Week 30: Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Pieces

This week I chose to bake dried cherry oatmeal cookies with chocolate pieces.  I got this recipe last August when we were on vacation with the family. We went into a number of different stores and one shop had free recipes cards. I love love love dried cherries in cookies so I decided to use this recipe.  I had trouble finding the exact recipe online, but I did find a recipe that is very similar.  The recipe is the same except that in the recipe that I used there was no cinnamon or nutmeg. Also in the recipe that I used, as the cookies are cooling you set a Hershey's kiss in the center and let it set.  YUM!  These cookies are tart and sweet, crisp but chewy, and delicious!  Here is the link to the recipe that I used: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1610,148165-239206,00.html

As I mentioned above we went on vacation with the family last August.  We had decided to take my Mom's cremains to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, and on the way we made a few stops in some great Northern Michigan cities.  We had a caravan of people and it was great!  My Dad and my sister's family were in one car, Kimmy, my "brothers from another mother" and my nephew James were in another car, and Dan, the kids, and myself were in a third car.  We left at slightly different times but we met in Traverse City for lunch.  We had lunch right on the bay and it was fabulous.  See the picture above. 

After lunch we spent some time in downtown Traverse City.  They were having a street fair so some of the roads were closed off, and all of the shops were having sidewalk sales.  Dan and I had been to Traverse City before and I wanted to be sure to hit a few of my favorite places in the area again.  I definitely wanted to go back to "Cherry Republic."  I love love love the food and wine that they sell so we made sure to go there.  While there, we partook in a wine tasting.  See picture above. We (Amy, Jeff, Christopher, and myself) tasted all the wines they had to offer, AND we were very uncultured in that we did not spit out any wine! ☺ We were very uncivilized and actually drank all of our tastings...some wine samples we even tasted twice!  Ya know just to be sure it was the bottle we actually wanted to buy. ☺  I loved this wine called "Ballaton" and have turned a few friends and family members into fans too.  Yes I am talking about you Kelly Turri and Dean and Briana Overholt!  Kelly liked it so much that she commissioned an aunt who was in the area to go to the store, and bring us back a few bottles.  (P.S. Kelly I am down to one bottle!)☺  In addition to the wine we also purchased some chocolate covered dried cherries, and I believe I got the cookie recipe for this week there. If you are interested here is a link to "Cherry Republic's" website: http://www.cherryrepublic.com/traverse-city-cherry-republic This a great store and they offer mail order catalogues and shopping online.

After our time in Traverse City we also stopped in Charlevoix.  Dan and I took Victoria there on our very first family vacation back in 2001.  We loved it so much that we decided to go back and take the fam.  We spent some time at the beach and lighthouse and the kids loved it!  We also got to see the draw bridge in action.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time! I'd love to go back and spend even more time in Charlevoix.  It is a great city. See picture above.
 



Our house in Harbor Springs.

 After Charlevoix we drove to Harbor Springs which is where we stayed for the remainder of our trip.We rented a house so we could all stay together and it worked out perfectly! See the picture on the right. We were able to cook our own meals, and sleep under the same roof. We "day-tripped" to Mackinaw City, Mackinac Island, and Sea Shell City in Cheboygan from the house, and had a ton of fun in the house itself. We had game night and attempted to oust "the ambassadors of fun" aka Kimmy, Jim and Chris, from the awesome sectional couch in the family room. ☺  I loved loved loved that house and would very much like to go back. Of course, I want to go back with all "my people" that I went with the first time though.

As I was searching for a cookie recipe for this week I came across this one. I immediately flashed back to that trip, to that house, and to all the fun we had together.  The trip was of course bittersweet in that the purpose of the trip was to take my Mom's cremains to her favorite place, but I love it when we are all together. So the fact that we were able to hang out under the same roof, in a place big enough for all of us,  for more than a few hours, was like heaven to me. I only wish we could have accomplished this before my Mom passed away...I know she would have loved it. ♥



The street fair in Traverse City.



Game night in the house.