Since Chef and I started working on what we eat (reducing portions and making things healthier), I’ve begun to prefer fresh and homemade for just about everything. When he started to go to culinary school, I only became a bigger proponent of fresh and homemade. A couple of years ago, I began looking for Cranberry Sauce recipes, hoping to find one all of us would like. That’s proven a bit harder than I’d expected (Chef prefers jellied, I prefer whole berry, and in the middle neither of us will meet), but I did finally find an excellent recipe that I love and at least a couple of the kids prefer over the canned, jellied junk. Admittedly, it’s more expensive than the canned stuff, but it’s tangy and sweet and wonderful. You won’t find flavor like this in any can (and a recent report about BPs in the linings of cans for canned foods make it well worth the cost for me). I can’t remember where I found it, unfortunately.

The recipe below is easily cut in half. Just see the comments below.

Cranberry Sauce
2 – 12 oz pkgs Fresh Cranberries
1 Orange Zested**
2 c. Fresh-Squeezed Orange Juice (approx. 4 large oranges)*
2 c. Packed Brown Sugar
3 Cinnamon Sticks**
2-3 c. Water

Go through cranberries and remove any that are bruised/mushy. Combine all ingredients except water in a medium saucepan and stir to combine. Add enough water to “cover” cranberries (they’ll start to float). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer on low for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Taste: if too tart, add more brown sugar; if too sweet, add more OJ. Continue cooking at least 30 minutes (you may need to add up 1/2 c. more water) to an hour, or until the mixture thickens (it’ll start sticking to bottom of pan). Pour into dish and let cool. Serve warm or chill if desired***.

*To get the most juice out of the oranges, roll them firmly between your hand and the table for a minute or two.

**When cutting the recipe in half, I went ahead and used the zest of a whole orange and 2 cinnamon sticks. Since you adjust the taste while it’s cooking, the added tartness is easily balanced out.

***I prefer to chill mine at least overnight to give the flavors a chance to fully develop and meld. And I like my cranberry sauce chilled.

There’s a reason I try more than one new recipe at a time when I’m looking to add to our holiday treats: something is always bound to fail. Either no one likes it, the recipe itself doesn’t work out as planned and isn’t worth the effort of figuring out, or it ends up being more expensive than it’s worth. This year, the Maple-Pecan Butter Balls were the fail. The cookies didn’t look anything like they were supposed to, and the taste wasn’t worth the effort to figure out where I went wrong, especially since I did have all the right ingredients at the right measurements.

We also end up with cookies that not everyone likes. The Chocolate Mint Cookies are an example of that. They’ll get made in the future because the majority loves them, but the Chef isn’t impressed, so they won’t be one of the “big” holiday cookies.

What I aim for is a reaction like these little tarts inspired: Chef HAD to have another. I know the kids will love them as well. They’re tiny one-biters that pack a lot of flavor.

Caramel-Pecan Tarts
1 c. AP Flour
1/2 c. Salted Butter, softened
1/4 c. Powdered Sugar
3/4 c. Packed Lt. Brown Sugar
1 TBL Butter, softened
1 Egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp. Vanilla*
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 c. Chopped Pecans**

Preheat oven to 350*. Spray 2 tins of 1 3/4″ x 1″ muffin cups (for a total of 24 cups) with nonstick spray; set aside. Combine flour, 1/2 c. butter, and powdered sugar. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces (I use a teaspoon and drop into the cups, adjusting as needed). Press each piece into one of the muffin cups, being careful to not extend the dough over the edges of the cup (I highly recommend having someone without nails do this as mine kept making impressions that cut through the dough, lol).

Combine remaining ingredients. Spoon a scant tablespoon of the mixture into the cups (should almost but not quite fill the cups). Bake about 20 minutes or until filling is set and crust is a light brown. Cool in cups for a few minutes before gently flipping onto a cooling rack (use the tip of a knife to help remove from tin if needed, but I found it unnecessary when the cups are lightly sprayed with non-stick spray).

You end up with tiny little pecan tarts like this…

…that taste quite a bit like those store bought mini-pecan pies, only better. Much, much better.

*Replace the Vanilla with Pure Maple Syrup (not imitation) for a slightly less sweet but just as good tart. I actually like the ones with the Maple more than the ones with the Vanilla. Surprisingly, the Chef, who isn’t big on sweets, prefers the ones with the Vanilla. lol

**Try replacing the Pecans with Walnuts for something different.

These are definitely on the holiday list from now on. Just yeeeuuuuuum!

So, last night, I finished the Vanilla Spice Eggnog Cookies, and later tonight, the first batch of the Chocolate Crinkles will go in (they did have to be in the fridge for at least 3 hours, wo we made the dough for them first, will bake them last). The main focus today has been Snickerdoodles and the easiest, bestest tasting Peanut Butter Cookie ever. Both are pretty much holiday staples (well, so are the Crinkles and Eggnogs). The Snickerdoodles are a Mrs. Fields recipe, with a very minor adjustment and an extra note in the recipe. I can’t remember where I found the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe—in some children’s summer activity book when my oldest was like 7 or 8…and she’s 22 now.

Snickerdoodles
1 1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Butter, softened
1/2 c. Shortening
2 Eggs
2 3/4 c. AP Flour
2 tsp Cream of Tartar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
3 TBL Sugar
3 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground Nutmeg

Heat oven to 400*. Combine flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt using a whisk or fork. Set aside. Blend together 1 1/2 c. sugar, butter, shortening, and eggs. Mix until smooth, being careful not to over mix. Stir in flour mixture. Dough will be soft. Combine 3T sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Drop dough into cinnamon/sugar/nutmeg by teaspoonfuls and coat as rolling into balls. Place about 2″ apart on a parchment-covered cookie sheet and bake until set, about 9-12 minutes. Remove immediately to a rack to cool

This particular recipe can easily be doubled without too much risk to a blender (I just make sure to use a spoon towards the end to avoid burning out the mixer and to make sure it doesn’t get over mixed, which can make the batter too soft). However, if you notice cookies getting darker during the baking, put the dough in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to firm it up a little. This problem doesn’t seem to be an issue when doing one batch at a time, but it can be with a doubled batch, especially in a warm kitchen.

 

The beautiful Peanut Butters shown below were baked up by the Chef. Chef has few cookies he’ll make because he doesn’t see himself as a baker, but these are easy enough for about anyone to do. Course, he also made them pretty huge! When I make them, the recipe below gives me about 2 dozen or so; he made them and managed 1 1/2 dozen…maybe. lol

Peanut Butter Cookies
2 Eggs
1 1/3 c. Sugar
2 c. Peanut Butter*

Preheat oven to 350. Combine egg and sugar until well blended. Add peanut butter and mix until egg mixture is completely blended into the peanut butter. Drop by small spoonfuls about 1 to 1 1/2″ apart onto ungreased or parchment-covered cookie sheet. Press down to flatten slightly with spoon. Bake 15-25 (oven temps vary so watch the first batch carefully to judge the best time) minutes or until bottoms are a golden brown (tops do NOT brown, edges might but shouldn’t be watched for or the bottoms will get too dark and the cookie will be over baked). Remove from oven and let cool slightly to prevent breakage when removed from the cookie sheet.

If you want a sweeter cookie, take the sugar up to 2 cups, but I find them too sweet and the peanut butter can be a little overwhelmed by so much sweetness.

* The best peanut butter I’ve found so far is JIF Extra Chunky. Store brands seem to mess up the cookie for some reason. I’ve tried low fat as well, and it can be done, but they must really be watched in the oven because they burn much easier than with the regular peanut butter.

ETA: We figured out why Chef’s cookies ended up like plates: he doubled everything except the peanut butter! They’re still good, they’re just sweeter than what we usually have.

We’ve started our holiday baking a few days early. With everything on our to do list this week, this is probably a good thing. Today I’m baking up a new cookie which I suspect will become a holiday favorite, and the Chef will be baking up three kinds of chocolate chip cookies.

The new cookie, Chocolate Mint Cookies, are a Mrs. Fields cookie, so, yea, I’d expect them to be pretty damn good. The mint flavor is delicate and works perfectly with the chocolate so that neither overwhelms the other, and the Chef (who doesn’t particularly like mint) thinks they’re okay. So far, the kids are loving them.

Chocolate Mint Cookies
2 2/3 c. AP Flour
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 c. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3/4 c. Packed Lt. Brown Sugar
2/3 c. Granulated Sugar
2 sticks Salted Butter, softened
3 Large Eggs
1 tsp. Mint Extract
10 oz. Mint-Chocolate Chips*

In a medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix well with whisk and set aside. In large bowl, blend sugars and butter; beat to form a grainy paste. Add eggs and extract. Beat until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed. Add flour and chips and blend until just combined. Do not over mix. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet covered with parchment paper 1 1/2″ apart. Bake 20-21 minutes. Cool on rack.

*I made two batches together and for some reason my daughter couldn’t find me a second package of mint-chocolate chips, so we used Andes baking chips/pieces and the one bag of mint-chocolate chips I had already combined.

Also, this is a very stiff dough. If using a hand mixer, definitely make only one batch at a time. If using a stand mixer, you may still want to keep it to one batch at a time. Recipe says it makes 3 dozen. A double batch made my just over 4 dozen.

Finally, you want to store these in their own box. The flavor can “bleed” onto other cookies, especially those with a more delicate flavor.

I had my first Sweet Potato Pie when I went to a holiday party held for teachers and substitute teachers by the school I was long-term subbing for at the time, and I fell in love. I lucked out that the first recipe I tried was fantasbulous and easy peasy. Not sure where I got this, but it has become the Sweet Potato Pie we serve every Thanksgiving.

Sweet Potato Pie
2 med (or 3 small) Sweet Potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed
1 c. firmly packed Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 c. Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/4 c. Butter, melted
2 TBL. Flour
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
2 Eggs, slightly beaten
1 – 9″ Unbaked Pastry Shell (I cheat and use the Pillsbury shells in the box)

Preheat oven to 400*. Combine all ingredients except pastry shell in a large bowl until well blended. Place shell in nonstick sprayed pie plate (if using the Pillsbury, unroll and follow directions for placing in pie plate) and flute/crimp edge. Pour sweet potato mixture into shell—it will be full but shouldn’t overflow. Bake 30-35 minutes or until top is puffed and browned; filling will be soft but will set as pie cools. Cool on wire rack at least 2 hours.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I love cranberries. Love cranberry sauce, cranberry juice, and cranberry bread. A bit back, I tried this recipe for cranberry bread from Blog Chef, and I’ve never had to try another. Just LOVE it.

Cranberry Bread
1 12oz pkg Fresh Cranberries, chopped
3 1/3 c. Sugar
6 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp. Lemon Zest (opt)
1 1/3 c. Oil
3/4 c. Milk
3 tsp. Vanilla
4 1/2 c. All-Purpose Flour
6 tsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
3/4 c. Walnuts, chopped

Spray 3 – 9 x 5 x 3″ loaf pans with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, combine cranberries, sugar, eggs, zest, oil, milk, and vanilla; set aside. In another bowl, combine flour, baking, and salt; add to cranberry mixture and stir until welled combined. Fold in walnuts. Pour into prepared pans about halfway; bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean from the center. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire rack to finish cooling.

And here it is, cut wide open:

And it tastes as good as it looks, especially warm with a thick layer of butter. Yum.

We have always used a box stuff for our Christmas birds.

I hate box stuffing. No, seriously, I do. It gets mushy, some more so than others.

With Chef now in culinary school and both of us trying our hands at a lot of new and different foods and cooking techniques, I thought I’d give stuffing from scratch a try. I have the perfect cornbread recipe, so why not see if it can make the perfect stuffing?

Tonight I’m trying the stuffing out, so we can make any adjustments we need to before Christmas gets here and I have guests eating said stuffing. I already suspect we’ll want to use just a little more stock (not too much though since we want to avoid the mush), and for my Cornish Game Hens, I’ll probably want to go with smaller cubes of cornbread…have to be able to fit it inside! But other than that, not quite sure what changes Chef will suggests.

Still, here it is, a beautiful Cornbread Stuffing with quite a few of my favorite things….

Cornbread Stuffing with Walnuts & Sage
1/2 c. Butter
1 Onion, chopped
1 1/2 c. Celery, chopped
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 1/4 tsp. Sage
1/2 tsp. Thyme
1 1/2 c. Walnuts, chopped
2 rounds Cornbread, cut into small cubes or pieces
14 oz. Chicken Stock

Preheat oven to 350* Spread cornbread cubes over sheet pans and bake until toasted, about 30 minutes. While cornbread is toasting, prepare the remaining ingredients.

mise en place for stuffing: front row garlic, celery, spices;
back row: walnuts, cranberries, onions

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat; add onions and sauté 5-7 minutes. Add celery and garlic; continue to sauté until onions are soft and caramelized, about another 5-7 minutes. Add seasonings; stir until well combined.

onions, celery, and garlic

Add walnuts, stir to mix; Scrape into a large mixing bowl (I highly recommend at least a 4 quart bowl).

Add cornbread and toss until well combined. Add stock and toss gently until well mixed.

Use to stuff turkey or hens OR spoon into buttered 13″ x 9″ baking dish and bake 30-35 minutes or until heated through and crusty and lightly browned on top.

As you can see, this made enough to stuff one 3 pound bird, plus put stuffing around the bird and bake some in an extra baking dish (and, yes, that is brown sugar on the bird—I’m trying to replicate what I’ll be doing on Christmas as close to possible without using a dozen hens to see if the stuffing will hold up):

And done:

Definitely needs more stock—the stuffing in the pan with the chicken got way too brown and there was no juice to baste with. Obviously not really needed—the chicken fell off the bone and is a beautiful brown; but the stuffing was a bit dry. I suspect from the flavor profile that the Chef will want to remove the cranberries. But we shall see.

The kids like it! They appear to be clearing it off the plates first. lol

ETA: Chef removed the cranberries, cut back on the seasonings a bit (especially the sage), and upped the stock. We’ll also be cutting the cornbread into much smaller cubes—larger cubes became too browned and hard.

Another holiday staple that I must make more of than any other cookie, I first found these in a Mrs. Fields cookie cookbook, but I’ve seen various recipes and names for them all over the place since. I also tend to have my kids make the actual cookies once the dough is ready, because they are quite messy. Again, we’ve made some minor tweaks to the original recipe that seem to make the cookies come out better.

Chocolate Crinkles
2 c. Granulated Sugar
1/2 c. Canola Oil
4 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate, melted & cooled*
2 tsp. Vanilla
4 Extra Large Eggs*
2 c. All-Purpose Flour
2 tsps. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
Powdered Sugar

** To melt baking chocolate squares if you don’t have a double boiler: fill a saucepan about halfway or so with water and place squares in a small skillet that can rest easily on the pan without falling in. Place on stove and bring water to a boil, moving the chocolate around in the saucepan frequently to avoid burning. Chocolate should melt nicely.

Mix granulated sugar, oil, chocolate, and vanilla. Mix in eggs one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours.

Heat oven to 350. Take dough by rounded teaspoonfuls and roll into balls then drop into powdered sugar and roll until completely covered. Place about 2″ apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until almost no indention remains when touched.

Note: DO NOT make more than one batch at a time of these. I’ve burned out my mixer when doing so.

These were one of the first cookies to become a holiday staple. Picked up from a Mrs. Fields cookie book, we changed the eggnog for more flavor and tweaked a few other things that seem to make the cookie work better overall.

Vanilla Spice Eggnog Cookies
2 1/4 c. All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ground Nutmeg
1 1/4 c. Granulated Sugar
3/4 c. Butter, softened
1/2 c. Vanilla Spice Eggnog
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Extra Large Egg Yolks
Extra Ground Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 300. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg; mix well with a wisk and set aside. In large bowl, cream sugar and butter with an electric mixer to form a grainy paste. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed until smooth. Add the flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto an ungreased, parchment covered baking sheet about 1″ apart. Sprinkle lightly with extra nutmeg. Bake 23-35 minutes or until bottoms turn light brown. Transfer to a cooling wrack or flat surface.

Please Note: Watch time and temp in the oven—they burn VERY easily. I also tend to use the mixer to start the process with when mixing the eggnog and flour mixtures, then use a wooden spoon to finish. This makes it easier to avoid overmixing.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two biggest holidays celebrated in our home, and we’ve tied them together through the traditions we’ve created as a part of our faith. If you want to read more about the non-food traditions of our household, you can find them here. This entry is about our food traditions, which seem to evolve a little bit each year. Most changes have to do with finances, but we’ve also become a bit more thoughtful about our menus and have tried to differentiate them at least a little. And each year, we try to make at least one new cookie.

So here’s our menus. Recipes and pictures will follow as we make them over the holidays.

Thanksgiving
Orange Baked Ham
Sweet Potato Pie
Crescents
Collard Greens
Carrots Vichy
Corn
Cranberry Sauce
Olives
Dutch Apple Pie

New this year: Collard Greens (replacing plain green beans) and Carrots Vichy, and I’ll be trying to make the Cranberry Sauce from scratch. We replaced yams with Sweet Potato Pie a couple years ago. And when we can’t afford a ham, usually someone gives us one of those discount coupons for a turkey (specifically) so we have Turkey stuffed with Cranberry Stuffing. Most of us aren’t big turkey eaters though, so we try to get the ham.

In between Thanksgiving and Christmas is when the cookie baking happens. On this year’s list:

Cranberry Bread
Vanilla Spice Eggnog Cookies
Chocolate Crinkles
Caramel-Pecan Tarts*
Linzer Sandwich Cookies (recipe by Top Chef winner, Kevin Sbraga)* (failed)
Chocolate Mint Cookies*
Maple Pecan Butter Balls* (failed)
Snickerdoodles
Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

Everything with an asterisk is new, and I might try seeing how I can modify the Cranberry Bread so it’s an Orange Cranberry Bread. Sometimes Baking starts right after Thanksgiving. This year I’ll be doing them the week of Christmas since I’m only making 1 or 2 batches of each (with the exception of the Crinkles; must make FOUR batches of those every year). Want them to actually be around for the company we’re expecting.

Christmas
Cornish Game Hens (1 per adult) with Walnut Cornbread Stuffing
Marshmallow Yams
Crescents
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Green Beans Amadine
Corn
Cranberry Sauce
Olives
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory

This year will be the first year we’re going to try to make our stuffing from scratch rather than using a box (I hate how mushy box stuffing gets). If the Cranberry Sauce works for Thanksgiving, I’ll be making it again for Christmas. We also can’t afford a $55 cheesecake this year, so I’m making an Orange White Chocolate Cheesecake and the Chef is making a chocolate dessert for our one guest who doesn’t like fruit.

So there’s the menus. And, yes, we end up with enough left overs to last us for DAYS, though the really good stuff (like the Marshmallow Yams) go much more quickly than anything else.

What do you serve for the holidays?