HOME

• Contact Me
• About
• Library

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.

We’re late this year.  Late on planning presents, behind on digging in to Advent, and tardy at getting our annual thank you gifts made and delivered.  For the past few years we’ve been making a little treat to pass out to those in our community who’ve served and blessed us over the year.  Our favorite librarians, our hard-working girl scout leaders, and friends who share our day to day lives.

Last year we made granola, which was a big hit and also a lot of time in the kitchen.  This year I just couldn’t decide what to do.  Finally I realized all of those tempting recipes for biscotti and handmade ornaments just weren’t practical for our family this Christmas, and I needed to look for simple.

This week I got inspired by an email from Family Fun, a treat most of us have probably sampled, but I’ve never made.  With relief I told my husband we could probably get this done in an hour or two.  My plan was to put 8 pieces in each bag, about 15 bags total. Then Mr. Darcy added on 22 more bags for his co-workers.  Could we still pull this off within a few hours?

Over 300 pieces later, the answer is yes!  My 4, 7, and 9 year old were able to do every part without a problem. From peeling the kisses, spreading out the pretzels, adding the m and m’s, to placing them in the bags.

For the recipe, head over here.

Notes: Try milk chocolate, hugs, or candy cane kisses.  A variety looks pretty in the bag.  The waffle shaped pretzels do work well, but because they were butter flavored, I actually liked the salty taste of the regular shaped mini pretzels better.

Mookie chose Peppermint bark for her holiday recipe of the week.

Most of the recipes I found online used only white chocolate, but I think the bark with a dark chocolate layer is more appealing, to the eye and to the tastebuds.

1. Melt 1 bag of good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips.  We didn’t have a full bag, so I threw in some Scharffen Berger chopped as well.

2. Once chocolate is melted, pour onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper.  With spatula, spread chocolate into a thin layer.

3.Place in freezer until firm, about 5 minutes.

4.Melt 1 bag good quality white chocolate chips.  Once chips have melted, stir in 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp peppermint extract, according to taste. Remove cookie sheet from freezer and pour white chocolate onto the chocolate layer. Spread with spatula.

5.Place candy canes in plastic bag, use rolling pin to break candy canes into small pieces.  You might want to do this before you start the first steps, the white chocolate can harden quickly.  Sprinkle peppermint pieces across white chocolate, press with hand so that candy will set with the chocolate as it hardens.

6. Place in freezer until firm.  About 15 minutes.

7.Remove from freezer and break into smaller pieces.  Try to save a little bit for friends.

We’ve introduced a new tradition for the season.  Each child gets to pick one holiday cookie recipe, alternating a recipe a week.  Jellybean got to pick first and she wanted the gingerbread shaped men without the ginger so we went with a sugar cookie recipe.  While we were making them she referred to them as “Sugarmen”, a name worth keeping around.

I’ve tried different sugar cookie recipes before but never found that right one. Soft and chewy, a little crispy in the bottom. This year, Mary Engelbreit came through for me with a recipe that did it all. Others agreed so I thinks it’s a winner.

In case you find yourself in the same boat, ready to run out and buy the Pillsbury sugar dough, give this recipe a try.

Make some Sugar Camels while you at it.

Mary Engelbreit’s Sugar Cookie Recipe

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup(2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• Colored Sugar and multicolored sprinkles

1.Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
2.In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, then the vanilla. On low speed, gradually beat in the flour mixture.
3. Divide dough into thirds, shaped each piece into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for atleast 2 hours, or overnight.
4.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5.On lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick.  Cut out Christmas shapes with cookie cutters and place 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Decorate with colored sugar and sprinkles.
6.Bake for 10 minutes, or until edges begin to brown.  Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. If you would like to hang these on your tree, you can use a skewer to make a hole as soon as they are removed from the oven and then add ribbon after cooled completely.

Note: For me, sprinkles will always be made my Granny’s way. A few bowls of sugar, food coloring added until bright green and red colors appear.  Sprinkle generously.

Here’s the cake my daughter envisioned for her 9 year old birthday.  I hemmed and hawed, tried steering her a different direction, and then folded.  I’m thrilled that I did because her vision was right on and we were able to capture it.  I’d like to point out with respect to Mookie that this is not a princess castle cake. More like an adventure castle cake.  She was very emphatic about this point. I’m just passing it on.

The second best thing about this cake was the frosting(the first being the above mentioned visionary daughter). We made a chocolate cake with peppermint frosting(tinted blue) and I see quite a future for me and this frosting.

In the near future I see brownies, topped with this frosting(maybe white, maybe red or green) and crushed peppermint candies.

Peppermint Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1(16oz) powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 to 1 tsp peppermint extract(or 1/4 tsp peppermint oil)

Beat butter at medium speed until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with milk, beginning and ending with powdered sugar. Beat after each addition at low speed. Stir in peppermint extract. Lick all mixing utensils. Save some frosting for your cake or brownies.

posted by Mr. Darcy

Here’s a dessert guaranteed to impress your friends & family! It will elicit wonderous “ooooh’s” and “aaaah’s” from just about anyone who spies or tries it! This recipe has become a family holiday tradition at our house and it is as fun to make as it is to eat. (Ooooh’s and aaaah’s are included, of course!)

The Recipe:

• 1. 75 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 0.25 cups finely ground pecans
• 0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick (0.5 cup) of unsalted butter, melted
• 3 (8-oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 0.25 cup heavy cream
• 1 (14-oz)  can of pumpkin pulp or 1.75 cups of fresh pumpkin pulp
• 0.25 cup caramel sauce (our one cheat… bought at a store)

Directions: the pumpkin

The steps for baking a pie pumpkin, from whole pumpkin to pulp.

First, why cook a pumpkin over buying canned pumpkin at the store? I guess that depends on you and what your time and kitchen fortitude allow. Many feel both get you the same result. Some reasons I decided to take the plunge are: (1) at $1-2 per pumpkin, you get more pumpkin pulp for your money  (2) plus, though many disagree, I think the end result simply tastes better because it’s freshly made. And now for the best reason of all, (3) you may think I’m crazy, but I swear it’s fun!

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Take a pie pumpkin, available at most farmers markets or produce stores during the fall/winter season, and cut it into quarters.

3. Scoop out the seeds and cut your quarters into 4-inch pieces.

4. Place the pieces of cut pumpkin into an oiled roasting dish, rind side down, cover tightly with foil, and bake for about 1 hour or until the pumpkin is soft and cuts easily with a fork or spoon.

5. Pull it out of the oven, allow it to cool, and then with a spoon or knife, scrape the pumpkin flesh away from the rind as shown in the bottom two photos above. The pumpkin flesh should easily come apart from the rind leaving a pile of empty rind and a bowl full of fresh pumpkin.

6. Puree the freshly cooked pumpkin and set aside for later.

Note: If after you puree the pumpkin, the final consistency is wetter than what you’d normally see in a can of pumpkin, wrap in cheese cloth and strain a little bit of the excess water from it until the consistency looks right.

Directions: the cheesecake

1. Preheat the oven to 375.

2. If you are starting with whole pecans, place them in a food processor and pulse them until they are finely ground. Then add the graham cracker crumbs to the food processor with the cinnamon and pulse once more to quickly blend.

3. Pour the crumb mixture into a medium bowl and add the melted butter. Stir until combined.

4. Press the crust mixture into the bottom and about half way up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

Press the crust into the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan.

Note: I like to take a butter knife and even up the edge of the crust all the way around the pan. It will make for a better presentation when it’s done.

5. For the filling, combine cream cheese through vanilla in a mixer bowl. Beat until fluffy.

6. Add eggs and yolks all at once, beating on low just until combined.

7. Fold in the cream and the pumpkin pulp. Don’t worry if it appears broken and not mixed in. Leave it that way. It will bake beautifully.

The filling just before folding in the pumpkin and heavy cream.

8. Pour into the crust lined pan.

Pour the filling into the crust-lined pan.

9. Place on a shallow baking pan in the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the center appears nearly set when shaken.

10. Cool 15 minutes. Loosen the sides of the pan and cool for 30 more minutes.

The pumpkin cheesecake just after baking.

11. Chill for 4 hours before serving.

12. Decorate with a drizzle of caramel sauce over the top of the cheesecake or over each individual slice. A sprinkle of powdered sugar makes a lovely garnish, too.

Drizzle with caramel sauce and, if desired, a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Occasionally I get tired of the lunch routine at our house.  A quick sandwich, a luna bar, maybe a warmed up can of soup, and on the really good days, leftovers.  Today I couldn’t face the pile of bagels I saw laying on the counter(especially with no cream cheese in my dairy free life at the moment), so I moved dinner up to lunch.  Now we’ve enjoyed a warm, fall lunch with a lot of leftovers for tonight.

This recipe comes from one of my favorite and most versatile cookbooks, How to Cook without a Book by Pam Anderson.  I recommend it.  The dish highlights a seasonal favorite of ours, the butternut squash.  If we didn’t entice you with the fall pie, maybe this will be the one.

Pasta with Butternut Squash, Bacon, and Thyme

• 1/2 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into medium dice
• 1 pound pasta(short and stubby, like rotelle or orechiette)
• 4 tbs rendered bacon fat from 4 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 medium garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
• Parmesan Cheese to taste
• Black Pepper to taste

1.In the skillet, fry bacon over medium heat until crsip, about five minutes. Remove bacon with slotted spoon; set aside.  Saute garlic and thyme with the rendered bacon fat.

2.Meanwhile, bring 2 quarts water to a boil over medium-high heat in a soup pot; add 1 tbs of salt and pasta to the boiling water. Using pasta box guide, cook pasta, partially covered and stirring frequently, until about five minutes from doneness.  Add the prepared butternut squash and continue cooking until pasta is done and vegetable is tender.

3.Drain pasta and squash, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.

4.Add pasta mixture back to pot, along with contents of skillet, and cooking liquid. Toss to coat.  Add bacon with parmesan cheese, toss to coat.  Add pepper to taste.

note: I cut my squash into 1 inch cubes, rather than reading the directions more carefully.  Stick with the medium dice, it will work better because it will cook quicker with the pasta and blend more easily with the flavors.

I promised a few friends that I would post the pumpkin butter recipe mentioned in this post.  It’s our first year of pumpkin butter and it’s already a favorite, destined to be a fall tradition.  While the rest of the family enjoyed their pumpkin butter on pancakes(pumpkin, of course), I tried my portion on some plain oatmeal cooked on the stove.  Instant, delicious success.  So today I served it up in mugs with the oatmeal, pumpkin butter, and topped with toasted walnuts.  Fall goodness!

Pumpkin Butter
from the Book of Days, Autumn 1

2 cups puree(from one pie pumpkin or 1 can)
3/4 cups white sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a small pot and put on stove over medium heat.

2. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring often, until the pumpkin butter is thick, like pudding. Ladle into clean canning jar.  There will be some that won’t fit in the jar, but we’re pretty sure you’ll find a good use for it! It’s great on waffles, muffins, toast, and spoons.

If you’d life to make a few extra batches, you can freeze them, as long as you leave a half an inch or so at the top of the jar so that the butter has more room to expand as it freezes.

Finally an october sweet corn that I can really enjoy, not the horrible stuff called candy corn. Blech.

Our family loves a big bowl of popcorn fresh off the stove, but until today, we’ve never made Kettle Corn.  The inspiration came from a treasure I discovered earlier this week.  It’s called the Book of Days, and it’s a monthly downloadable book full of seasonal activities, recipes, and discoveries for families.  I love everything about this whimsical, artistic, inspiring book. Two nights ago we tried the pumpkin butter recipe, deliciously topping off our pancake dinner.

From the Writer and Illustrator:

“Our goal with the Book of Days is that any family, with just a few minutes to spare, can do something fun and meaningful together. Our hope is that those few minutes will lead to lots of exploring, creating and following your curiosity together.”

And, yes, we do have plans to get to the other less, ahem, food related activities very soon!

The kids and I just finished the entire bowl of kettle corn.  The perfect snack for a cloudy autumn day, with a view of falling leaves.

Do be careful making this with your kids, my 7 year old and I both got zapped with hot, popping kernels during first few steps.

Kettle Corn

from the Books of Days, Autumn Book 1

• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup unpopped kernels
• large pot with lid
• salt shaker

DIRECTIONS

1.Heat the oil and three or four kernels of popcorn in a large pot over medium heat.

2.Once all the kernels pop, stir in the sugar and wait until it dissolves. Then stir in all the popcorn.

3.Cover the pot and let sit as you count to five.  Then raise the pot up and shake as you count to five.  Once the popping has slowed to once every 2-3 seconds, remove pot from heat and continue to shake for a few minutes until the popping has fully stopped.

4.Pour into a large bowl, and sprinkle with salt.  Stir the popcorn as it cools so that it doesn’t form clumps.

If Autumn were a pie it would have some of my favorite ingredients.

• 1 crisp autumn breeze
• 1 cup orange and yellow leaves(maple, preferably)
• 1 warm wool sweater, not too hot
• 3 children jumping in leaves
• 1 trip to the farmer’s market
• cinnamon to taste

Hmm, but how to serve that pie?  Well, we made one tonight that captures the feel of my whimsical fall pie.  We found it in our new favorite baking book, Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  Already smitten with butternut squash, we felt more than willing to give this less common(okay, I’ve never heard of anything like it) pie a try.  We knew by the ingredients-the squash, pears, dried cranberries, orange zest-that it was going to be good.  But until we took the first bite………

Oh, sorry, I was still thinking about that first bite.

This pie is a beautiful thing.  I see the future of this pie on our table next fall, and then the fall after that, and then the fall after that….

Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie
recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

• Pie Dough from book or store bought crust(such as pillsbury)
• 1  1/4 pounds(2 cups) cubed(1 inch), peeled butternut squash
• 2 ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 cup moist, plump dried fruit, such as cranberries, raisins, or finely chopped diced apple or pears
• 1/2 cup(packed) light brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• Grated zest of 1/2 orange
• 2 tbs fresh orange juice
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 tbs plain dry bread crumbs
• sugar, for dusting

To make piecrust-Follow directions in book, use your own recipe for double crust pie, or thaw store bought.

Getting Ready to Bake-

• Position rack in lower third of oven.
• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Pre-cook the squash in a microwave or steamer until almost cooked through. Pat it dry and toss into a large bowl.

• Add the remaining ingredients.

• Then turn them gently with a large rubber spatula (and a four year old if you’ve got one) to blend.
• Let the filling sit for 5 min. or so to give the sugar time to melt, then gently mix again.

• Coat the pie plate with a little bit of butter or margarine and place the ingredients into the pie plate. Then level it out and set it aside.

• Lay your pie crust over the top, trim and pinch into shape. Then make four slits with a sharp knife on the top. We used a cookie cutter for a more creative touch on ours.

• Then lightly brush the pie crust with water and sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and juices from the pie bubble up through the slits in the center of the pie. Note: If the edges of your crust begin to brown before the pie is ready, cover the edges with foil leaving the center/top uncovered. This will prevent it from browning more and allow the rest of the pie to finish cooking.

• Serve with a little scoop of cinnamon ice cream and watch it disappear!

Notes: You might have noticed our version only used a top crust instead of a double.  We really liked it with the single, the crust didn’t overpower the amazing flavor of the filling.  Not finding an orange in the fridge, we used orange juice from the carton and skipped the zest.  Though the zest will be great next time, this worked in a pinch and no one refused their pie because of it.  If you don’t have an orange, but do have the rest of the ingredients, make the pie!

To make this pie dairy free, use a crust that is made with shortening, use dairy free margarine or cooking spray to coat the pan, and serve with dairy free ice cream.