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I know the question itching at you on this almost Christmas day.
Did I earn back the trust of Mr. Darcy’s appetite?

As I forged through the stores yesterday evening, for my final(fingers crossed)trip through the stores, I called him at home.

“So did you see what we made for you today?”

Baby noises and siblings abounded in the background, “Oh yeah, I noticed something on the counter, I haven’t unwrapped it though.”

“Did you read my blog today?”

Dishes like cymbals joined the symphony behind him, “What? No.”

I took a more plaintive route, “It has cranberries in it.”

“Oh,” his voice lifted, “I’m going to have to get to that soon.”

Surrendering to dinner hour with 4 children and the relentless pull of present hunting, I said goodbye.

Two hours and too many purchases later, one weary body arrived home to greet an equally tired husband.

“It was good,” he smiled at me from the couch.

“Thanks,” I dropped my bags and said silently to myself, “It better be since it’s your only christmas present after I spent the rest of our savings on gifts tonight.”

From my warm nest in our bed this morning, I overheard several fond comments about a breakfast of cranberry bread.  Promising, but I sensed another cranberry recipe was still needed.

Lucky for me it arrived in my rss feeds this morning, Honey Cranberry Cornmeal Quickbread.  I know, you’re thinking, “Another bread?”  But the key, seductive ingredient is the cornmeal.  My husband has recently taken to grinding corn in our grain grinder for everything from porkchops to muffins.  Ready to come home, Mr. Darcy?

For a full, printable recipe, head over to Joy the Baker

Notes: I substituted sucanat with honey for the white sugar, pecans for the walnuts, and made buttermilk with plain milk and lemon juice.  This is a terrific recipe.  I want to say that it’s my favorite of the two, but they are very different breads(cranberry and orange versus cranberry and cornmeal), they each have their place. The second has an extra hint of sophistication.

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I knew I was in trouble I just wasn’t sure for what offense I’d been discovered. Mr. Darcy huffed and puffed nearby.  I thought about my extra purchases in the last two weeks and the household chores I’d ignored while making cookies with the kids.  Maybe he didn’t like my new haircut and couldn’t even look at me, so he was staying in the kitchen to save us both the embarrassment.

“It’s the cranberries,” he finally sputtered.

My first thought, “What cranberries?” was quickly replaced by, “Whew, he doesn’t know how much I’ve spent yet!”.

“What, honey?” I still needed to find out the source of his aggrivation.

“I’ve looked forward to this season all year long and now it’s almost christmas and you haven’t made me even one cranberry, apple crisp.”

“Well,” I thought hard, scrambling,”Are you sure? No, I’m sure I have.”

“Not even one, ” his chin jutted out further.

“Yes,” I said, thinking myself saved,”We made you a pear, cranberry crisp.” It was true, we had.

He dismissed that quickly, “Well, I don’t remember it.”

My relief in realizing this confrontation was over cranberries and not cash was waning, I started to feel quilty.

His arms crossed together tightly, “Not even one cranberry recipe.”

I squirmed and squeeked, “I’ll make sure christmas dessert has cranberries, honey.”

He grunted.

“I promise!”

He looked me in the eyes for the first time.  I could tell I would have to earn his trust back again.

“Okay,” he said.

This morning I told the kids how I let their father down.  I told them we had to make it up to him.  I suggested we start with Cranberry muffins and end with a cranberry, apple crisp.

“We’ll just have to make cranberry recipes every day until he finds it in his stomach to forgive us.”

We ended up making cranberry, orange bread instead of muffins.  This recipe was perfectly suitable, just be careful not to overcook.  Dry quick breads are not the way to soothe your man’s cranberry deprived spirit.

Orange Cranberry Bread

• 2 cups flour(we used half whole wheat)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup squeezed orange juice
• 1 tbs grated orange zest
• 2 tbs canola oil
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan.

2. Whisk together, dry ingredients.  Whisk together wet ingredients.  Add wet to dry, stir just until combined.  Stir in cranberries.

3. Pour mixture into prepared pan.  Spread evenly, bake 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cook for 15 minutes on rack. Remove from pan, cool completely.

Notes: I didn’t have the orange zest on hand, and the bread still had a good flavor.

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I’m a big fan of chocolate chips and I usually can’t say no to a cupful in banana bread or the current summer treat, zucchini bread.  But as much as we’ve enjoyed having zucchini bread with our fresh farm squash, I’ve been on the lookout for a less “super duper”(as my kids would say) recipe that isn’t quite so packed with sugar and chocolate.

As much as I love to cook and bake healthy when possible, I’ve never been able to embrace the method of substituting applesauce for oil.  The results have always been spongy or too pungent with apple.  But I gave it a try with this recipe, and I’m completely satisfied with this version of zucchini bread and haven’t experienced any sorrow over the missing chocolate.

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tsp cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 cups sugar(see note)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup walnuts(optional)

1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a medium bowl sift together first 5 ingredients(flour through cinnamon).  Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, applesauce, sugar, and vanilla.  Beat well with an electric mixer(I used a whisk and it worked fine).  Stir in zucchini.  Add flour mixture and stir until just combined(do not over mix).
3. Spray 2 regular loaf pans or 4 mini loaf pans with nonstick spray(bottom and sides).  Bake for approximately 50 minutes for 4 mini loafs or 65 to 75 minutes for 2 regular loaves(my oven cooks faster, and so my cooking time was about half the recommended time so watch carefully).  Cool slightly, run a knife around the edge of the pans to release bread from sides, and remove from pan.  Cool on wire rack.

Notes: If you grind your own flour, this recipe works great with both hard red and soft white, the latter being my current favorite.  I used 1  1/2 cups of sugar today and I think I could still come down another quarter cup and it would be plenty sweet. Today I was short on zucchini and finished off the amount with carrots instead and the result was the same.

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This is the first year that our farm csa has hosted a winter as well as a spring/summer csa.  We we’re a little nervous about the winter components, wondering if we would have a plethora of squash and well, nothing else.

But it’s been fabulous!  Fresh lettuce, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, spinach, tomato cocktail, and yes, a lovely variety of winter squash.  In addition, an abundance of sweet potatoes.  Lucky for us, we LOVE these Sweet Potato Biscuits.

Great as a side to any of the soups you’ve seen on this blog-it’s a sweet accompaniment to a savory dish.

The Recipe

• 1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato
• 2 tbs honey
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk or yogurt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg

Mix wet ingredients well.  In seperate bowl combine dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients and mix until a soft dough forms(may require a little more milk). Drop by spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Aimee’s Notes: We’ve made these with freshly milled flour, or purchased whole wheat and white whole wheat flour(king arthur brand flour) and they work with all of the above.  We never have buttermilk around-you can sour regular milk with 1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup regular milk.  Allow milk to stand for a few minutes. We cook our sweet potatoes by piercing them and baking in the oven until ready to peel and mash.  If you’re in a hurry, you can peel, cut, and boil, and then mash.

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