Instructions: * Soaked 10 minutes in hot water, drained, patted dry and coarsely chopped.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar. In another bowl, stir together the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the mixture to the creamed butter and brown sugar. Remove bowl from mixer and add the raisins and walnuts by hand.

Drop batter on a cookie sheet with a small 1-inch scoop.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven 10 to 12 minutes or until they are a pale golden brown. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to cooling racks.

Makes 50 cookies.

A young friend of mine was recovering from an illness and I wanted to mail him something sweet and invent a cookie just for him. The first batch was very tasty but a little too plain. The following week, I made them again, adding raisins. They were great, but walnuts would make them really superb.

I made another batch with the new additions. I packed them immediately, after cooling and mailed them because Ive found that cookies sitting on a cooling rack seem to disappear into thin air.

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