These cookies will beat the winter blahs...

A Kalamazoo friend gave me this recipe for blueberry and white chocolate chunk ginger cookies from Eating Well, and I finally had the chance to make them this weekend. I baked these as a special birthday treat for my good friend Em, so I substituted dried cherries (her favorite) for the blueberries. And believe me, all of the kitchen testers around here rejoiced at the results. Crystallized ginger coupled with dried fruit and white chocolate chunks is indeed a magical flavor combination. (And these bad boys are even semi-healthy, or at least not that bad for you.)

A real coup was that someone had given us a package of dried cherries from the Cherry Republic, and I reserve only the highest praise for these Michigan ruby jewels. Up until now I had been completely satisfied using Montmorency cherries from Trader Joe's, but after sampling these, it's going to be very hard to go back. I've always been so proud of the cherries that my home state produces--even Ohio farm stands around here sell them. Go out and bake them into your cookies now.

Or of you're more of the cookie-purchasing rather than cookie-baking type, Cherry Republic is also selling these adorable Valentine's Day cookies.