Portland Oatmeal Dry Fruit and Nuts COOKIES

I love getting the Penzeys catalog because they include really great recipes.  Today I found one for "Martas" but I was determined to bake a cookie with oatmeal in it.  I did some research and found that I could alter their recipe to include oatmeal and "tweak" it in a few other ways.  They turned out so well that I want to share my new version.

2 cups oatmeal
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp gound nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 cup crisco
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar (the cookies are pretty sweet - your might want to cut this to 1/2 cup)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup raisins (I used a package of dry mixed fruit from Trader Joe with raisins, cranberries, blueberries and cherries and it was fabulous!)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift the flour baking powder, soda, salt and spices.  In a separate bowl, cream the shortening and sugars until blended.  Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until fluffy.  Blend in the vanilla.  Add the flour and oatmeal with the buttermilk, alternately, until blended.  Stir in the dry fruit and nuts.

Drop by a spoon onto a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for between 16 and 18 minutes or until lightly browned.  (I used a tablespoon so if you make smaller cookies, the baking time will be shortened). 

I baked half the dough and shared the cookies with our friends (with still a lot for us) and I froze the rest of the batter to experiment with baking more after the dough defrosts.  If that works, these will be great for the holidays, as you can bake them fresh as needed.