Cranberry Nut Bread with Citrus

There are a handful of sweetbreads that I regularly make for my friends--banana bread, pumpkin spice bread, and this one, cranberry nut bread.  When scrolling through Elise Bauer's "Bakery" section on Simply Recipes, I was thrilled to see this variation--a cranberry nut bread that calls for citrus and juice.  The first time I saw this recipe, I was lying in bed, thinking about what I wanted to bake that morning (yes, baking urges often come first thing in the morning) and I thought, "My...with a little bit of spice and vanilla extract, that would be clearly delicious!" Below is the resulting hybrid recipe from Simply Recipes & Clearly Delicious.  See Elise's for a basic recipe, and mine for a spice and apple sauce infused item that really is clearly delicious.



Cranberry Nut Bread with Citrus
The original of this recipe comes from Elise Bauer over at Simply Recipes and you can find it here.  However, the below recipe calls for multiple changes--instead of using orange juice (which works FANTASTICALLY), I use a combination of apple sauce and apple juice, whole wheat flour instead of all purpose, and a handful of spices to give it a little oomph.

Ingredients
* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 tablespoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon almond extract
* 1 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon orange peel, freshly grated, or preserved
* 1 cup chopped cranberries
* 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, or pecans
* 1/2 cup apple sauce
* 1/4 cup apple juice
* 4 tablespoons butter, melted
* 1 egg, beaten

1.) Preheat oven at 350F.  Begin by combining dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and mix to integrate.  Add chopped cranberries and nuts and stir to coat thoroughly with the flour mixture.  Set aside. 
2.) Hookup your Kitchenaid mixer (or other electronic mixture) and add the following ingredients into the metal basin: melted butter, beaten egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel, sugar, apple sauce, apple juice, and extracts.  Mix on low until fully integrated.
3.) Add dry mixture to wet mixture SLOWLY. Remember Alton Brown's anthem: "Speed Kills" both in baking and other arenas (as I have been told).
4.) Coat a bunt pan with butter and flour and pour batter into pan.  Smooth out thoroughly (as this version yields a rather thick batter) and bake for 30-45 minutes.
5.) Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.  Enjoy!


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Roasted Vegetables and Fall Salad

What do you get when three PhD ladies who haven't seen each other, like really seen each other in waay too long, get together? Eat, drink cocktails, and watch a movie but of course, silly!

However, what happens when one of these ladies is a vegan, one a former vegetarian, and one a girl who just likes her peas? A meal that's primarily vegetable based (and very healthy) including roasted vegetables and a fall salad.  Yum.

The roasted vegetables recipe below is one of the easiest recipes to whip up, and a big crowd pleaser.  Eat it as the main course as we three veggie loving girls did, or eat it alongside a more carnivore-friendly dish like steak, or chicken.  Finally, the salad is one of my favorite ways to eat salad and I never make it any other way: walnuts/almonds, green lettuce, or spinach, lots of tomatoes and cucumbers tossed with garlic, herbs, and cranberries.  SOO GOOD!

Roasted Red Potatoes and Carrots
This recipe comes from no source in particular.  The combination of olive oil with balsamic vinegar, red potatoes, and other veggies comes from my friend Laura.  However, after making this recipe a good 10-15 times, I've perfected the combination of the below ingredients and the correct ratios for this combination.

 
* 1 bag of carrots (preferrably organic)
* 1 bag of small red potatoes
* 1/2 of an onion, chopped
* olive oil (to taste)
* balsamic vinegar (to taste)
* 5 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
* freshly grated pepper, to taste
* kosher salt, to taste
* 1-2 tablespoons of dried or fresh rosemary
* 1-2 tablespoons of basil, chopped

1.) Chop all of the vegetables (red potatoes, onion, and carrots) and throw into a roasting pan; red potatoes should be in eighths, or whatever size seems bite-size enough and will cook thoroughly, and carrots should be the size of carrot sticks.  I prefer using large carrots over baby carrots because they are higher in beta-keratin, and more flavorful.  Plus, organic carrots are even more flavorful in their larger form!

2.) Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I have not put a specific ratio of olive oil-to-balsamic vinegar above simply because I think this an issue of preference.  Laura prefers more balsamic vinegar and less olive oil, whereas I prefer an equal amount of both.  Just go with what you like!

3.) Sprinkle with remaining seasonings--pepper, basil, rosemary, and kosher salt.  Salt and pepper should be to taste because again, this is an issue of how you like to prepare your food.  Finally, press/mince garlic over the vegetables and stir to integrate.  Cover with an oven-friendly lid or aluminum foil.

4.) Roast in oven at 400F for 35 minutes and check for ready-ness (ready-ness = potatoes are soft enough to chew in your mouth, but not so soft that they will mash when being served).  It's possible you will need to cook the dish longer depending on the stove (in my gas stove, 35 mins. is perfect, but in an electric, it will possibly take longer).  Let cool, and serve!

Fall Salad
I have been making some variation of this salad for as long as I can remember.  Every now and then, I switch up the ingredients (i.e., dried cherries instead of cranberries, spinache instead of romaine, you get the picture), but the core ingredients are below.  

* 1/2 head of romain lettuce, or 1/2 bag of spinache
* 1/2 container of cherry tomatoes, or 1 whole regular tomato
* 1/2 cup walnuts, or almonds
* 4-5 cloves garlic minced/pressed
* 1/2 cucumber peeled and cut into circular halves
* 1/4 cup olives, black or kalamatta (heck, even green if you're into that sort of thing!)
*  1/2 cup craisins, or dried cherries

1.) Wash and chop vegetables--lettuce/spinache, tomatoes, cucumber.  Place in bowl.
2.) Add remaining ingredients--nuts, garlic, olives, and craisins.  Toss together.
3.) Add any salad herbs you might enjoy with your salad.  I sometimes toss ground pepper, mint, or basil in between, but these ingredients are not necessary.  Enjoy!

Cranberry Sauce

During the holidays, it's really tempting to just buy the cranberry sauce in a can and call it a day. Honestly, I agree because I get it--canned cranberry sauce is delicious! It's so sweet, the perfect gelatin consistency, and the manufacturer's are super considerate by creating the places to cut the sauce with the shape of their can. I'm joking, but I really do appreciate canned cranberry sauce for all of its middle-class glory.

However, what producers of canned cranberry sauce don't tell you is that it's incredibly easy to make your own sauce and even TASTIER than the original canned delight. All you have to do is buy a 12 ounce bag of cranberries, add some sugar and water, and boil it all together until bam, cranberry sauce! Don't believe me? Check out the recipe below.

Cranberry Sauce
The below recipe comes from the back of an Ocean Spray 12 ounce cranberry bag, but you can find other online recipes that are similar instantly.  One that I would suggest is the Cranberry Sauce recipe available at Simply Recipes.  It's very similar to the one below, only minus the spices.  YUM!

Ingredients:
* 12 ounces of cranberries
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup water
* cinnamon sticks (optional)
* 1 tablespoon orange peel (optional)
* 1 tablespoon nutmeg/allspice/cloves, or any combination of the three (optional)

1.) Add sugar and water to a large sauce pan and bring to a boil.  While heating up, whisk the ingredients together until the sugar has full dissolved.

2.) Wash and add cranberries to the water/sugar mixture.  Bring water back to a boil and reduce heat to medium for the next 10-15 minutes (or, until all of the cranberries have sufficiently "popped" open).

3.) Now, your cranberry sauce will begin to look like a thicker-jelly-based sauce.  At this point, you can add any number of ingredients because your recipe is almost complete.  I like the addition of basic fall seasonings such as cinnamon (sticks), nutmeg, allspice, orange peel, and/or cloves.  However, these ingredients are not necessary for a tasty sauce--you can leave the sauce by itself and it will certainly taste delicious.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Recipe Preview

For Thanksgiving, I'm doing all of the staples: turkey (fried!), mashed potatoes, sweet potato soufflé, biscuits, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc.

You get the picture, yes?

In the following week, I will (hopefully) be posting a listing for all of the above items. Until then, I thought I'd share the original recipes with you below. As always, I will be making my own changes to the following recipes.

Turkey (Fried) courtesy of Alton Brown
Mashed Potatoes courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Sweet Potato Soufflé courtesy of Enita Estroff
Cranberry Sauce courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Green Bean Casserole courtesy of Paula Deen
Pumpkin Pie courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Apple Pie courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes