned oatmeal, just to see what would result. the result was delicious, as well. Can’t call those Monster Cookies though. Hmmm. Oatmeal Monster Cookies? I also remember Grandma would sometimes use sunflower seeds instead of pecans and those were my favorite, because when you were a kid, nuts were kinda yucky. I too, remember her saying, “Always slightly underbake them.” Thank you Joani. Thank you. xoxoxo
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Ooooh… Oatmeal!
Robin has her take on them too … She makes them with extra almond and bakes them like bar cookies. Soooo good!!!!
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Thanks for the fun family recipes and memories girls.
Casey would smile at all this fun over her cookie recipe.
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Enjoyed the memories as much as the recipe. Grandmas rock, even if it’s from heaven!
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Thank you so much, Susan =0)
And you are so very right!
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I will definitely have to try these! They look great!
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Oh I really hope you do, Barbara! They are outstanding! =0)
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Aww I love traditional family recipes. And I’m pretty sure I’d love anything with “monster” and “cookie” in the same sentence! Yum!
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=0) These are surprisingly amazing. And not just Grandma Casey made them 😉
PS: for those of you reading, Erika has an awesome blog called The Pancake Princess. Go take a look!
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I will go take a look at her blog now.
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