Submitted by Debbie Carpenter
From her grandmother Vina Marie Post’s recipe, Madison, Wisconsin
Grandma and Grandpa Post traveled in their trailer each winter in search of warm weather and a golf course. During the summer, they settled the RV in a park near Lake Mendota. When the grandkids came to visit Madison in the 1960s, Grandma Post let Debbie and her sisters sleep in the motor home. Nothing could be neater to a kid!
In his spare time, Grandpa Post built bicycles, and the kids were always riding around the trailer park on funky-looking bikes he’d pieced together. Debbie’s favorite was the tandem bike he made with her older sister Kathy. Nothing quite matched the freedom the freckle-faced girls enjoyed while cruising around on bikes in the summer months without a care in the world.
In between adventures, Grandma Post and the girls would stroll over to the Piggly Wiggly to buy the ingredients necessary to make Oatmeal Carmelitas. Oozing caramel, chocolate, and pecans between layers of crunchy oatmeal, they instantly became Debbie’s favorite, and Grandma Post always had the cookie jar filled with them for the girls to enjoy.
Grandma Post was also skilled at knitting and crocheting. When Debbie was a teenager, she found a picture in a magazine of a knit halter top with a watermelon on the front. Grandma Post knitted the top and surprised Debbie on her next summer visit. Debbie wore that shirt to shreds. We can easily imagine Debbie riding a handcrafted bike in the spiffy yellow halter with a big watermelon on the front eating Oatmeal Carmelitas.
Grandma Post lived to be 99 years old. She passed away one month before her 100th birthday. Her Carmelitas are so good, we expect the recipe to survive well beyond another 100 years.
Oozing caramel, chocolate, and pecans between layers of
crunchy oatmeal, they instantly became Debbie’s favorite …