Cranberry-Lime Vodka

I spent tonight stabbing cranberries.  I can't tell you what they did, but they definitely had it coming!  I love cranberries, both fresh and dried, and I love finding new ways to use them.  This year for Thanksgiving I'll be making orange-cranberry sauce, possibly a spicy cranberry sauce, and a cranberry-almond tart, but today I mixed up some cranberry-lime vodka.  Just the colors alone are so pretty--but it's also very tasty, either alone or mixed with juice, club soda, or ginger ale. 

For three bottles, you'll need two 12 oz bags of cranberries that should be washed and then pricked with a pin.  As you're pricking them, toss out any berries that aren't quite ripe or that have become mushy.  It's not their fault, but you don't want them becoming mushier in your vodka.  This goes by pretty quickly if you're watching tv.

Then with a vegetable peeler (or a wide zester if you have one), peel off the skin of a couple of limes, trying to get as little of the pith (the white part, which is bitter) as possible.  I trimmed the zest after that with a paring knife to get more of the pith off--I don't know how it would affect the vodka, as cranberries are already bitter, but aesthetically I liked seeing more of the green with the bright red cranberries.  You can leave the lime zest in larger pieces, but I made mine into little strips that were narrow and about an inch long.

Start filling the bottles with cranberries, stopping every half inch or so to add in some lime zest slivers.  It doesn't really matter where they fall, as you'll be shaking things around later anyhow--not that you can tell them where to go anyhow.  When the bottles are full, add in 1-2 tablespoons of sugar to balance out the acidity of the cranberries and then fill to the top with vodka.  Good cranberries float, but try to have them all submerged.  Seal the bottles well and shake them to mix up the sugar, which will have all magically congregated at the bottom.  Shake every day or so when you walk by and enjoy--or share with good friends, if you're feeling generous.  This would also be good with fresh ginger (which is good in everything, IMO).

Cranberry-Almond Shortbread Tart

I'm in holiday testing mode this week, so today I tried a Fine Cooking recipe I'd seen for a cranberry-almond shortbread tart.  Because this was just a test, I made half the recipe, using two mini tarts pans, which worked out pretty well.  The filling is tart with fresh cranberries and a little apricot jam, and the crust is crunchy with ground, toasted almonds and cornmeal.  I have other recipes to try, but I'm thinking this is a definite possibility.

Happy Halloween!

Sweet treats are all but required on Halloween, no?  These are chocolate cupcakes with a simple vanilla frosting.  The cupcakes are moist with sour cream and buttermilk, while the frosting is light and fluffy.

Sweet Potato Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Bacon

Sweet potatoes on pizza?  Yeah, I know -- it sounds weird.  And it looks weird putting it together.  But it tastes really good, adding an almost creamy feel to your pizza. Caramelized onions weren't in the original recipe, which is here, but I like them, and because I was making a vegetarian version of this, I wanted a little extra flavor with the sweet potatoes.  I used Canadian bacon instead of regular bacon -- it was already cooked, but crisping it up in a pan first adds flavor and texture.  For cheese I used a combination of mozzarella and Comte.  It's hard to see the sweet potatoes under all the other toppings, but they're there (see below).

Braised Chicken with a Beer and Mustard Sauce

This dish is perfect for a cool fall day.  The flavors are rich but not heavy, and it doesn't take forever to make.  The sauce--made with beer, chicken broth, maple syrup, and, of course, mustard--seems to go with pretty much anything.  I served it with roasted butternut squash and carrots and green beans.

Apple Cobbler-Stuffed Apples

Baked apples are so simple, and so good--so I decided to go one step further.  I hollowed out honey crisp apples from the stem end, leaving the bottom part intact, and I chopped up the scooped-out apple and sauteed it briefly in butter, adding a little brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger.  I used that mixture to refill the apples as much as possible.  Because the apple pieces had cooked down (and the stem was gone), there was more space for the topping--a mixture of soft butter, oats, brown sugar, chopped walnuts, and cinnamon.  I filled the apples the rest of the way up and baked them, uncovered, for about 30 min., until they were soft.  Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of cream, or, as we did, just by themselves. They're not really photogenic, but they still taste good.

                                                       Before they went into the oven ...

Chicken Burgers with Red Cabbage Slaw and Apples

Sometimes you need to switch things up a bit with chicken.  I love it, and eat it more than any other meat, but it's easy to get stuck in a chicken rut.  I saw this recipe in Fine Cooking and was inspired to try it.  I used ground chicken breast, which they said not to do, but the burgers were still moist and flavorful.  Sometimes you have to go with what's available--and to that end, I left out the celery, because I didn't have any.  The finely diced apple in the burgers doesn't jump out as apply, but it helps keep the burgers juicy and light.  I added freshly grated ginger to both the burger mixture and the slaw--because it's good with almost everything, and I wanted a little more kick--and I added about a tablespoon of light brown sugar to the slaw for a little bit of a sweet and sour effect.  I served this with roasted acorn that was drizzled with a balsamic reduction.

Sunday Brunch

On a suddenly cold, rainy Sunday, what's better than a cozy, leisurely brunch?  We had a ton of food for five people, but that's how it should be.  Brunch is my favorite meal--you can go in so many directions, and you're supposed to have plenty.  You don't have a bowl of cereal for brunch.  I made a leek and goat cheese frittata, a cinnamon-apple coffee cake made with sour cream and lots of pecans, and chocolate chip-cranberry cream scones.  We also had a selection of cheeses, smoked fish, fruit, olives, nuts, the requisite coffee, apple cider, and pear cider with prosecco--which is every bit as tasty as it sounds.

Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

Pound cake is one of those cakes you could almost forget.  It's not that it's not good, but a lot of the time it just doesn't stand out, or it's covered up with fruit or ice cream.  But this recipe from Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes is a reminder of why you shouldn't forget it--butter, cream cheese, and roasted vanilla beans come together to make a rich, moist, and very flavorful cake all on its own.  The vanilla bean is roasted and then blended with the sugar, intensifying its flavor.  Adding berries and ice cream on top isn't bad, however ...

Spicy Ginger-Pear Bread

I made a bunch of quick breads this week.  Banana-pecan, lemon poppyseed, and ginger-pear.  Pears are everywhere right now, and ginger seemed like the perfect thing to go with them.  Sweet, spicy, warming.  Actually, I think ginger goes with everything--and in my cooking, it often does.  So to the pear bread recipe, I added a hefty dose of fresh ginger, with crystallized ginger on top.  I keep the ginger in the freezer, peeled and wrapped up tight, and when I need some, all I have to do is grate off a bit with a microplane.

Ginger-Pear Bread
(based on a recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2-4 Tbs freshly grated ginger (I used closer to 4 Tbs, but adjust to taste)
3/4 c softened butter
3 eggs
2 c sugar
2 c grated pear (3-4 pears, peeled, cored and grated)
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbs crystallized ginger, chopped fine (I used this)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and fresh ginger.  In another bowl, combine the grated pear, butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.  Add the pear mixture to the dry mixture, and mix until just blended.

Pour the batter evenly into the two prepared pans, and sprinkle the tops with the crystallized ginger.  Bake for about an hour, til the tops are browned and a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10-15 min., and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

New Year, New Apple Cake

I saw this cake in the paper recently and found it hard to get out of my mind.  Not that it's bad to have cakes on the brain, but it can get a little distracting sometimes.  And hunger-inducing.  But a recipe that was well-loved, buttery, apply, beautiful, and easy should not be ignored.  The batter mixed up in about five minutes.  Thinly sliced raw apples are arranged on top -- and that part did take some time, but the sunflower effect isn't necessary.  This would be just as good with chopped up apples tumbled on top.  Pears could also be used, or even berries or stone fruit would work as well.  I served it with a dollop of cinnamon whipped cream.

Maple Nutty Sticky Buns

The idea behind this recipe, from King Arthur Flour, is that it's a quick version of sticky buns. There's no yeast, so there's no rising, and you don't even need a mixer. It took me about an hour, including mixing, rolling and baking. Waiting for them to cool from molten to merely warm takes a little longer, but it's worth it. The recipe is also pretty flexible -- I used maple syrup instead of dark corn syrup, soured milk instead of buttermilk, and added cinnamon, ginger and more nuts to the filling. I could also see adding apples or pears, dried cranberries, or even dark chocolate chips.

Cream Biscuits

Summer is nearly over, and I'm back.  It's been a busy few months, and somehow time got away from me.  I have tons of tasty food pics just waiting to be posted, so don't be surprised if you see fresh corn and tomatoes in the middle of November.  In the meantime, I give you these cream biscuits.  They're probably the easiest biscuits you'll ever make--and so very good.  There's no butter (or shortening or lard even) to cut in, so they come together in no time at all.  The recipe, from Sara Moulton, calls for heavy cream, but I've used light cream just as well.  I also use slightly less baking powder than is called for, as the full amount tasted a bit too metallic to me.  Make these--don't make them all the time, or at least don't blame me if you do--but they're so good, and so easy, that you'll want to.

Cream Biscuits
(based on Sara Moulton's recipe)

2 c all-purpose flour
3/4-1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-1.5 c heavy cream (light will work too)

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Then pour in about 1 cup of the cream, stirring with a fork and slowly adding more cream til it all comes together.  Gently knead the dough a few times--you don't want to overwork it, but you want it to be well-blended--and form it into a ball.  Flatten the ball somewhat and slice it into eight wedges.  Or you can do what I did and make two balls and 16 smaller wedges.  Put them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 20 min. or so, til pale golden.  Let cool slightly on a wire rack, or risk your fingers (and mouth) and eat them hot out of the oven.

Parmesan-Zucchini Tots

The grand plan this summer was, since it's so popular here, to grow our own zucchini.  I bought a few seedlings and ... well, they're not progressing quite as well as I'd hoped.  Paying more attention to them probably would help.  In the meantime, there are some great local farmers markets and farm stands to keep us going.  I've found via Pinterest a bunch of zucchini recipes I want to try, including this one, for zucchini tots.  These are crispy little mini muffins made with grated zucchini, cheese, bread crumbs, onion and egg.  They're super simple to make--and eat.  I used parmesan today, but I  think they'd also be really good with smoked gouda or an aged goat cheese.  Also, you'll probably want to double this recipe--I did, because 12 little bites just wasn't going to be enough.

Summer Food

Summer food is easy and flavorful.  Summer's just heating up here, but the grill is already going strong.  Here we have barbecued chicken, with a smoky mix including honey, smoked paprika and aleppo pepper.  We had Mediterranean potato salad, a nontraditional version that uses champagne vinegar, Dijon mustard, feta cheese, and lots of herbs.  You won't miss the mayo.  And because we're not fussing, the other sides include a simple walking salad of sweet red peppers and avocado and a big bowl full of cherries.

Blueberry Boy Bait

How could I resist a recipe with this name?  It could be almost anything and I'd try it with a name like "boy bait"--but in this case, the combination of cake and blueberries was also a really good one.  The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, and I followed her lead in using buttermilk instead of whole milk.  I used frozen wild blueberries, because that's what I had; they're much smaller than the berries currently available.  I bet this would also be good with raspberries (though the name wouldn't flow quite as well.)

I don't know if the cake is supposed to attract blueberry boys or boys who like blueberries.  So far, this is the only boy who's tried (to try) it.

This is the best time of year for fruit, especially berries.  My original idea for this was a giant strawberry shortcake, but biscuits only last a short while before getting too soggy.  So for the base, I made a yellow cake with lots of lemon zest and filled it with strawberries and whipped cream.  Not a bad start, right?  To keep it light (tasting), I frosted the whole thing in more whipped cream and covered it in more berries and berry and almond flowers.

Chocolatey Chunk Caramelitas

Meet caramelitas ... introduce yourself ... get friendly, because soon you will be very good friends.  They're so simple--a layer of buttery, flaky oat shortbread, topped with dark chocolate chips and fleur de sel caramel, and then another layer of the oat shortbread.  But then it all bakes together, and the caramel melts down over the chocolate, into the shortbread.  The oats start to toast and take on a nutty flavor.  And then they're done, and all you have do is wait for them to cool.  They do need to be completely cool before you slice them, not just kinda, or they'll crumble all over the place.  A short stay in the fridge does wonders if you're impatient.  I found the original recipe over here, but I'm posting my few changes below.

Caramelitas

5-6 oz fleur de sel caramel sauce (I used a jar I had on hand, but you can also make it yourself)
3/4 c unsalted butter, melted
3/4 c brown sugar
1 c flour
1 c old-fashioned oats (not instant)
1 tsp baking soda
1 c semisweet chocolate chunks (I used Callebaut)

Combine the butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda in a bowl.  It will be crumbly.  Pour half of the mixture into a foil-lined 8x8 (or similar) baking pan.  Bake for 10 min. at 350 degrees.  Then sprinkle the chocolate over the base layer and the caramel over that.  Crumble the remaining oat mixture on top, and bake for 20 min., or til golden brown. Let cool completely before slicing.  These freeze very well -- I wrapped the rest of mine individually, so I can pull one out of the freezer, without being tempted by the entire pan.

Honey-Black Pepper Bacon

My new favorite method of cooking bacon is to bake it. I love not having to hover over it, getting splattered by popping grease. Baking it with maple syrup makes it, literally, melt in your mouth. This time I used wildflower honey and cracked black pepper--sweet and spicy. The final result was a lighter flavor than the maple, but the sweetness with the pepper was very good. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Peanut Butter S'mores Bars

By now I think it's clear that I love chocolate and peanut butter. So it's probably no surprise that, while making s'mores bars, a layer of peanut butter somehow ended up in there. I put in a graham cracker layer, chocolate, peanut butter, and then realized as I was spreading the marshmallow fluff that peanut butter wasn't actually in the recipe. There are worse things, right? These disappeared very quickly.

Peanut Butter S'mores Bars

1/2 c butter, room temp.
1/4 c brown sugar
1/3 c white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c flour
3/4 c + cracker crumbs (I crushed up one of the three sleeves in package and used all of it)
1 tsp baking powder
4 Hershey bars (milk choc. is trad, but use whatever kind of choc. you like best)
7 oz marshmallow fluff (one container)
2-4 oz peanut butter (optional)

Line an 8x8 pan with foil and grease with butter or cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350.

Cream together the butter and two sugars. Then add the egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, and baking power. Then slowly add them to the butter-sugar mixture.

Divide the dough in half and put haf in the bottom of the greased pan. Press down to fill any gaps, but don't pack it in.

Then cover the dough with a single layer of chocolate* (and peanut butter, if using, as below). Four bars should be plenty, though you might have to break them to make them fit.  *If you're using peanut butter, it's easier to spread it on the chocolate bars before you put them in the pan, than to try to spread it on them once they're already in.

Then spread on the marshmallow fluff evenly, and cover with the remaining half of the dough. I crumbled it on so it would be sandier in texture at the end.

Bake for 25-30 min., til lightly brown on top. Cool briefly and enjoy. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone