Oatmeal Cookies with Cherries and Ginger

There’s the family you’re born into and there’s the family you choose. Chosen family can be close friends who feel like family, but they can also be people connected by a shared and treasured experience that creates a lifelong bond — like the people my family met at Cobb’s Camp in Maine.

Each summer, the same families return to this rustic fishing-turned-family camp. My parents, sister, and I have been spending a week there since I was four years old. But we’re no longer the “kids” — the next generation has taken our place ringing the heavy, old-fashioned dinner bell at 6 p.m. sharp, standing at the kitchen’s screen door, hungrily eyeing the cookies cooling on the table.

Betty Cobb ran the kitchen when I was a child, and we all knew that fresh cookies were made daily. Her cookies — be it oatmeal raisin, gingersnap, or chocolate chip — are something that any frequent camp guest will happily expound upon, along with their love for Betty. We often reminisce about unwrapping them by the pond after picnic lunches or handing them out to hikers on the Appalachian trail as we made a comparatively very short trek to reach the Kennebec River.

The camp is situated around Pierce Pond, which has remained relatively unchanged since I was a small child. Each time we return to this picturesque, tree-filled backdrop, we’re the ones that have changed. The unique experience of this place, the kind people who visit, and the warmth of the family that runs it has created a community and family — one where we cherish these sweet memories shared only with each other.

Betty’s oatmeal cookies are still being made today by her niece Kristen, who now runs the kitchen. The recipe from her notebook is similar to Quaker Oats’ Best Oatmeal Cookies and has gentle hints of cinnamon and vanilla. To give the cookie a holiday spin, I took Betty’s base recipe and swapped in tart cherries for the raisins and added some chopped crystalized ginger for a little sparkle and a zingy, slightly sweet bite.