Those WERE really good cookies (the ones in your avatar). My mom's cookie recipe comes from the back of the Crisco shortening box. I was so disappointed to learn that. I had hoped it would be a recipe I could pass down.
Heh, funny story about old recipes. Someone on the cooking LJ community posted about this: She called her grandmother to get her super secret apple pie recipe. This pie was something that all the kids would waaaant so badly, so they'd eat every bite of their dinner. Anyway, the grandmother was like, "Do you really want to know?" Turns out, there were NO apples in the pie at all. They were Ritz crackers! She and her sister each made this Ritz pie and were horrified that it tasted EXACTLY like their grandmother's delicious "apple" pie.
Anyway, back to your cookies. It's weird that only the plain ones had a problem with the colour running! Why would that have happened?