Chocolate Chip/Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

My sister gave me this cookie recipe a year ago when I was struggling to find sweets that were gluten free, dairy free, soy free. They are so delicious and easy that now I make them about once a month. The recipe makes 35-40 cookies with my cookie scooper, and the cookies freeze really well. I freeze them separately on a cookie sheet and then put them into a freezer bag.

The recipe is flexible. Sometimes I make them with just raisins, sometimes just chocolate chips. I also use whatever nut butters I have around.

The texture is wonderful and chewy and I really don't miss the wheat flour at all!

Original source: King Arthur Whole Grain Baking
Nutty for Oats Cookies

Ingredients:
2/3 cup smooth nut butter (I use 1/3c sunflower butter and 1/3c unsalted almond butter- but you could also use peanut butter)
4 Tbl Butter (I use Earth Balance buttery spread)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp Gluten-free vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

2 eggs
1 cup rolled oats ground to flour in food processor
1 1/2 cup quick oats
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I use gluten-free, dairy-free mini chocolate chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Use food processor to grind 1 cup of whole oats (gluten-free) into flour
3. In a large bowl, cream together first six ingredients (through baking soda)
4. Beat in the eggs
5. Add ground oats and mix
6. Add quick oats and mix
7. Add chocolate chips and/or raisins
8. Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet-- lightly press them down with a spoon or fork after scooping if you want them to be less fluffy
9. Bake the cookies, reversing pans midway through (top to bottom, bottom to top), until they're barely set and just beginning to brown around the edges, 11 to 13 minutes.
10. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely on the pans.

Enjoy!

Covert SAS dataset to SPSS with formats

Often I want to include the SAS variable formats when I hand-off a database in SPSS. Our research group sets up all databases in SAS, but some investigators prefer to work in SPSS for analysis. Here are the steps I use:

1. In SAS, save your formats files as a SAS dataset:

libname tango 'G:\argentina';
libname mylib 'G:\library';
proc format library = mylib cntlout=tango.sas_fmts;
run;

2. In SPSS, run this syntax:

GET
  SAS DATA ='G:\argentina\tango_baseline.sas7bdat'
      /FORMAT ='G:\argentina\sas_fmts.sas7bdat'.
  DATASET NAME Tango WINDOW=FRONT.

3. In SPSS, once you see the data in the editor, save the dataset as *.sav