Food is used to nourish us when we are hungry, celebrate events and moments of great joy in our lives, relieve stress, and console us in times of sorrow. Food can also trigger childhood memories transporting us back in time. These sensory memories can be very powerful. All it takes is an aroma of that certain food wafting through the air and BAM! you are transported to another moment in time.
One of my favorite sensory memories relates to the humble Oatmeal Whoopie Pie. I was staying with my Grandma one weekend, along with my cousin Ralph. Ralph and I got into a fight. After stopping the fight she made us sit in opposite corners looking at each other in silence for 15 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes we told her we were going to run away from home. Before we left, and with the aroma of the freshly baked Oatmeal Whoopie Pies hanging in the air, she packed Grandpa’s lunch box with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two freshly baked oatmeal whoopie pies, and a bottle Faygo vanilla cream soda, which we were forced to share. Knowing full well we would go into the grape arbor in her back yard to lick our wounds, eat our sandwiches and whoopie pies, share our cream sodas, and return home pride in tact she handed us the lunch box and waved good bye to us from her back door. I assure is exactly what happened. You see this had not been the first time.
I found this simple recipe on Bake or Break, Adventures of an Amateur Baker which I would like to share. I hope that will take you back to a simpler, more innocent time and conjure childhood memories of hopscotch, camping in the back yard, the sound of playing card in your bicycle spokes, and childhood friendships and memories.
ENJOY!!!
Oatmeal Whoopie Pies

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