Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies - Review

These cookies have a back-story. Which is funny because this is the first time I have personally ever made them. This is kind of a public confession too, so maybe I'll feel better about it. Maybe.

from oceanspray.com

Back in 2000, I was a freshman at college. There was a recipe contest at the cafeteria, and any recipe that was entered gave you a free milkshake. Who can resist that? I mean really? BUT, as a freshman in dorms that did not have a kitchen, I also did not have recipes on hand. But I did have a bag of crasins. Which had a recipe on the back for white chocolate chip crasin cookies of sorts. So I scribbled that down and handed it in. Free shake! Wahoo! BUT, I did not credit Ocean Spray with the recipe. Nor did I credit anyone else. I actually am not sure whether I felt bad or not for not crediting the source, or if it even crossed my mind that I was not being honest. I'm sure there was a part of me that felt bad, but if there was it got washed down with my free shake.

(Aside here: I would like to think that generally I am a very honest person. I give change back if I received wrong change. I pay for things that were accidentally given to me, even when I wouldn't be required to pay for them. I claim things on my taxes that would probably go unnoticed. Etc. Just to get that out in the open - I am not a chronic liar.)

I had actually completely forgotten about this experience until two months later when I was walking through the cafeteria one day and a friend from high school came up to me and said, "Kat! Your mom's cookies are so good!" I gave him a blank stare and tried to figure out what he was talking about, and where he had gotten my mom's cookies from. I asked him what he was talking about and he said that they had a big plate of crasin white chocolate chip cookies in the cafeteria that said "Kat Thomas's Mom's recipe" near them. I about died. Partially because I had forgotten about the recipe, and was pretty sure that I had not given my mom the credit for the recipe (though she does have some very tasty cookie recipes of her own), and partially because this guy was the type of person that you would never tell a lie to, and I felt like I had basically lied to him by the fact that he was happily munching down on a cookie that he was sure was one that I had grown up eating. I honestly cannot remember whether I cleared the air of that one with him, or if I was just too shocked to know what to do....at any rate, I felt terrible. I had lied for a shake. A shake that I could have purchased with my own dining money. Maybe I'll need to go donate some money to my college cafeteria or something........

Twelve years later, I found this recipe and decided that it was time to finally try one of "my mom's" famous cookies. And they were good. I prefer real chocolate to white chocolate, but they were good. And now I know what I have been missing all of these years..... :)

Family Rating: ***** (my youngest kept stealing them off of the counter - winner there)
My Rating: ***1/2
Cost: $
Difficulty: Easy. It's a cookie. :)