Savory Cranberry Pomegranate Red Wine Sauce

Oh cranberries. You so photogenic.

I love homemade cranberry sauce for so many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I never make it the same way twice.  

The basic formula is a 12-oz bag cranberries to 1/2 cup liquid to 1 cup sugar; however you can use any sweetener and any liquid you'd like. Cranberry Orange with a splash of Grand Marnier? Yup. Cranberry Raspberry? Cranberry Apple Walnut Celery? Yup yup and yup. I like to remember to add something sweet, salty, chewy, and crunchy to my cranberry sauces for a perfect balance of flavors. I also like my cranberry sauce much less sweet than the formula above and generally cut the sugar in half or more. Just taste a little bit when it's done cooking and adjust for sweetness if you'd like. Enjoy and have fun with it!

This one uses pomegranate seeds for some lovely texture, crunch and sweetness.

This particular cranberry sauce is very savory and not very sweet; it would be a great accompaniment to ham, pork, or turkey and an even better spread for the day-after sandwich. The maple syrup and dijon is a great one-two punch of sweet and pungent that makes for a lovely balanced sauce. 

Savory Cranberry Pomegranate Red Wine Sauce

• 2 cups raw cranberries
• 1 cup dry red wine (I used Tempranillo)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/2 cup raw pomegranate arils

1. Cut the pomegranate in half and submerge the halves in a bowl of cold water. Using your hands, dig the pomegranate arils out of the pomegranate. When all the arils are free, pour the arils and water through a colander and pick out any pieces of pomegranate membrane still remaining. 

2. Combine the cranberries, red wine, sugar, salt and pepper in a saucepan.

3. Cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, until thickened. The cranberries will start to swell and pop and will then continue cooking until the whole sauce is a gorgeous uniform garnet color. 

Cooking...

Still cooking...

Voila! Cranberry Sauce!

4. Stir in the maple syrup and dijon mustard.

5. Stir in the pomegranate arils.

Note: The cranberry sauce will thicken a lot in the refrigerator as it cools. Makes my mouth water just looking at it!

Enjoy and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Whole Grain Corn Muffins with Goat Cheese and Cranberries

I debated whether or not to advertise this cornbread as vegan, because it totally is, except for the goat cheese. Story of my life.

Fun fact: did you know you can use a really ripe avocado instead of eggs or oil in your baked goods? Works wonders. Think about it: it's a little unctuous ball of butter and eggs all in one. I think the fat in the avocado is the reason they work much better than mashed bananas or applesauce as an egg replacer. You get fat and moisture without sweetness, giving you a lot of flexibility in your choice of baked goods. You want to use really, really ripe avocados when you do this, ones that are past the guacamole stage. The ones they sell two for a dollar in the produce clearance aisle? Those are perfect.

Honey? And avocado? That sounds weird. But hey, we're making vegan cornbread with avocado here (and goat cheese and cranberries) so we're putting weird on the back burner for the moment.

Savory.

Sweet.

Scoop.

Bake.

I used my immersion blender (definitely another favorite piece of kitchen equipment) to whip up the avocado, honey and soymilk right in the bowl. If you don't have an immersion blender, or your avocado isn't really, really ripe you might want to mash up your avocado in a separate bowl and then beat in your honey and soymilk.

Truth be told these vegan/not vegan corn muffins don't know exactly what they want to be. They are just as delicious for breakfast as they are with dinner (we ate them with sweet potato soup) or for an afternoon snack. Goat cheese and cranberries is really a no-brainer, it's got the sweet/salty, chewy/creamy contrast going on. Both are a lovely surprise studded throughout the cornbread, whose texture is decidedly un-vegan. I make cornbread at least weekly and I was surprised at how little I could tell a difference between this cornbread and my standard favorite recipe, which calls for 1/2 cup of butter and 2 eggs (totally not a Southern recipe, I've converted...).

It doesn't really matter what these muffins want to be; anything studded with chunks of melted goat cheese can't be anything other than delicious.

Whole Grain Corn Muffins with Goat Cheese and Cranberries

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 ripe avocado
• 1 3/4 cups soymilk
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. Thoroughly combine your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mash up your avocado and beat in the soymilk and honey, mixing well.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir the wet and dry together with a wooden spoon or mixing spoon until just combined. Gently stir in the goat cheese and cranberries.
5. Scoop into prepared muffin tin and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until muffins are well risen and lightly browned on top.

breakfast.

That would be black bean enchiladas, topped with chili con carne, topped with a fried egg over easy, topped with salsa. For breakfast. Man, typing that made me hungry and also made me think I should have put sour cream on top as well. All straight out of the fridge, just cleaning up the dinner leftovers from the week and it took about 5 minutes to put together. With a good strong cup of coffee of course. It doesn't make sense in my head but I know from experience that nothing tastes better to me with southwestern lumberjack-type breakfasts like huevos rancheros or whatever you want to call that up there than coffee.

Lord knows I don't eat breakfast like this every day, nor would I want to, but for some reason I am always starving when I wake up on Saturday mornings. I had a roommate in college that always ate her takeout leftovers for breakfast: Lamb Rogan Josh, General Tso's Chicken, cold mozzarella sticks, didn't matter. It seemed so odd to me at the time but I think she has the right idea: before cereal and muffins and the like took center stage, people probably ate leftovers for breakfast quite often.That's a good question, actually. We never see them eating breakfast on Downtown Abbey but I know the must have. Perhaps that's for another post.

What about you? Are you a breakfast eater? Savory or sweet? Lumberjack breakfast or muffin and a yogurt?

Spiced Cranberry Eggnog Scones

Saturday mornings are meant for baking, especially if you're the type who naturally wakes up an hour before everyone else. I have always been 100% a morning person; once my eyes pop open there's nothing for it, I'm not going back to sleep. It's always worked out particularly well; everyone's usually waking up right when the baked goods come out of the oven.

Such can be the case with these pretty darn delicious Cranberry Eggnog Scones.  Don't know how you get much more Christmas-y than that. These could easily be prepped the night before Christmas morning as well; I would meaure all your dry ingredients into a bowl and cut the butter in, then cover that and wait to add the wet ingredients the following morning. It actually might turn out better scones because the extra-cold butter and flour will make for extra-light and fluffy scones once the butter hits the oven (the steam is what makes biscuits and scones fluffy and almost moist on the inside!)

I made these in the food processor, which is a great way to make scones, but if you have a little baby guy like mine it would be best to just make these by hands.  When you add the wet ingredients you only want to pulse for 2 or 3 pulses and my little guy was just too small to mix all the ingredients in such a short amount of time.  I actually inherited this 20-year old food processor that my mom used to make homemade pizza dough when we went home for Thanksgiving and I. love. it.  It makes Sunday cooking day a breeze and saves my eyes from watering while I'm chopping onions.

But back to these scones: They are moist and fluffy and wonderful, even with my over-processing, thanks to the low protein in the cake flour. I would definitely make these again, in the mixer or by hand, and they would turn out even better. These scones definitely call for jam; the fresh cranberries are wonderfully tart and the scones themselves barely sweet. Enjoy!

Spiced Cranberry Eggnog Scones 
adapted from The Complete Baking Cookbook by George Geary

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 3 T granulated sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 6 T. cold unsalted butter, cut into small dice
• 2 eggs, beaten, divided
• 3/4 cup eggnog
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (do not thaw first if frozen)

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients, mixing well.
1. If mixing in a food processor, add the dry ingredients to the bowl and pulse several times to combine.
3. Cut in the butter with a fork, a pastry blender, or your hands (if mixing by hand I usually stick the dry ingredients in the freezer for 5 minutes or so after cutting in the fat to make up for the warmth of my hands)
1. If using a food processor, scatter the butter pieces evenly over the flour and pulse several times to combine. You don't want to pulse too much or the butter pieces will be too fine and your scones will not be as tender.
4. Set aside 1 T. of beaten egg (you can just put it in a 1/4 cup measuring cup or something until you're ready.) Whisk together the remaining egg and eggnog and add to the dry ingredients, stirring until almost combined (you will finish combining them in the next step and you don't want to overmix). 
1. If mixing in the food processor, beat the wet ingredients together in a small bowl and pour down the food processor chute, pulsing once or twice to combine.  Transfer to a large bowl and continue.
5. Add the cranberries, stirring just to combine.
6. The scones you see in the picture I made as drop scones: I just scooped the dough out with a muffin scoop and flattened the top slightly.  If you prefer, you can pat the dough into a 10-inch circle, place on your baking sheet and cut into 12 wedges with a bench scraper or pizza cutter (do not separate the wedges after cutting.) Brush with the remaining beaten egg, using a pastry brush if you have it or a fork if you don't.  Sprinkle with some raw sugar if you have it for beauty and crunch. 

Shaped scones brushed with beaten egg (would be great sprinkled with a little turbinado sugar!)

7. Bake in the preheated oven until puffed, light brown and gorgeous, 18 to 22 minutes.  Serve warm with eggnog coffee (have you ever used eggnog as coffee creamer? It's a good idea).

 

 

Fresh out of the oven.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Multigrain Chock ful o' Apple Muffins

My philosophy on clearance, sale, etc. items is twofold. First of all, the bigger the discount the more likely I am to buy, regardless of how much money I am actually spending. This makes me particularly susceptible to marketing ploys of all kinds as I am much more likely to buy something if I at least believe that I am getting it for 50% off or more, regardless of whether I'm spending $20 or $200. This renders me particularly powerless when it comes to clearance racks and those lovely little end caps at the grocery store with dented cans of pork and beans for $0.50. Everything happens for a reason. While I usually have the power to resist a gallon of milk that expires today (wait no I've bought that before...but it was organic milk for $1!) or 3 pounds of steak marked down 10% I have less willpower when it comes to fresh produce at a discount. What this often means is that my husband and I are often stuck with those bags of bruised apples and bananas that get mushier the longer you look at them. I can't help it when they're only $1 and hey, you can never have too much banana bread. Except for when you do. 

Last week's batch of mushy bananas turned into a frighteningly moist and delicious banana sour cream pound cake, a rather decadent step up from the usual and highly recommended with more ice cream and caramel on top. Butter and full fat dairy are indeed magical ingredients but it turns out it is actually possible to ingest too much of each, meaning that by the time I turned to my bag of bruised apples I was actually in the mood for something a little more nourishing. Perhaps more fiber grams than fat grams? It would be nice to not need an afternoon nap after my afternoon snack, at least today. I ended up with scrumptious little morsels that were equal parts apple and muffin, an apple cobbler in a muffin tin relying on the sweetness of the apples themselves and the heartiness of the oats for flavor. I can't wait to tinker with this recipe in the future. The recipe called for grinding the oats with the flour and I would love to leave them whole next time, maybe soak them in a little buttermilk first and try a bit of cornmeal for some texture and crunch.

Two thoughts: This is one of my favorite kitchen utensils and especially handy for dishing out muffin batter. Thought two: I seriously need a serious camera. Right now the s95 is my top pick for a good entry level point and shoot. Thoughts?

Just bursting with appley raisiny goodness.

These make a particularly homey and nourishing afternoon snack with a dollop of apple butter and even a smear of almond butter. Enjoy!

Multigrain Chock ful o' Apple Muffins

adapted  from Real Simple Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 wheat bran (not bran flakes; if you don't have any may substitute 1/4 cup flax meal or an additional 1/4 cup of flour, each of these will give the muffins a different texture but all will work!)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt + 1/2 cup kefir (I used the combo of these two because that's what I had on hand; 1 cup sour cream, plain yogurt, or buttermilk would all do just fine)
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar (if you like things sweeter up the sugar to 1/3 or 1/2 cup)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 very large or 3 regular apples, chopped
• 3/4 cup raisins

1. Heat oven to 375. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin and set aside.
2. Combing the flour and wheat bran in a large mixing bowl. I had two kinds of whole wheat flour on hand, one from the grocery store and one from the farmer's market.

2. Add the oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and whisk to blend
3.  Using a food processor (or immersion blender if you still don't have a food processor *sigh*) pulse the dry ingredients together until the oats are processed into a flour. I left my oats a little chunky because I wanted some texture in there.


4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dairy, egg, sugar, egg, and vanilla.
5. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, folding until just combined. Fold in the apples and raisins. (batter will be very chunky!)
6. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups (batter will be rounded but that's ok because the apples cook down as the muffins rise.

7. Bake at 375 for 22 to 25 minutes, until nicely browned and crusty.

Have you ever actually watched things baking in the oven? It's so much fun to watch them rise before your eyes!

Enjoy! Preferably with a mug of tea.

Multigrain Chocolate Stout Banana Bread

Simplicity is not my strong point, at least when it comes to food. In life I am perfectly content to wear the same long waisted t-shirt and comfy flats high school through college, no problem. When it comes to my eating habits, however, I am infamous for 1) eating every meal out of a bowl 2) putting more ingredients than really necessary in said bowls. For instance, my morning oatmeal bowl often consists of oatmeal (3 parts steel cut to 1 part old-fashioned--try it, the texture is unlike any other) topped with sliced banana, nuts or peanut butter, yogurt, and granola. If you do 1/2 servings of each component you end up with one well-rounded bowl of lovely texture and temperature contrasts, the key to memorable dishes.

Which brings us to today's creation. It all started with a bottle of opened stout in the fridge. I opened it the other night for dessert and apparently misread my cravings because it was too heavy for me that late at night. I think I had a glass of wine instead. I'm all about freedom of choice. But back to the beer--flat, opened beer in the fridge screams "beer bread" to me. Did y'all make beer bread in college? We made a lot of it. Want to know why? Here's the recipe, pay attention now: measure 3 cups of self rising flour and 1/2 cup of sugar into a bowl (or directly into a greased baking pan, if you really want to go dorm-style). Stir in 1 12-ounce bottle or can of beer. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Really, that's it. Sometime we would get creative and do garlic parmesan or cinnamon sugar toppings, but in general that's it. It has a texture like the middle of a good biscuits-and-gravy biscuit: dense and bready, perfect for slathering with butter and honey. Bringing back memories.

So today's beer bread started with that basic premise. The chocolate stout in the title refers not to "chocolate stout" as in Young's Double Chocolate or similar, but rather to chocolate, as in a fantastic high-fat natural cocoa powder I got from Penzey's this weekend, and stout, the beer on the same end of the spectrum as porters. Chocolate stout beer bread? I could tell this bread was headed somewhere delicious. There was also quite an old banana sitting in the fridge that I'd been meaning to mush up in a bowl of oatmeal for a few mornings now. I realize not everyone is a fan of the banana + chocolate combination, but I certainly am and a banana always adds some welcome moisture if you're a fan of the flavor. Oatmeal! That's a good idea too.  Then a hint of cinnamon for a welcome backbone of warmth and a star is born.

I truly wish you were here to share this with me. This honestly turned out so much better than I thought it would, the darkness of the stout and coffee brought out wonderfully by the cocoa and the cinnamon. It made for a deeply satisfying snack with a little fig-orange-ginger jam on top and a mug of coffee on the side. I told you simplicity is not my strong point. Oh and also? This loaf just happens to be vegan. Snuck that one in on you, huh? That's right, no eggs, milk, or butter to be found, just good ol' beer, coffee and chocolate. If you like barely sweet and highly flavorful baked goods, this loaf's for you. 

Multigrain Chocolate Stout Banana Bread

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

1.  Measure out 1 cup any stout beer (such as Guinness) and 1/2 cup strong black coffee into a measuring cup.  Add 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats and let stand at room temperature while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Measure 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (you could certainly use all-purpose; whole wheat behaves much the same way most of the time, it would work fine in this recipe), 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/3 cup natural cocoa, 1/4 cup cocoa, 1 tablespoon baking soda, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. cinnamon into a medium mixing bowl and mix well with a fork or wire whisk to combine.

3. In a separate bowl, mash one ripe banana using a fork or pastry blender. Whisk in 3 tablespoons vegetable oil.

4. Add the measuring cup of beer + coffee + oatmeal to the banana and stir to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just to combine.

5. Pour your batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the very center comes out with one or two moist crumbs attached. This is a very dense bread and so will not be actually wet and batter-like in the center. If you're baking in a metal baking dish, the bread will probably take closer to 45 minutes and if you are baking in a glass Pyrex dish or similar it will probably take closer to 60 minutes.

6. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes (slicing into it hot will ultimately dry out the loaf!). Slather with your condiment of choice and enjoy with an afternoon cup of coffee. Or, of course, another beer.

Rustic Bruleed Oatmeal with Caramelized Bananas

Life doesn't always go as planned, nor is it always perfect. I'm just a font of wisdom this morning, eh?  I mention it because the last week of my life has been absolutely perfect. I didn't have to worry about a thing the day of my wedding. I only pulled my bridal diva card once, when my sister and maid of honor couldn't find a Starbucks for my latte and so got me a Dunkin Donuts latte. Don't worry, the other bridesmaids pitched in and soon got me my grande soy latte. Funny, it makes me sound like a Starbucks person, which I'm not particularly. I'm priviliged to live in an area with an abundance of quality independent coffee shops but I wasn't about to send my bridesmaids 20 minutes to the next town over for a soy latte, although I considered it.

My wedding day was perfect.  It was followed by a week of this:

It's really hard to miss the lack of internet access at times like these. 

Suffice it to say that this week of perfection has served like a camera flash to obscure the other details of my life. As my eyes readjust to the light of normal life all the little things are slowly coming to light. For now, though, I'll relive one perfect morning with you.

Make this oatmeal the next time you're in a cabin with no internet access and an unobscured view of the mountains outside your bathroom window, for heaven's sake. Or make it for yourself and your loved ones in your pajamas as soon as the weather turns chilly.

Bruleed Steel Cut Oats with Caramelized Bananas

• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 3 cups water
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup dairy (I used hazelnut half and half, which was delicious, and milk)
• Sugar for bruleeing (turbinado would have been ideal but I only had granulated. Use turbinado if you have it, the textures will be great.)
• 1 banana, cut into thick diagonal slices
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar

1. Preheat your oven broiler. Move your oven rack to the topmost position where your baking dish can still fit under the broiler element.
2. Bring the oats and water to a boil in a 3 quart saucepan. Turn the heat to low so that the oats are just barely simmering and simmer for 20-30 minutes, depending on how "al dente" you want your oats.  Start tasting after 20 minutes. Stir in the dairy and bring back to a simmer.
3. Transfer the oats to a cast iron pan or other oven-safe pan.  Broil for 8-10 minutes, checking often so that the sugar does not burn.
4. While the oatmeal is broiling, melt the butter and sugar together in a small (8 or 10 inch) skillet over medium heat.  Lay your banana slices in a flat layer in the skillet and do not disturb for 3-4 minutes so that they get a lovely golden brown color.  Flip the bananas and continue cooking.  
5. Serve your oatmeal with the bananas, some warmed milk or cream, and whatever fruit you have on hand.

Anti-Anxiety Whole Wheat Trail Mix Scones

I'm getting married on Saturday.  Hopefully that explains my post title a bit. I've been swept up lately in the fun of party planning and bridal showers and excitement. This particular morning, though, it all came crashing down on my pre-coffee brain: oh my goodness, I don't have a dress for the after party!  What will my parents do while I'm at my bachelorette party? Where will my sister's dog sleep?  Oh my gosh, I have totally lost my veil.  Oh, no, wait there it is. (This has, unfortunately, crossed my anxiety-ridden pre-wedding brain with practically every essential item of my wedding wardrobe.) And then, breakfast. I was hungry, one cup of coffee down, one real meal to go. Usually on a lazy Saturday or Sunday, the answer is simple: I make muffins.

Yet this Sunday, there I was, facing a bowl full of 2 cups of flour per recipe possibility #1 and Googling yet another permutation of "whole wheat muffin recipe" in the hopes that just one of them would yield muffins I could make from ingredients at my new house, where my fiance currently lives, without running back to my old house, where I currently live, at which point I may as well just go to the store. That's when it hit me: this is not fun today. I only cook when it's fun. My tummy is a demanding little thing in the mornings, though, and cereal and milk just won't cut it. Scones were the answer.

2 cups flour? Sure that'll work. Oatmeal for texture. Baking powder, no baking soda necessary (good thing, too, because the only box in the house is currently busy deodorizing the fridge and is therefore forbidden from having anything to do with my scones). Butter, 1 stick. Milk. I would have liked buttermilk but whatchagonnado. Trail mix because I didn't have raisins. Eggs. And you know what? 20 minutes later, there they were. My scones. Eaten somewhat ravenously slathered with butter and jam and black coffee for company's sake.  Barely sweet, wonderfully crunchy.

This time next week I will be married. My dress will be packed, my hair washed, my friends on their way home. And I will be married.

I think I need another scone.

Butter + jam? Always.

Anti-Anxiety Whole Wheat Trail Mix Scones

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup trail mix, a natural nuts-and-seeds variety, or any combination of dried fruits and nuts to total 1/2 cup.
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, unsalted, cold and cubed (keep this in the fridge until just before you make the scones)
• 1/2 cup dairy (I used lactose-free milk because that's what was in the fridge, but ideally I would have liked buttermilk, sour cream, or plain yogurt, in that order)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients with a fork or whisk.
3. Cut your butter lengthwise into four long pieces, like a checkerboard cookie, then cut off the butter in "pats" so you have little butter cubes. Try not to handle the butter too much as you want it to melt as little as possible before scone meets oven.  
4. I cut my butter into the flour with my hands (this is part of the stress relief), but a fork or pastry blender works great here (I never could get the two knives thing down).
5. Make a little well in the middle of your dry ingredients and add the eggs and milk into the well.  Stir briskly with a fork until a soft dough forms. Try to stir up from the bottom of the bowl as you work so you can incorporate all the bits of flour from the bottom of the bowl.
6. Dump directly onto a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan (I used the Goldtouch nonstick sheet from Williams-Sonoma, which did a beautiful job of browning). Knead only enough to gather the dough together and pat into a round 8 inches around and 1 1/2 inches high. Score the dough into 8 wedges using a sharp chef's knife or bench scraper by cutting almost, but not quite, all the way through the dough.
7. Bake for 8 minutes.  Turn the oven off and leave the scones in the oven for another 10 minutes.