This recipe reminds me that I don't have a copy of my mother's brown sugar cookies.  My mother's cookies are soft and sweet with a faint taste of nutmeg, the tops sprinkled with a bit of sugar.  I haven't had a brown sugar cookie in probably 10 years.

My mother would make a large batch and store them in a big tupperware bowl on our kitchen counter.  Opening the lid, I remember the rush of nutmeg scent hitting me as I peered in to see a mound of delicious cookies.  If the weather was particularly humid, as it often can be during Michigan summers, the cookies would get slightly sticky and adhere to one another.  Sometimes you had two eat two cookies at once because they were hopelessly conjoined.

While I am partial to the brown sugar cookie recipe on which I was raised, I'm sure Etta's recipe is good too.  I wonder if her family remembered to write down a copy of their family recipe or if I am now the custodian to their brown sugar cookie memories.

Brown Sugar Cookies
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup shortening (=10 2/3 tablespoons)
3 cups flour, rounding
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream together the eggs, sugar and shortening.  Add flour, cream of tartar, soda, salt and vanilla. 

Lightly dust a smooth surface with flour on which to roll the dough.  The recipe notes to 'roll thin', likely 1/4" or so.  Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes.  Makes 4 dozen.

If you try this recipe, let me know.  I'm curious what the consistency and texture is like.