"Ooh, orange zest!"

I'm so excited I can barely contain my excitement!!! Tomorrow night is the Relay for Life Benefit Concert featuring The Grilled Lincolns! We're having a pregame/happy hour with appetizers at Emily's before the show, and I decided to bake my famous chocolate chip cookies for the occasion (everyone at work calls them "crack cookies" because they're super addicting but I swear I only follow the recipe). Oddly enough, this made me crave oatmeal cookies (blame my fat-kid tendencies?). Now I've never been a fan of raisins, but I do enjoy most other dried fruit, especially cherries and cranberries. As I was talking to Jamie about my oatmeal cookie craving (among other things), I asked her if she thought dried cranberries would work in lieu of raisins. Sidenote: Jamie likes to cook as much as I do, if not more, so I thoroughly trust her culinary opinion. :) She said she thought it would be fine and we continued our conversation. As I started to gather my ingredients, it dawned on me that I once had an orange-cranberry muffin and it was fabulous. I quickly typed to Jamie, "Ooh, what about orange zest in the cookies? Like in orange-cranberry muffins!" and she responded, "Ooh, orange zest!" and the rest is history. I looked at a recipe for o-c biscotti, which called for (basically) one teaspoon of zest per dozen, but upon tasting the dough (not something I normally do, but for all intensive purposes this was essentially research) I decided to up the ratio, and ended up with two tablespoons of zest in my recipe. I can honestly say, at the end of my experiment, that these cookies smell and taste phenomenal... kind of like I died and went to heaven. It's safe to say my kitchen adventure resulted in striking gold, and it's entirely possible that I have a new favorite cookie!

Orange-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 c butter

1 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

2 c rolled oats

2 tbsp orange zest

1 c chopped dried cranberries

In a large mixing bowl beat butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat til combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and orange zest til combined. Mix in flour. Mix in the rolled oats and chopped dried cranberries, stirring by hand if necessary. Drop by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375° oven for 10 to 12 minutes or til edges are golden. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen.