Cranberry Vanilla Chip Cookies

Last fall I bought a jarred cookie mix from Harry and David that sat on my counter for months. I finally made them in January and they were so delicious. The jar didn't have the recipe included, so I've had to search recipes and adjust things here and there, and this is what I came up with:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cup vanilla chips

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a mixing bowl combine butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla. Add in salt, baking soda, cinnamon and flour. Finally, stir in oats, vanilla chips and cranberries.

I use a 1 Tablespoon ice cream scoop to drop on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Bake 14 minutes (I usually have to bake things for one or two minutes more in my oven, so check yours at 12 minutes.) Cool, then move to wire baking rack to continue cooling.

Here's a tip: put the mixer on low and add the flour in little batches, slowly, or else you could end up with flour everywhere, like this:


And here are the finished cookies:

They're chewy and hearty and delicious.

Ben made pulled pork sandwiches for dinner again yesterday and they were good just like last time. Lauren has a little bit of a cold happening. I don't know if it was because we had been slacking on giving her her Zyrtec or if she has an actual cold. Natalie is doing pretty well, though.

Yesterday Ben started another small project in the kitchen, he added an outlet to the end of our bar. I think that's going to be SO helpful. I'd love to be able to put the crock pot or KitchenAid on the end of the bar when I cook because there's just so much more room there than anywhere else in the kitchen. He had to go back to Home Depot today to get a plug with the right amps, so I haven't taken any pictures of the finished project.

Oh, and my desktop computer is dead. Well, not dead. Maybe just in a coma.

When I was little I used to think it was "acoma" because that's how I always heard it. You know, "Erica Kane is in acoma." It wasn't until I asked, "Is she out of her acoma?" that someone finally corrected me.

So, back to my computer in its coma. The power source just went out, so Ben had to order me a new one. It won't ship until tomorrow and it probably won't get here until Wednesday or Thursday, so I'm just on my laptop until then. Which is fine, but I can't edit photos like I would like to on the laptop.