Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm baking cookies. It's little icky outside from the rain and a little icky inside (my tummy that is) from all of the dough that I've slowly consumed over the afternoon. I thought that I would do up a double-batch of these ever-so delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. My favourite cookie. I picked up 15$ worth of chocolate chips at the Bulk Food store yesterday and needed an outlet. This coming week is my last week of coverage at the hospital for the summer so I'm going to bring in a batch of cookies to share with my colleagues. I buy love and respect with chocolate, what can I say? A little note about these guys: I tried to make giant cookies and ended up burning them - so, if you want to make an XL version of these guys you'll want to turn down the temperature to say, 350F, to prevent that always dreaded 'BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP' from the fire alarm, followed always by the `WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF` from the puppy. Alas. I`m now sitting down munching on the first batch with a nice hot cup of Twinnings Lady Grey. Mmmmmm...Bon appétit! 


Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 3 cups rolled oats (not the quick kind)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Options:
- 1 cup chocolate chips
or...
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375F, grease a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Combine your 3/4 cup shortening, brown sugar, egg, milk and vanilla in a large bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended.
3. Combine your oats, flour, baking soda, and salt (+cinnamon if you`re going the raisin way)
4. Mix the dry mixture in to the wet at low speed just until blended. Stir in your optional ingredients (chocolate chips or the raisins and walnuts)
5. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart on your baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned - DON`T OVER BAKE YOUR COOKIES. They should look just slightly undercooked - they will cook a little more on the pan when you take them out. 
6. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Recipe makes about 1 1/2 dozen.