Food Friday - Merry Cranberry Christmas!

from Kris B.

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it is now December!  I so enjoyed November, the month of intentional gratitude and thankfulness, but haven't yet made the transition to being in the Christmas spirit.  At this point my energy is being consumed by trying to finish up the fall semester at school.  Two more weeks!  Then maybe I can get some Christmas decorations up and actually enjoy the process rather than feeling stressed because there are so many more pressing things that I really should be doing.

During November, as I was making my gratitude list, one of the things that kept coming to mind is how thankful and grateful I am for my friends- those that I see regularly and those that I keep up with primarily via Facebook.   There is no greater gift in life than a caring and loving circle of friends.  One reason that I am particularly grateful for friends right now is because some of them have infused a little bit of Christmas into my otherwise Scrooge-like present life.

Some of our closest friends have an annual Christmas party on the Saturday evening after Thanksgiving.  Because my husband smoked our Thanksgiving turkey and my oldest daughter did all of the side dishes for our Thanksgiving meal, I had virtually no cooking responsibilities for that day so, I volunteered to help cook and prepare food for my friends' party.  I really enjoyed making twelve dozen cookies and hummus and chocolate mousse for forty.  The green and red sprinkles made an appearance as decoration for the sugar cookies.  That was the first touch of Christmas at my house.  (Don't worry;  cookies, hummus, and mousse are not all that we had to eat.  They did have some of the food catered as well.  Lol!).  The party itself was a festive celebration with lots of food, fellowship, a home decorated from top to bottom and a Christmas carol sing-a-long.  

Also, a colleague asked me if I would bake something for her to give as gifts.  Enter this week's recipe.  Last night I baked fifteen loaves of this Apple Cranberry Streusel Quick Bread.  Because she wanted them packaged as Christmas gifts, I was forced to unearth some red and white curling ribbon.   So there you have it...Christmas colored sprinkles and red and white curling ribbon are the total extent of Christmas at my house at this point.

I will get there.  We will get the tree up and the stockings will be hung by the chimney with care.  Wrapped packages will appear under the tree and brunch will be prepared for Christmas morning.  Right now, the process seems a little overwhelming, but it always does for me at this time of year.  I always feel better when a take a few minutes a slow down.  Today that happened with a cup of coffee (or three) and a piece of this delicious bread.  I needed fifteen loaves for my colleague and it just so happened that the math worked out that I made sixteen.  One for us, too!

Apple-Cranberry Streusel Quick Bread

INGREDIENTS

For the Streusel 

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans

For the bread

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

2 1/2 cups chopped apples, any variety

1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter 2 9x5–inch loaf pans or use 4 unbuttered 3x7 waxed disposable baking pans.

In a medium bowl, prepare the streusel topping first.  Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour. Add  the butter with a pastry cutter.  Mix in the chopped pecans.  Set this mixture aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda. and salt 

In a large stand mixer bowl, cream the butter.  Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture by alternating it with the buttermilk until you have a smooth batter.  Stir in the cranberries and apples by hand.

Equally divide the batter into your prepared pans. Top each loaf with the streusel mixture.

Bake 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of bread comes out clean.

This recipe can also be halved.



by Tracey G.

I'm with Kris, I can't believe it's December already! It's just flown by, I barely remember November, lol. Seems like it was just the other day I was sitting on the beach! This year has me so behind and I'm not quite sure why - well, now that I think about it, I'm really not that behind in everything - I just have that horrible feeling that I am. Usually I have all the Christmas shopping done by November, I have none done. It doesn't help that Harry has given me nor Santa any ideas other than a few things that are still debatable. So, I know I need to buckle down and get that done this week - I hate last minute shopping, it makes me crazy! But on the flip side, I'm ahead of the game as far as the tree goes - we don't usually get it until about 2 weeks before Christmas, but today I sent Jeremy and Harry out with the task to get the tree - I had to trust them that they'd get what I want, lol. I'm an artificial tree kind of girl, but when we had Harry I started giving real trees a chance, and now that's all Harry wants, so I'm out of luck as far as ever having my perfect artificial tree anymore, lol. They did really well, came home with one I can live with - I wanted a bit taller and fluffier, but they did a good job and I really can't complain. :-)

I'll admit it -  I love McDonald's Cranberry Orange Muffins, lol. They're my favorite and I get one every chance I get. I finally decided since I love that combination so much, I really needed to start making them at home, lol. So, I searched around and found a recipe I really liked and tweaked it a bit, of course, lol. Now, there were complaints from the Peanut Gallery that they're not sweet enough, so I think next time I make them I will adjust the sugar up a bit, OR get some coarse sugar to use as a sprinkle on top of them before I bake them. I liked them a lot, the only thing I thought it could use was more cranberries! So, again, that might be something I'll adjust next time I make them. I also omitted the nuts, Harry doesn't like nuts in things like this, so I skipped them. I will though be making a batch of them one of these days WITH nuts though for  myself!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

2 c flour

3/4 c packed brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

1-2 tsp grated orange peel

2/3 c orange juice

1/3 c vegetable oil

1 c cranberries, coarsely chopped

1 c chopped pecans

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, orange peel and baking powder. In another bowl, beat eggs. Add orange juice and oil; stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fold in cranberries and pecans. Spoon into 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups (cups will be almost full). Bake at 375° F for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool on wire rack. 

Food Friday - Pie in the Sky

"Pie in the Sky" is probably not the most honest title for this week's post.  It is actually pie in my belly.  This is one of my favorite pies so as soon as I got the photos taken I felt obliged to eat the model.

In our family, my oldest daughter and her dad (my ex-husband) have had an ongoing battle waging over who makes the best pumpkin pie.  His is the more traditional type, and hers is vegan.  They are both really good.  I am always amazed that the vegan pie is as good as it is.  In all honesty, I bet you wouldn't know that it was vegan unless you were told.  Because I am the non-competitive member of the family, I never joined in the pie battle.  I took a completely different route and always make a pie for the non-pumpkin pie eat that comes to dinner every now and then.

This recipe comes from The Pantry Restaurant in McKinney, Texas, a locally owned family business.  Their recipes are longtime family recipes that have been passed down through generations. Fortunately, they also published a cookbook with the recipe for this pie!

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs
1/2 Cup melted butter
1 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 Cup flour
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Cup pecan pieces
1 10 inch pie shell

Mix eggs, butter, sugar, flour, and vanilla together.  Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.  Pour into the 10-inch pie shell.  Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes to an hour.  Serve topped with whipped cream or, if you are feeling really decadent, vanilla ice cream.

I usually melt the butter in a four-cup measuring cup and then mix all the ingredients in.  This makes it easy to pour the filling into the pie crust and it is easy clean up.  Only the measuring cup and a stirring spoon!  I also do not make my own crust for this one.  The pie itself is so rich that the taste of the crust is lost, so save the trouble of a homemade crust for that apple or peach pie!

On a side note, this is another in our "brown food series."   Again I say that brown food is really hard to photograph in an appealing way!


by Tracey G.

This recipe intrigued me, the fact that it's a colonial-era pie caught my attention. Add in the fact I love cranberries in just about any form and I'd never eaten them in the form of a pie, and I was really interested! The yummy ingredient list and the easy-factor sealed the deal for me.I think then next time I have some I'm going to heat it up and put a scoop of vanilla ice cream with it - yum!

I must thank Taste Of Home once again for the recipe and this venue for me having the reason to make this recipe! :-D 

Now, instead of making my own pastry for the pie, I just bought and used the refrigerated crust, made it super simple! But I've included the pastry recipe that came with the pie recipe :-)

And this was my first lattice topped pie - and it was so much easier than I thought it would be! I'd always said, nope, not doing that, that looks way too difficult, lol. Well, it's not and it sure looks pretty when you're done and it's baked! :-D

Cranberry Walnut Pie

courtesy of Taste of Home Magazine

Makes 8 Servings

1 pkg (12 oz) fresh or frozen cranberries, thawed

1 1/2 c packed brown sugar

1 c chopped walnuts

1/4 c butter, melted

4 1/2 tsp flour

2 tsp grated orange peel

Dash salt

Pastry for double crust pie (9-in.)

1) Preheat oven to 375° F. Place cranberries in a food processor; cover and process until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl; stir in brown sugar, walnuts, melted butter, flour, orange peel and salt.

2) On a lightly floured surface, roll one half of the pastry dough to 1/8-in. thick circle; transfer to a 9-in. pie plate. Trim pastry to 1/2-in. beyond rim of plate. Add filling.

3) Roll remaining dough to a 1/8-in. thick circle; cut into 1/2-in wide strips. Arrange over filling in a lattice pattern. Trim and seal strips to edge of bottom pastry; flute edge. Cover edges loosely with foil.

4) Bake 30 minutes. Remove foil; bake 20-25 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on wire rack.

Pastry for 9-in double-crust pie:

2 /12 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup cold butter, cubed

1/3 - 2/3 c ice water

Combine the flour and the salt; cut in the butter until crumbly. Gradually add 1/3 to 2/3 cup ice water, tossing with a fork until dough holds together. Divide in half, shape into disks; wrap in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour.