When life throws you a curve ball, make cookies.

Stress makes me want to bake. I find it relaxing, almost meditative to measure and stir. So, tonight with Monday staring me in the face once again, and other types of stress knocking on my door, I decided to make some cookies.

I decided on a riff of my holiday oatmeal cookies because I didn't have any oats and I had a lot of dried fruit staring at me. So, these cookies have the following in them: dried cranberries and blueberries, pistachios and white chocolate chips. The base is good with anything you want to throw in it- left over trail mix? go for it... got large stuff like dried apricots or prunes? Chop 'em up and toss them in there. Or, alternatively, pick up one bag of chocolate chips and throw them in there and forget everything else.

Here we go!
In a large saucepan, melt two sticks of butter (unsalted, but if you have only salted, just omit the salt in the next steps). Once it's melted, take it off the heat and stir in the following:
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional, but suggested)

Once that is all well incorporated (and cooling a bit), stir in two eggs. Mix well. Next, in a separate bowl, mix together 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Stir well. Dump into the sauce pan, mix into the batter- don't over stir. Just mix till incorporated. Now comes the fun part.

I had some pistachios in the freezer (always taste one first to make sure they are still good), and a bunch of fruit on the counter, so I added the following:
1 cup pistachios (shelled and unsalted)
1 cup dried blueberries
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips
Stir into the batter until well incorporated, then chill in the fridge for 20 minutes till you get the oven heated to 350.

Try not to eat all the dough. Seriously. Don't even taste it. (And NO, I've never gotten sick eating cookie dough...) Seriously. It's dangerous.

When the oven is ready, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (easier clean up), scoop the batter into golf ball sized balls. Return the dough to the fridge. Bake for 12-14 minutes (depending on how well done you like your cookies). Let cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then use spatula to move the cookies to a plate. Repeat until you make all the cookies... or alternatively, you can dump the batter in a Ziploc bag, and freeze it for later use. Should be good for a few months in the freezer, until you next cookie attack.

Ideas: apricots, cherries and milk chocolate chips might be a nice alternative- especially with some slivered or slice almonds. Yum!

Enjoy!