christmas means cookies: cranberry white chocolate macadamia nut anyone?

I love Christmas.

I could list all the reasons why, maybe I will leave that to another post. I will highlight one of my Christmas loves within this post. My mom is a fabulous cook/baker lady. Anyone who knows me pretty well has experienced her early am cinnamon rolls, talk about a good start to a morning.

Food is a huge staple in our house come christmas time. Seafood chowder on Christmas Eve (I'm originally from the maritimes..), rum and eggnog, baked bre, Christmas morning mimosas (another excellent way to start a day... and by mimosas, I mean two mimosas, and then straight champaign), huge family meals with way to much delicious food... and well tying everything all together? Baking. Mmmm.. short bread, gingerbread, homemade nuts and bolts, homemade carmel popcorn... etc, etc.

I usual have a hand in helping with all of this, unfortunately I am not going to be home until the 23rd so I think its time I try something out in Ottawa before I venture home.

Cranberry White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

This is where I have decided to start, not to shabby... recipe below if you want to give it a go.

ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries (about 6 ounces)
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips (about 8 1/2 ounces)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped roasted salted macadamia nuts (about 4 1/2 ounces)

preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add both sugars and beat until blended. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat just until blended. Using spatula, stir in cranberries, white chocolate chips, and nuts.

For large cookies, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing 21/2 inches apart. For small cookies, drop dough by level tablespoonfuls onto sheets, spacing 11/2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until just golden, about 18 minutes for large cookies and about 15 minutes for small cookies. Cool on sheets. Do ahead Can be made ahead. Store airtight at room temperature up to 2 days or freeze up to 2 weeks.