Recipe: Cherry-Berry Sauce

This is actually a re-blog of a recipe I posted a few years ago. I have just made a huge batch of it, taking pictures, and decided I really wanted to dedicate a blog to it.

This is a simple, fun recipe that has a lovely sweet-tart taste different from straight cranberry sauce. It's really easy to make it a day ahead and take to a pot luck or as a hostess gift. I give it for Christmas with other holiday goodies, so I can it. It also fills your house with yummy holiday smells while you're making it.

Cranberry and Dried Cherry Sauce

Raisins or dried cranberries could easily stand in for the dried tart cherries.

1 12-ounce container frozen cranberry juice cocktail, thawed
1 cup water
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 6-ounce package dried tart cherries
1 12-ounce bag cranberries

Bring first 5 ingredients to boil in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add cherries; cook 2 minutes, maintaining the boil. Add cranberries; cook until berries pop, stirring occasionally, about 9 minutes. Transfer to bowl. Cover; chill overnight. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Keep chilled.) Discard cinnamon. Serve cold or at room temperature. Makes about 4 cups.

It's really as easy as that. I tie the cinnamon sticks into a bit of cheese cloth to make a spice bag because they like to hide in the sauce. You can see it in that first picture, hanging out as I wait for the concentrate, water, and sugar to boil. The second picture shows the cranberries floating; they do that, you just need to stir occasionally so they get into the boiling liquid to cook and pop. The last shows the popped cranberries with the dark-brown cherries peeking out. It's very thin at this point. It will thicken in the refrigerator overnight or with canning.

The Ball Blue Book says to can cranberry sauce in a hot water bath for 15 minutes, so I do that (and add 5 minutes for pint jars). If you're making a large batch for canning be sure to stir it really well before putting it in the jars: the cranberries float and the dried fruit sinks. A quadruple batch gave me nine pints - that's a lot of sauce! I can it in different sizes: cute little half-cups for my single friends, pints for Grandpa Jim who's allergic to corn syrup (and anything corn) and therefore doesn't get a lot of sweets and thinks this stuff is the bee's knees.


My jars look dusty because our water is a little hard. I've just taken them out of the canner and they're still too hot to wash off.

Serve it where you would serve cranberry sauce. Mom says she's spooned it over cottage cheese and tossed it with fresh cut melon for a fruit salad. Grandpa Jim eats it right out of the jar (so do I!) The sweet-tart flavor lends itself to a lot of recipes. I find myself wondering if it'd made a good ham glaze, or might go nice with a ricotta cheese filling.

Holiday Baking

It's been an absolute whirlwind around here. On top of the usual adventures of kid raising and budget manipulation, over at Allakhazam we've been gearing up for EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark. It's been a mass of hard gameplay, testing, and data entry. The expansion launched Tuesday with an incredibly smooth rollout, and I'm finally getting to breathe again. The EverQuest II Team did a phenomenal job!

And I see it's mid-November, and I've hardly started my holiday baking! So I've been working with the pumpkin puree I wrote about last time, and I've got dried fruit soaking in rum for fruitcakes (which I'll write about later).

Here's a couple of very nice pumpkin recipes I've found. While pumpkins are not on the market up here right now, where they're in season you shouldn't have any problem finding fresh pumpkin. And there's always that good ol' reliable can of Libbys! Remember, pumpkin is one of those fantastic veggies that hides well in baked goods.

Pumpkin Bread

This was so good the first loaf lasted less than 24 hours!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups pumpkin pureé (15 oz can)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup fresh or dried cranberries (optional)
  

Preparation:
Combine flour, spice, baking powder, and salt in bowl; stir to blend the dry ingredients well. Combine eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour mixture, then stir in cranberries. Spoon into two greased and floured 9x5x2-inch loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies:

I made the first batch exactly as written. The second batch I added sweetened dried cranberries and skipped the icing, which my family liked better. I also cut the sugar down to a cup. Next time I'll substitute in some Splenda.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Happy New Year!

So, did everyone make resolutions?

I never make resolutions, because when I do I always break them. However, this is the year I will quit smoking forever.

The effort started well. As a nursing mom physicians will not recommend any kind of stop-smoking aid, but research reveals that nicotine gum has yet to be shown to have any side effects more adverse than actually smoking (when used properly, that is). So I got some gum.

It actually works quite well. My problem with quitting smoking is 90% psychological, I think. I can put off a cigarette easily by telling myself I have the gum, I don't need to smoke. The problem is, all my "triggers" have changed since the last time I tried to quit.

This is awful - stepping outside is a trigger. A really big one. And I should have thought of that, because since Kiddo was born I do not smoke in the house or car.

There I am, the first day quitting, doing well, and I get ready to start Hubby's car for him (we're having below zero temps right now, cars like to warm up).... and realise that if I step out side I'm going to smoke or freak out trying not to.

Needless to say I slipped and smoked eventually.

Okay, I think. That's okay, it's hard, let's start again.

Slipped again.

#!$&@$%&@#$%@!!

Right now I'm trying to, well, out-psych myself. I have got to figure a way around this trigger, a way to start deprogramming it. I'm still working on that. Meanwhile I've cut my smoking in half, and set a new quit date.


Wish me luck!

From Me to, Well, Everyone...

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Savings

Okay, we all know that the holiday season can really eat a hole in your budget. Even if you make all your gifts or spread buying them out throughout the year, there's baking, holiday dinners, wrapping paper, decorations, and a host of other items that seem to nickel and dime you to death.

You can help economize Christmas by planning now for the future. Yeah, I know, over a year out seems like a lot of forethought, but it's quite doable.

Grocery:

This is the time for whole meats. Hams, turkeys and other bone-in whole meats are usually on sale this time of year, and if you wait until the week before the holiday you can sometimes get a huge deal (locally, three days before Thanksgiving Safeway had 20 pound turkeys for 45 cents a pound with a $25 additional grocery purchase). Watch for these and try to buy an extra turkey or ham for the freezer.

Baking supplies are also on sale a lot this time of year. For example, baking chocolate is about half price right now. Don't go completely nuts, but a bag of chocolate chips or some white baking chocolate can make a special treat later in the year. Flour, sugar, spices, and other baking supplies tend to be on sale too.

Other holiday food favorites, like stuffing mixes, canned vegetables, and marshmallows have good prices. If it stores well, stock up! And remember to check the manufacturer's website for coupons before you go.

Next Christmas:

The few days surrounding Christmas are the best time to get next year's wrapping paper, new lights, gift tags, big decorations and holiday music. And the day after is the very best time for home decor at craft stores like Michael's and Jo Ann's. If you really found yourself lacking a seasonal tablecloth or serving platter, go December 26th. Don't wait too long, as stores will eventually pack the stuff up.

Moderation:

Stocking up to save does you no good if the items expire or you forget about them!

Remember, don't go completely nuts because something is on sale. I was cleaning out my pantry and discovered three antiquated cans of pumpkin pie mix. Apparently I'd gotten them on sale after some holiday, years ago. I never used them. Obviously I don't need to stock up on pumpkin pie mix!

Also be careful of where and how you store things. Store foodstuffs as the manufacturer recommends (for example, chocolate should not be frozen) so they last. Store all your Christmas wrappings and decor together so you don't forget you bought all that extra wrapping paper this year.

Electricity:

While we're on moderation, remember your electric bill. If you aren't using the new LED lights, your fancy holiday light displays can cause surprises on your January electric bill. The solution is simple - turn them off. Your tree doesn't need to be lit 24 hours a day, nor does your house. Turn your exterior lights on when it turns dark and off when you go to bed. Have your tree on only when people are in the room to enjoy it.

Last Minute Christmas Gifts, Part 2

If you have friends and family who appreciate a hand-made effort, or if you have lots of parties to attend, baking is a great way to give nice gifts, especially on a budget.

When I was in sales I spent two months making quick breads in a variety of flavors and froze them. When the holidays rolled around I'd fill a cooler full of breads and hand them out to all my accounts. It's easy to make them a pretty package with aluminum foil and ribbon. Here's my quick bread recipes. The originals are in the Joy of Cooking, second edition. That link, by the way, is to the 75th anniversary edition; if you enjoy history the page includes the publishing history of the Joy of Cooking, which is kinda neat.

I increase these recipes to make four loaves at a time when I'm doing holiday baking. These also make great mini-loaves and muffins, just reduce the cooking time (about 18-20 minutes for muffins, a little longer for mini-loaves). Oh, the "quick" in quick bread indicates that it is not a yeast bread.

Banana Bread
I've taken blue ribbons at the fair with this recipe. The trick: use bananas that are completely black and totally mushy. They have the most flavor and add moisture.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift together:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend until creamy:
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind or lemon zest
1 beaten egg
1-2 cups ripe banana pulp (I never measure this. I use two average sized bananas or one really large one)

Add the dry ingredients to the wet gradually, beating until smooth after each addition. Fold in 1/2 cup chopped nuts or dates (Joy of Cooking also recommends dried apricots), if desired. Place in a greased bread pan. Bake for about one hour, or until done.

Banana Blueberry Bread:
Add 1/2 cup dried or frozen blueberries at the last step. If you use frozen, mix them in quickly; over mixing will cause them to 'bleed' and you get blue bread.

Quick Add-Anything Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup white or 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Beat together:
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring

Add the moist ingredients to the dry. Fold in
3/4 cup copped nuts, dates, dried berries, or another combination.

Place in a greased bread pan and bake about 40 minutes

List of additions:

Orange Cranberry Bread:
3/4 cup dried cranberries - reduce sugar to 1/4c white sugar and milk to 1/2 cup, and add 1/2 cup orange juice. Vanilla may be omitted.

Lemon Poppy-Seed Bread:
1/4-1/3 cup poppy seeds, 1 tablespoon lemon zest. Vanilla is optional. Don't use lemon juice, but you can substitute some lemonade as in the Cranberry bread.

Date-Nut Bread:
3/4 cup total chopped nuts and chopped dates

Fruit-Nut Bread:
3/4 cup total any combination of dried fruit and nuts. When making this for the holidays, I tend to use slivered almonds, not just for their toasty-creamy taste but because people with nut allergies often don't react to almonds.

Easy Fruity Bread:

This differs from the Add-Anything Bread in that the bread will have fruit pulp baked in instead of dried fruit added, although you can also add dried fruit. A great use for applesauce!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Blend until creamy:
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
Add:
3/4 cup unsweetened, cooked, mashed prune, apricot, cranberry pulp or applesauce
1/4 cup prune, apricot, cranberry or apple juice
Add the sifted ingredients alternately to the fruit mixture with:
1 cup buttermilk (you can make your own buttermilk by adding 1 Tbsp vinegar to a cup of milk)
Fold in:
1 cup chopped nuts
1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)

Place the dough in a greased loaf pan. Bake for about 1 1/4 hours, and let it cool in the pan.

Again, you can get creative with the nuts, substituting dried fruit or something else yummy.

Last Minute Christmas Gifts, Part 1

I think I've finally gotten over my last-minute Christmas shopping habit. Of course, I mailed a little late to send Parcel Post (but I did anyway, so hopefuly everything makes it by Christmas), but over all I'm much more well prepared for Christmas than I have been in the past.

This year I get the first-time experience of staying up Christmas Eve and assembling and wrapping the kids' gifts. Fortunately, I don't think Kiddo is quite old enough to wake up at 5am all excited about Christmas yet!

Anyway, I am a little stuck on gifts for two people, so I thought I'd toss out some ideas for last-minute gifts over the next few blogs.

Gift certificates or gift cards are something I always thought was neat. Daddy used to get them for my sister and I when we were pre-teens and he really had no idea what to get us. From our point of view we got a mega shopping trip on Dad. Marvelous!

Here's some of my current favorite Internet sources for gift certificates. If you're shopping for someone far away from you, these are handy since it's starting to get late to mail.


Amazon.com: my goodness, if you can't find something to buy at Amazon, something's amiss!

Napster: if someone in your life is into music, especially digital music, this is a great idea. At the moment they have a promotion letting you buy a few month's subscription and get (or give) a free MP3 player.

Kodak Personalized Gifts: there's a lot of places to get personalized gifts out there, but I am very impressed with Kodak's quality and service. I originally signed up for the service to take advantage of a beverage promotion's free points, and find myself using it a lot. A side benefit: you can upload digital pictures for processing and they will mail them to you.

MyPoints: This one is too late for this year, but MyPoints is one of those read-ads-get-points programs. You can also earn points by shopping through their portal. I joined them way back then they were BonusMail, and I used to spend the points on Alaska Airlines Miles. Now I use them to earn points and get free gift cards to just about anywhere.

Awe and Wonder

My Mother was right. Christmas regains some magic when you have kids.

Christmas is my very favorite holiday. I decorate too much, bake too much, spend too much on gifts, and generally have a marvelous time. I sing along to Christmas music in stores, give all my change to the Salvation Army bell-ringers, and wish everyone I see a Merry Christmas even when it's not politically correct. I love the season of giving. But for a few years there I was so busy Having A Life that I seemed unable to go all out.

Now Kiddo is just of an age to start understanding Christmas, at least on a fun celebration standpoint. I find myself wanting to go completely nuts, but a little restricted in how far I can go. And for once it's not money holding me back.

I desperately wanted a Real Christmas Tree this year. Since Kiddo was born we've staged Christmas on top of the entertainment center. It's about four feet high, well out of reach. We had a pretty fiber-optic tree that died two years ago. Last year I just hung a wreath on the wall above the center. It works well enough, but darn it, I really wanted a real tree!

I have ornaments I've had since I was a child, the tree skirt my Grandmother made, miles of garland and lights, and the family Christmas stockings, mine made by an Aunt almost 40 years ago and the rest made by my sister. But our condo, which was great for two people, is far too small for a family of four. To fit a tree in here we'd have to start moving out furniture. Then there's the safety hazards. I'm sure we could get through to Kiddo that the tree is just for looking at, but Baby is pulling himself to standing and putting everything in his mouth, and some how a full-fledged tree just seems like a not-good idea.

So I settled, and started looking for a small artificial tree I could afford.

Thank you Wal-Mart! I found a pre-lit three foot tree for $15. Now, this tree is truly the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of artificial trees. It just barely misses pathetic. There's no way anyone would ever mistake this for a real tree. It's naturally scraggly.

But when Kiddo saw the box, and the bag with unbreakable ornaments I got just to preserve my sanity, you would have thought I'd teleported the Rockefeller Center tree right into our living room.

He helped me fluff up our pathetic little tree, picked out ornaments and held them while I made hanging loops out of button thread (no hooks to step on or be swallowed), and carefully considered where to hang them and which color was next. He helped me tuck Grandma's tree skirt around it and turned off the lights so I could plug it in.

Awe and wonder.

And I'm reminded that it's not about glitz and shine. It's not about racking up the credit card. It's not about competing with the neighbors for the highest December electric bill. We all know this at heart, but sometimes something jumps up and reminds you in a way that just about brings tears to your eyes.

Even if you are not Christian the winter holiday spirit carries loving kindness. It's about family, it's about love, it's about sharing what you have with people you care about, and sharing what you can with people you don't know.

And it's about the shine in a child's eyes the very first time they help you light up a Christmas tree.

Yay, the Holidays are Upon Us!

I actually carved a Jack O'Lantern for the first time, in, oh wow, it's been forever. Naturally I had to follow in my Mom's footsteps and toast the seeds. I had to look up how to do it, it's been even longer since I helped Mom do that. Did you know Jack O'Lanterns are Irish in origin? I didn't.

Then I was trying to find something to do with the wealth of cereal we get from WIC, and it occurred to me in a blinding flash: Chex Party Mix! Once upon a time you couldn't buy that stuff in a bag, you know, you had to actually make it. Growing up we called it Nuts and Bolts.

So I guess holiday baking season is upon us!

Every year I go all out doing holiday baking in different ways. One year when I was in sales I made roughly 120 loaves of various quick breads and gave them to all my accounts. Another year I made about nine varieties of Christmas cookies and gave those out. And one year I even experimented making my own candies. That was fun, but more labor intensive than I can get into this year. The really neat thing is my family really appreciates the love that goes into a hand made gift. Maybe that's why I enjoy doing it.

So as the holidays get closer, watch for my current recipes! This time we'll do Chex Mix, since I just made two batches of it. Much to my surprise, Chex Party Mix has relatively little salt and fat, and since cereal these days is massively fortified, it's a pretty healthy snack.

The Original Chex Party Mix Recipe: I'm not going to republish it, but it's worth noting that the link has nutrition information and microwave directions. This recipe seems to include Bagel Chips. Did they even have Bagel Chips 30 years ago?

Here's my version:

Nuts and Bolts

6 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Table Blend
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3 cups Corn Chex
3 cups Rice Chex
3 cups Cheerios
1 cup stick pretzels
1 cup peanuts

Heat oven to 250 degrees. Melt butter and add seasonings. Pour the butter mixture in a large ungreased roasting pan (bigger is better, since cereal goes everywhere when you try to stir it). Add the remaining ingredients gratually and stir and toss until evenly coated and there's no more butter mix on the bottom of the pan.

Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container.