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.

I’m playing a bit with the Homemade Curry Spice Powder I created. I really like the heat it adds when used in moderation. Went hunting for a baked spiced apples recipe, found one to play with, and added the curry. I ended up over cooking it a little (so no pictures until the next time), but even overcooked, this was REALLY good. The Granny Smiths were the perfect tart for this!

Curry & Spice Baked Apples
2 Granny Smith apples, cut in half, cored, with a small section cut off the uncut side (creates a stand & allows the apple to soak up juices from the bottom)
Apple Cider
Honey
1/2 c. Pecans, chopped*
1/2 tsp. ea, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, and Ginger
1 TBL. Brown Sugar
Butter
Homemade Curry Spice Powder

Set apples in baking dish, cored side up, drizzle with honey and pour cider into dish to about 1/4-1/2″. Combine nuts and spices (except curry), sprinkle over the apples, allowing some to fall into the cider. Top each apple half with a teaspoon or so of butter. Sprinkle desired amount of curry over the top. Bake 20-25 minutes in a 375 oven until apples are soft and topping is browned.

Loved, loved this. It was sweet and tart and had just a touch of heat. Kids loved it as well. No idea about Chef—he’s not big on apples. Regardless, I’ll be making this again. It’s delish!

We used it as a side dish, but it would also make a great savory-sweet dessert.

* Can also use walnuts or almonds, but I really liked the flavor of the pecans in this.

What do you with apples that are about on that edge where they’ll need to be thrown away soon but they’re still edible (and pretty)? Make applesauce! This is a simple recipe I adapted from another. Came out nice. Kids LOVED it!

Chunky Sweet ‘n Tart Applesauce
8 Lg. Apples (about 8 c.), peeled, roughly chopped, divided*
1/2 c. packed, Dark Brown Sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/4 c. Water

Combine 6 c. of the apples with remaining ingredients in a large saucepan. Cook over medium to medium-high heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep apples from burning. Add in remaining apples, and continue to cook about 15-20 minutes or until the second batch of apples are tender but not too soft. Turn off heat. Use a potato masher and mash apple mixture until desired consistency. Serve warm or chill and eat cold.

Makes about 3 1/2 cups or so.

*I used a mix of Rome, Pink Ladies (4), Golden Delicious, and, I believe, large, green Granny Smiths

Another lovely dress up for rice to make it something different than plain old rice. It’s a beautiful rice with a lovely flavor. This is a mash of several recipes I poked around at plus a few things I did myself. And two pictures for you to look at.

Mediterranean Herbed Rice
2 c. Uncooked Rice
4 c. Water
Salt & Butter to taste
1/4 tsp. Black Pepper
1/2 tsp. Basil
1/4 tsp. Cardamom
2 TBL. Chopped Parsley
2 Green Onions, Finely Sliced
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1/4 c. Pine Nuts
1/4 c. Sliced Almonds*

Combine rice, water, and all ingredients in rice cooker and let it go.**

It’s flavorful and colorful, and the nuts add a bit of texture to it. I might try adding a bit more cardamom to it, but I think the hint of it is nice, so probably wouldn’t add too much more. Here’s a picture where you can see the pine nuts a but more clearly…

My son absolutely LOVED it.

*OR 1/2 c. Pine Nuts
**I did stir it a couple of times to make sure all those herbs and greens and got mixed in.

I’ve been interested in trying my hand at these for some time now. Finally went hunting for an easy recipe that uses leftover (rather than making fresh) rice. Adapted from a recipe found on About.com.

Sorry about the picture. Couldn’t seem to keep my hands still.

Bolinhos de Arroz
2 c. Leftover Rice
1 c. Water
3 TBL. Heavy Cream
1 Egg
1/4 c. Finely Chopped Red Onion*
1 Green Onion, Finely Chopped*
2 TBL. Finely Chopped Parsley*
1 tsp. Baking Powder
4 TBL. Grated Parmesan Cheese (opt)
3/4 c. AP Flour**
1 tsp. Salt
Oil For Frying

Combine rice and water in saucepan and bring to low boil. Cook until water is absorbed. In large bowl, combine all ingredients except oil and mix well. Add more flour if necessary to form a dough that can be form into balls. Heat oil in heavy pan or deep fryer to 350 degrees. Flour hands and roll dough into small balls about the size of a walnut***. Fry 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Let drain on paper towels. Serve warm.

Kids loved them so it’s likely I’ll make them again.

*Finaly chopped in this case means fairly close to minced.
**The original recipe called for 1/2 c. I put in closer to a cup of flour and the dough was still a little sticky. Might try refrigerating it or trimming down the water in the rice next time.
***Watch the size. Smaller ones will cook through better. I had some that were a bit on the large side and they were a bit doughy on the inside despite being quite browned on the outside.

I kept hearing about something called fragrant rice and decided I wanted to try it. When I did a net search, there were A LOT of recipes for it. I ended up combing two to come up with this one, and I really like it. I initially started this in the stove, then tried to move it to the rice cooker, but the rice cooker popped to indicate the rice was done a loooong time before it was even close to ready, so I ended up finishing it on the stove. By the time it was done, my kitchen smelled wonderful!

Sorry no picture. I tried, but it just wouldn’t come out for you to see. The rice ends up a “dirty” white with specs of parsley and spices visible all over.

Fragrant Rice
4 1/2 c. Coconut Milk
1/2 tsp. Pepper
2 1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Lemon Zest
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Ground Cloves
1 Clove Garlic, minced
3 TBL. Minced, Fresh Parsley
2 c. Rice

In large saucepan, combine everything except the rice. Bring to a boil, stirring to keep milk and spices from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Add rice and bring to a second boil. Reduce heat to very low and cover with a tight fitting lid; steam for about 20 minutes. Stir, mixing in the unabsorbed coconut milk, cover, and steam another 5 minutes. Serve.

I might reduce the cloves a bit the next go round, but I loved this. There’s a sweetness to it, and a bit of spice. It’s a wonderful change from plain, buttered rice.

I threw this together some time back, and the family really seemed to like it, so I’ve settled on a recipe, and here it is! It’s really easy—the hardest part is the prep! Serves 6-8.

Warm Apple & Pepper “Slaw”
1 Green Bell Pepper, thinly sliced
1 Red Bell Pepper, thinly sliced
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, thinly sliced
2 Small Rome Apples, thinly sliced
2 c. Cabbage, thinly sliced*
1/2 Small Red Onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1 TBL. Olive Oil

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss until well combined. Heat olive oil in large skillet. Sauté slaw about 5 minutes or until tender-crisp. Serve warm.

Goes really well with chicken roasted in honey and spices.

*I prefer red cabbage, but green work fine.

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.

I’m actually really impressed with myself this evening. This is the first dinner I’ve put together (other than my holiday meals) that I thought was really rockin’! And the kids, other than the grand baby, really liked it too.

Honey-Roasted Chicken
Tomato-Basil Goat Cheese Polenta
Caramelized Onions
Roasted Mushrooms

Most of these items came from here. Changes noted below.

The chicken quarters were slathered in honey and sprinkled with season salt, paprika, and garlic powder to taste. Baked covered at 425 until the last 10-15 minutes, then uncovered so they would brown. This is how I always do chicken: the meat remains nice and moist because all the moisture is kept in under the cover (we use foil), then it browns nicely in the last 10-15 minutes without losing that moistness.

The polenta followed the recipe as noted in the above link except we added 1 extra garlic clove and the cheese was a tomato-basil goat cheese. We only had 4 ounces of the goat cheese but the flavor still came through in a nice way.

For the caramelized onions, I used 2 brown and a little under half of a red.

Finally, for the mushrooms, we also minced 2 cloves of garlic and mixed that in with the mushrooms, salt, and pepper. We also roasted them a about 5-10 minutes longer. And they came out wonderful.

I plated the polenta first, topped that with onions, then the mushrooms, and with the chicken a little off to the side.

This really was a very satisfying dinner, and everything worked really well together taste-wise. Especially when making sure to get onion, mushroom, and polenta on the fork. The juices from the chicken and the chicken skin itself also really added to the flavor. I’m going to have to try this again, maybe with a little more of the goat cheese mixed in. I think the only thing I’d change is adding a green veggie to the plate, maybe some asparagus or something. The plate definitely needs a little more color. If the chicken hadn’t taken on the reddish color of the paprika, the plate would be nothing but yellow and brown.

I just might be able to make meals for the family that aren’t so boring. I remember before I met Chef, and my meals were pretty plain Jane. Heck, more often than not, I relied on boxed things—Hamburger Helper and the like. This dinner proves I don’t need to do that any more, and that I can play around with recipes successfully.

And that is just way cool.

This past Wednesday I was finally back up to playing in the kitchen. For this week: gnocchi. I found a recipe I liked that included Parmesan cheese and I added my own twist of Caramelized Onions and a reduced Balsamic Vinaigrette. Unfortunately, I had to take a look at several other gnocchi recipes as the dough originally came out very loose and sticky. A check revealed that it called for way too little flour: 1/2 cup versus 2 cups in other recipes that used less potatoes. I also chose to boil the potatoes like I would for mashed rather than baking. Not sure if that “shortcut” made a change in the results.

At any rate, I knew the sticky dough was a problem. I’ve eaten gnocchi only once, but I’ve seen it made on Top Chef, so I knew the dough wasn’t supposed to be sticky. It had to be a manageable dough that could be rolled out. I ended up needing all the flour that was missing to get the nice, non-sticky dough seen below.

After splitting the dough into 4 (the recipe suggested 5 pieces, but I think maybe 6 pieces would make it more manageable) pieces. The amount of dough I was working with at one time ended up being a bit much, but I suspect that’s mostly because we use a wooden cutting board to work with our pastry stuff, so I didn’t have the whole length of the table (and because of an accident with the table earlier, I couldn’t use it that way anyway).

Then came the cutting into “little pillows”. Some of them ended up not so pillow shaped and keeping the sizing consistent was a bit difficult, mostly because I had trouble rolling the pieces out to a similar thickness.

We did the boiling in batches, though I think next time I would try to have more in the pot at one time because as we continued to use the water, it seemed to make it take longer for the gnocchi to rise to the surface. Not sure what was going on, but the water was becoming milky, and I’m sure that had something to do with it. But we did little batches and drained on cleaned towels. They didn’t quite keep their shapes as little pillows.

With the gnocchi read to go, I caramelized my onions and set them aside.

We fried the gnocchi in the same pan as the onions. I was kinda hoping it would give the gnocchi a touch of that onion flavor, but I don’t think it did, especially for the later batches.

Grated Parmesan was mixed in with the finished gnocchi and it was served topped with the Caramelized Onions and a reduced Balsamic Vinaigrette. They tasted really good, and all but my potato hater and the Chef loved them. The Chef has determined he’s just not into gnocchi, while I keep saying he just needs to find the right recipe. I found them heavier than the ones I had at Creations, and I’m not sure why. I’m not sure if I’ll try them again since the Chef doesn’t particularly like them, but I might. I’m wondering if they can be frozen and used for bentos. I may have to try that at some point.

The entire meal, shown below, was a honey baked chicken (with paprika, ginger, and a touch of nutmeg), the gnocchi, and broccoli.

I’m not sharing the original recipe. As I said, the flour portions were off, so I’m concerned that the other ingredients were a bit off. I may use it again, now a little wiser on the flour, and play around with the other measurements. We’ll have to see.

We did have a Mystery Box this week that came out wonderfully. As soon as the Chef sends me pictures, I’ll post about it.