Grayland Cranberry Festival!

This weekend brings the Cranberry Coast Chamber of Commerce Annual Cranberry Festival to the Grayland Community Hall. September and October is harvest time in Cranberry Country, and it is a sight to behold. The bright red bogs and the farmers wading through the fruit... I never even knew it existed until last fall.

This weekend is supposed to be 61-62 degrees and partly cloudy (which means partly sunny), so its perfect weather to come down for the festival, which includes a parade at dusk on Saturday evening and a "bog jog" 10k, 5k and 3k on Sunday morning.

You can find more info about it at the Chambers website: http://www.cranberrycoastcoc.com/festival/index.html
I will be passing the bog jog since I've not done much running in the past 2 years since getting pregnant, but I will be entering my cranberry oatmeal white chocolate chip cookies into the Cranberry Cook-off. You can try them if you come to the Bite of the Bog - they're worth the drive. Here's my recipe, sans my secret ingredient if you want to try them at home:


Oatmeal White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars until mixture is light in color. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the milk and the vanilla extract.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Either by hand or with the mixer on low speed, gradually beat the flour in to the sugar mixture until just incorporated.

Stir in the oats and white chocolate chips and cranberries

Drop 1-inch balls of dough onto the cookie sheet, placing about 1 1/2 inches apart so they have room to spread.

Bake at 350F for 10-13 minutes, until golden brown at the edges and light golden at the center.
Cool on baking sheet for at least 1-2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 4 dozen.