The Best Oatmeal Cookies

What do I make for a friend who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies or frosting on her cake???? I know... I don't understand her either. But, I do love to bake what my friends love so I make her oatmeal cookies without raisins. I've tried a few different recipes and I found one on allrecipes.com that I like best. Click here for the recipe I used as a reference.
Have you ever noticed that every recipe calls for long cooking oats or old fashioned oats? I'm a huge fan of using whatever you have in your cupboards. Years ago, I wanted to make oatmeal cookies but only had the packages of maple, brown sugar, and apple cinnamon instant oatmeal on hand. I used those instead and was very happy with the flavor and overall outcome. I hope you enjoy these as much as my finicky dessert friend and I do.  :-)

          Ingredients

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups instant flavored oatmeal

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and the sugars. Combine in a separate bowl the flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Add the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the oatmeal.
The original recipe says to drop teaspoon size cookies and bake for 10-12 minutes. You could do that.  I prefer to use my 3 tablespoon ice cream scoop to make uniform jumbo cookies and bake for about 14 minutes. Make sure to check them around 12 and maybe rotate your cookie sheets.
Let them cool on the cookie sheets for about 10 minutes before you transfer them to a rack. If you try to lift them too soon from the sheet, the bottom of the cookie will stick. That's no good so just be patient and wait.

**If you like raisins or dried cranberries, you can add 1 cup to the recipe but you should soak them in the beaten eggs and vanilla for up to an hour in the refrigerator. Add them after you've combined the dry ingredients and the butter mixture.