Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Well, it's just a few hours until Thanksgiving officially is here. Are you ready? I thought I'd share a very quick recipe for Homemade Cranberry Sauce that is delicious. I grew up eating the cranberry sauce from the can. That's all my mother ever bought. I didn't have the homemade stuff until I was married and had my first holiday at my mother-in-laws house. I fell in love with the tart, fresh flavor of the cranberries. I've made several different recipes through the years, like Cranberry Apple Relish which I have also posted. This is the quickest recipe and will only take you about 15 minutes! There's definitely time for you to make this before dinner!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce
From Lynda's Recipe Box
I used the juice from an orange plus enough water to make 1 cup of liquid. There is just a hint of orange in the taste. You could use all water, or another juice like apple or pomegranate if desired. You can also stir in chopped nuts after cooking.

Ingredients:
12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries
zest from 1 orange
juice from 1 orange, plus enough added water to make 1 cup of liquid
1 cup of granulated sugar

Directions:
In a 3 quart sauce pan bring the water mixture and the sugar to a simmer; add the cranberries and bring to a rolling boil. Turn heat down to medium low, still boiling, and cook for 10 minutes. Stir frequently. Stir in the orange zest and remove pan from heat. The cranberry sauce will be foaming, but as it begins to cool, it will disappear when you give it a stir. Or you may skim the foam off if preferred. Pour sauce into a serving dish and chill until time to serve. I hope you enjoy your deliciously sweet, but tart Cranberry Sauce
Happy Thanksgiving!

Sage Stuffing (or Dressing-whatever you want to call it!)

Here it is, 2 days before Thanksgiving. Time really flies by fast this time of year doesn't it? If you are hosting the meal on the big day I hope that you already have some of the preparations out of the way so that you can enjoy your time with family and friends. Our family had our big dinner this past Sunday. Now that our kids are all married, it seemed like a good idea to celebrate on a different day than Thanksgiving. That frees up the kids to go to the other side of the family on the big day. I mean, it's not really fun if you have to make it to 3 dinners in one day. So this worked well for us.
I thought I'd share my stuffing recipe with you today. Dressing or stuffing, I've called it both names. For years I've tried to make my stuffing like my mother-in-law used to. But she didn't follow a recipe, she had a method that she followed every year that produced a moist and spicy bread dressing that we loved. I'm getting closer. I think I would have nailed it this year, but I needed more sage. But this was still a yummy dressing full of fresh herbs that made tasty leftovers too. My photo was taken quickly, before we sat down to devour our food. Here is my method.

Sage Stuffing
From Lynda's Recipe Box
(Hint) You may use all bread if desired, instead of adding cornbread. To save time on the big day, prepare the corn bread 2 days ahead of your dinner. Also cube the bread at this time. Use a hearty white bread. It will then be dried out enough to stir up the day before your dinner. Just mix up the stuffing and place in a greased baking dish; cover and refrigerate. Take out of fridge about 30 minutes before placing in the oven, Bake and serve.

Ingredients:
about 8 cups of white bread cubes- trim crusts from bread and cut into small cubes
about 4 cups of cornbread, cubed or crumbled- from this recipe, or your own recipe
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons fresh sage, finely chopped- or about 1 tablespoons dried sage
1 teaspoon fresh thyme or rosemary, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
about 1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 stick (1/2 cup), unsalted butter, melted
1 large sweet onion, finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup of unsalted chicken stock or broth, or more
1/3 cup half and half or heavy cream

Preparation:
If you need to dry the bread and cornbread more, place the cubes on 2 baking sheets and place in a 300 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until dry. Cool in pans, then transfer to a large bowl. When ready to stir up the dressing, stir in the herbs and the salt and pepper.

Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium low heat. Add the onions and celery and cook until tender, about 5minutes. Pour into the bowl with the bead. Mix the eggs and half and half together. Pour over the bread. Add the chicken broth and toss all the ingredients together. if you need more broth stir it in. I used about 1 1/3 cup.

Transfer stuffing to a greased 2 1/2 quart to 3 quart baking dish. Cover with foil. (At this point you can refrigerate the stuffing for 1 day.) If ready to bake, place it covered, in the middle of the oven at 350 degrees for 25minnutes. Uncover and bake another 25 - 30minutes until golden. Remove from oven and enjoy.
Also check out my recipe for Sausage and Cornbread Dressing.

My daughter Hailey has started a food blog also. She'd be so happy if you stopped by to "hi" at Tasteful Cuisine.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

 I love cookies. My favorites are peanut butter, oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies. So when I found this recipe that contained all three ingredients in one cookie I was thrilled. I must say they taste amazing! Soft and chewy in the middle and crisp around the edges these are the perfect cookie in my opinion. The aroma while baking made it really difficult to resist when they were done. So I just gave in. They are just so delicious!  The dough freezes well too, making it easy to make ahead and thaw for later use. These Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are going to be on my cookie trays this holiday season. Here's the recipe.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Epicurious
This dough can keep in the refrigerator up to 1 week before baking. It also freezes very well. I baked about half the dough and froze the rest. I thawed it out about 2 weeks later and baked the rest. Perfect cookies!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2   cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tablespoon vanilla extract, (yes, that right!)
3/4 cup regular peanut butter- either plain or chunky works
2 large eggs
1 1/2 bags (about 18 ounces, or more if you wish), of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
In a food processor pulse 1 cup of the oats until fine. In a large bowl mix together the ground oats, the other 1/2 cup of rolled oats, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.

In another bowl with a mixer beat together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and peanut butter and beat well. Add eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in the flour mixture, or mix it by hand if desired. Add the chocolate chips and mix until combined.. Chill cookie dough covered,  at least 2 hours, or up to 1 week.

To bake:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Form rounded tablespoons of dough and place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Flatten balls just slightly. Bake in the middle rack of the oven 15 minutes just until pale golden. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes an then remove cookies to cooling rack. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar-Pecan Streusel

 I am so happy that fall is here! I want to spend more time in the kitchen when the cooler weather arrives, and I always love trying new pumpkin and apple recipes to add to my recipe collection . I must admit that I've struggled with cooking and blogging the last few months since I had surgery, but fall is my favorite time to experiment in the kitchen. This Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar-Pecan Streusel is delicious and was a real treat for my husband and I. We both love pumpkin so there's nothing bad to say about this recipe. This cake is not as heavy and moist as my pumpkin bread, because it uses butter instead of oil. The streusel is so yummy with the toasted pecans and made this cake such a treat with a steaming mug of coffee! I also love the size of the cake; it's made in a 9 inch springform pan so it's not too huge for a small group. It was perfect for us. Here's the recipe.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar-Pecan Streusel
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma
(The only thing I changed in the recipe was the spice amounts.)

Ingredients:
For the streusel;
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted (Spread pecans on baking sheet; toast   at 325 for 5 minutes. Cool before adding to streusel.)

For the batter:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sour cream

For the glaze:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
about 2-3 teaspoons of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 inch springform pan.

To make the streusel, combine the flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the butter; use a pastry cutter to cut in the butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Or you may use  a food processor. Stir in the pecans. Set aside.

For batter; in a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar, until combined. beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the pumpkin and sour cream and mix. Stir in the dry ingredients. Batter is very thick.

Spread half the batter in the prepared springform pan. Sprinkle half of the streusel over the batter. Dollop the remaining batter over the streusel and spread over the streusel as best you can. (This was the hardest part of the recipe for me as the batter does not want to spread well. but it turns out delicious anyway.) Top with the remaining streusel. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake come out clean, about 50-55 minutes. Place pan on a wire cooling rack for 15 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan from the cake and slide cake onto rack to finish cooling.

To glaze, whisk together the confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Place cake on serving platter. Drizzle glaze over cake. Enjoy!

I'm Back with an Oil and Vinegar Potato Salad Recipe

 I thought I'd drop in and share a quick, delicious potato salad recipe that I made recently. It is so easy to put together and is healthy, delicious and perfect for hot weather. Made with a dressing of red wine vinegar and olive oil, it stays light and tangy and complements just about any main dish from grilled and smoked meats, fried chicken, sandwiches and anything else you can think of. It is yummy served room temperature or cold. So if you like a light and tangy potato salad, this recipe is for you. I will caution you to not over-cook the potatos though as this salad is best when the potatoes hold their shape and are not mushy. So watch them carefully while they boil.
As a quick update, I am doing well with my new knee. It has been almost 3 months since my surgery and I am walking so much better. I have awhile before I'll be back to normal, but I'm getting there. I'm more interested in cooking again, so more recipes are on the way! Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers that you have sent my way!
 Now, here's the recipe.

Oil and Vinegar Potato Salad
Adapted from here

1 1/2 pounds new, small red potatoes, scrubbed and diced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sliced green onions, or 1/2 of a small red onion diced
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
2-3 teaspoons of mustard, if desired- I used 2 teas.

Add diced new potatoes to a pot; cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are just tender, (mine took about 5-10 minutes depending on how small you dice them).
Boil potatoes only until they are just tender. Drain them well, and spread the potatoes out on a baking sheet to cool. (I usually place them in the fridge to hurry up the cooling.)
Put cooled potatoes into a bowl with the diced onions. Mix the dressing ingredients together and pour over the potatoes and onions. Stir gently; serve immediately, or refrigerate for later. So easy and yummy - enjoy!

Memorial Day Recipes

 Hi! Remember me? Please don't give up on me. I'll share more of my current situation after the recipes. I've got a couple of delicious food ideas for your summertime dinner celebrations, starting with today's Memorial Day Cookouts. First up is my Springtime Macaroni Salad with Peas, which is one of out family favorite recipes. It also is one of the most popular recipes on my blog. Made with elbow macaroni and lots of spring veggies, it is cool, creamy and delicious, and one of my all time favorite salads. I could eat just a plate of this and be very happy! Here are some more salads ideas for your table!

And this Four Layer Pudding Dessert is a favorite from way back. My family will devour this dessert way before they even touch anything else. No kidding, I could spend hours over the most wonderful layer cake or fancy pie, but this dessert will win hands down with my family, every time. It is delicious and easy to make as well. You will be the star of the potluck!
I have many other winning recipes for this summers cookouts that I wish I could list here. But this is a quick post; here's what I've been up to in the last 2 weeks.
I underwent knee replacement surgery on May 8th of this month and am recuperating nicely, but I am not back to cooking yet. Physical therapy is taking up most of my time right now, and my appetite has not been very good yet either. I am so grateful to my friends and family who have prepared delicious meals for me, so I haven't had to worry about what we will eat on any particular day. And I have plenty of salad fixins to fall back on at lunch time too, so I'm definitely not hurting for food. I'm also suffering from some sciatic nerve pain at this time, so sitting for long periods blogging is not easy right now. I am trying to catch up, but I am slow. Please bear with me while I get my strength back and keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I have some recipes that I will be posting very soon that will get you taste buds revved up for summer! Happy summer!

Butternut Squash Soup

 Creamy and mildly sweet, this body warming soup is perfect with a salad or sandwich, and was perfect for this cold weather. Snow in May? That usually doesn't happen here in Southwest Missouri, but that's what's going on. After about 3 days of 80 degree weather, we had a cold front come through yesterday which brought lots of freezing rain and 2 inches of heavy snow. So this soup tasted so good. I was glad I purchased a butternut squash at the market earlier in the week. I love its mild flavor, and though I usually roast them in the oven, I made soup this time, and it is delicious. This is a keeper recipe for me. It is simple and mildly seasoned so the flavor of the squash shines through. This squash is a fall veggie, but it sure was tasty on this freezing May day.

Butternut Squash Soup
Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker, which she adapted from America's Test Kitchen

2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small shallot, diced fine
1 butternut squash, about 2 pounds, cut in half lengthwise, with the seeds and strings scraped out and reserved
4 cups water
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup half and half or heavy cream
1 teaspoon brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg

1. In a large Dutch oven, melt the butter and add the diced shallot. Cook and stir for about 3 minutes over medium-low heat until softened, but not browned. Add the squash scrapings and seeds and cook until the butter is saffron colored, about 4 minutes.
2. Add water and salt to the Dutch oven, bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium low again. Cut squash halves in half cross-wise. Place a steamer basket in the Dutch oven and the squash in the steamer basket, cut sides down. Cover pot and simmer for about 30minutes until squash is fork tender. Remove the pot from the heat. Use tongs to remove the squash from the steamer basket and transfer to a plate or baking sheet. When cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh out of the skins and put in a bowl. Discard the skins.
3. Strain the hot cooking liquid through a mesh strainer into a second bowl. Discard the solids. Rinse and dry the pot.
4. Puree the squash in batches in a food processor or blender, adding some of the cooking liquid until it has a smooth consistency. Pour puree into the pot; add the cream, and brown sugar and more cooking liquid if needed and heat the soup over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes until hot. Do not boil. Add a pinch of cinnamon and salt to taste. Stir, taste, and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve in bowls with a another pinch of cinnamon. Delicious!