Jimmy’s Thanksgiving and Game Recipes

Our favorite recipes from Thanksgiving at Jimmy’s family’s house in the countryside, where cookies, pies, game dishes, and deer abound. Try these great venison and other recipes.

COWBOY COOKIES

This recipe came to The Times in 2000 during the Bush-Gore presidential campaign when Family Circle magazine ran cookie recipes from each of the candidates’ wives and asked readers to vote. Laura Bush’s cowboy cookies, a classic chocolate chip cookie that’s been beefed up with oats, pecans, coconut and cinnamon, beat Tipper Gore’s ginger snaps by a mile. Here is an adaptation of that winning recipe.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salT
1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 c. packed light-brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups semisweet chocolate chipS
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups unsweetened flake coconut
2 cups chopped pecans (8 ounces)

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl.
In a very large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in sugars, and combine thoroughly.
Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla.
Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans.
For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. Remove cookies from rack to cool.

OLD TIME VENISON BREAKFAST SAUSAGE: