Probably too late for this year- although I think you could do a batch of the brandied cranberries today and not miss a beat.  And it is SO worth making a batch of these.

Brandy,cranberries, orange peel, sugar, and I added a dollop of orange marmalade.  These are seriously good- even if you don’t like cranberries-  seriously good. 

Brandied Cranberries Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 (12-ounce) bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1 1/4 cups sugar (or substitute Splenda for half of the sugar)
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 2 TBS  finely chopped orange zest
• 2 heaping TBS orange marmalade

Method

1 Preheat oven to 325°F. Sort through cranberries and discard any that are soft or decayed.

2 Mix cranberries, sugar, brandy, and orange zest in a 8 or 9-inch baking dish. Bake uncovered until most of the liquid has evaporated, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Makes 2 cups. Chill up to one week.

They bake in the oven- stir occasionally!

And this is the end result-

Take a closer look. 

I just ate one berry- and it is “oh my goodness” good.

The bread stuffing is made out of  honey whole wheat bread, cornmeal bread, and half a loaf of rustic white bread.  This is the best stuffing I’ve ever made.  The bread made  all of the difference.

Random comment about parsley……………………………

The French cooks use only the leaves and short stems of parley in their dishes.

The Italian chefs use the entire stem, chopping it fine and going for a more robust flavor.

I’m Slovak with Germanic influences-  I used mostly the leaves, but I picked through the stems for the more delicate ones and chopped them up as well. Because 2 bunches was just barely enough for the huge bowl of bread crumbs.

I used my own herbs rather than poultry seasoning, as well.

I dried the sage earlier.

Then I picked off the hard stems and rubbed it until it was pliable and broke up easily.  I put twice this much in the bowl.

And then added celery and onions sauteed in butter.

And fried sausage and crushed nuts- and you have stuffing.

Stir it all together and put it in a bag in the refrigerator to mingle the flavor.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope your day is filled with happiness and joy and good eats!

Yes, I did write that.

Two years ago, I wasn’t using a computer much- maybe once or twice a week to check email.

Four years ago, I was just barely using a cell phone.

Things have changed.  Times have changed.

Thanks to Meredith, I have changed.

She bought me a cell phone because she wanted to get a hold of me when she had a free moment and that didn’t always coincide with my home time.

She bought me a camera and gave me her lap top to use.

And so here I am- on the computer daily.  Blogging, emailing, Facebooking, and doing online college courses. 

Am I thankful for the extra time I need to spend to keep up with that schedule?

Not really.

I don’t read as much.  I don’t craft as much. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t clean my house as much.

BUT- I had a phone in the car and Patty could warn us about the nor’easter and the closing of the causeway in enough time for us to get across.

And I have some wonderful friends from blogging and Facebook that I wouldn’t know or be in touch with daily.

AND- I can share my recipes and cooking tips with a wide range of people.

So, yes, I am thankful for the opportunity to touch those around me in such a tangible yet technological way.

And to illustrate my point- here’s a wonderful way to make oven baked chicken legs.

Chicken drumsticks are always hard for me because they take so long to be done next to the bone.  I bake them a long time and it is still reddish in the center.

So, I looked at a LOT of cookbooks and picked up some hints that you might already have known.  I didn’t until recently, however, so I’m going to share.

The meat is so dense at the top that it takes a long time to cook.  But if you cut the meat from the top of the bone all the way down to the thin part of the leg and pull it away from the bone….

Then flour the entire leg ( I use a mixture of flour and spices- salt, pepper, and Old Bay seasoning).

Make sure you flour the cut side as well as the skin portion

Then brown the leg in about 4 TBS of vegetable oil in a pan that can go into the oven.

Place foil loosely over the top of pan to keep your oven from getting “oiled” by the spit of frying chicken.

And bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees F.

You will be so happy with the results- AND there is no reddish pink meat next to the bone.  Add a salad and a baked potato and you have dinner!

Yumm!  I’m thankful for oven fried chicken today, too!

This particular post is dedicated to my brother, Bruce.

In fact, it is his idea.  Almost his idea.

I didn’t even know for sure that he read my blog.

But when I spoke with him last he asked me to do a blog on making fruitcake.

That’s right.  Fruitcake.

My family likes fruitcake.

Our mother had a great recipe that is chockful of nuts and candied fruit.

No raisins or dried apple slices or spices.

Fruit and nuts.

My mom would make it in early November and wrap it in cheesecloth soaked in brandy until Christmas.  So it is fruity and nutty and a little boozey.

The recipe – typical of ALL of my mother’s recipe is basically a list of ingredients with  temperature and baking times tacked on the end.

Fruitcake:

2 cups flour

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 pint marachino cherries

1/2 lb. candied pineapple

1 lb. dates

1/2 lbs pecans

1/2 lbs. walnuts

1 lb. candied fruit mix

5 eggs, beaten

BAKE at 250 degrees F for 2 1/2  to  3 hours

I love looking at all my recipe files.  It is almost like visiting with Robin and my mom when I read their notes and recipe’s.

and getting together is a good reason  – so gather up your ingredients.

Just smell the deep and festive mix of  fruit and nuts!  

CLOSE UP!!!

Add flour, sugar and baking powder and stir until all of the flour and sugar is incorporated.

This smells so good!

add beaten eggs  to mixture  and stir well.

The dough is thick and looks very sticky.

Grease pans liberally and use wax or parchment paper to keep mixture from sticking to sides of your pan.

Now you can decorate the cakes, using candied pineapple and the red and green glacee cherries.  Cut the green pineapple into leaf shapes and the red into petals- pop some cherries in for the centers and you have bright and happy little fruitcakes!

You can make them in smaller sizes or in a large loaf pan- just make sure that you use parchment or wax paper and lots of Pam to keep them from sticking.

And then after you have baked them at a low temp (for the smaller cakes- bake them less time but not less than 45 minutes.  They get darker, but what you are looking for is a fairly firm texture.)

In my family-fruitcake is always a treat.

I like the mug- but if you like nuts and fruit- you will like love this cake!

I have been getting no where fast.

Lots of stuff is going on- but nothing is happening.

I’m frustrated.

In my life that means make and bake some bread.

It is satisfying.

It works.

We end up with bread.

So today was a marathon bread day.

I made sourdough rye, old country rye and peasant bread.

And I mixed them all together and made a braided loaf,

and a marbled loaf…………………………………

and a couple of plain sourdough rye loaves.

Sourdough Rye is my favorite sourdough bread.

You add the deep flavor of blackstrap molasses the tangy sourdough and the slightly sharp rye and caraway seed flavors and you have a masterpiece!

Here’s the recipe-

1 cup sourdough starter

1 1/2 cups bread flour

3 cups rye flour

2 tsp salt

1/4 cup molasses

2 TBS butter,melted

1 cup very warm water

2 TBS yeast

Add yeast to water and proof for about 3 minutes ( you may add 1/2 tsp sugar to get everything moving faster).  Mix together flours and salt in large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the flour and put the starter, butter, molasses and proofed yeast together and mix the flour into the center, drawing it down from the sides.

You may need a little more warm water or a little more bread flour depending on the way your dough starts to set up together- if it looks dry and like there is too much flour- add water.  If it looks too sticky and the flour is all incorporated – add flour.  The dough should be tacky to the touch, but not sticky. 

Flour your counter and dump dough onto flat surface.  Knead for at least 10 minutes and then put dough- gathered together into a ball- into an oiled bowl and cover.  Allow to raise for about an hour and a half and then shape into desired loaf.

To braid -roll three different doughs to the same length and thickness and attach at one end then braid them together and pinch at the other end.

To make a swirl or marble loaf-

Roll out three different doughs and layer them on top of each other and then roll them tightly together, pinch ends and put into a loaf pan and let raise for about 45 minutes, then bake in 375 degree oven until brown , about 40 minutes.

First of all- I made it here all on my own.  I have a problem with sleep deprivation and it causes me to fall asleep while in a car.  EVEN if I’m driving.

I haven’t  driven for more than a half an hour without having real problems staying awake for about 10 years now.  But I am pushing the limits and forcing myself to go further and further and on the way back from Chincoteague, I managed to drive almost 3 1/2 hours.  Of course, Cynthia was sitting next to me and helping me to stay awake. 

I came to Columbus by myself.

I sang and prayed and  ate pretzels and drank coffee!

So, I’m praising the Lord for this victory!

Luke is in Chicago until Wednesday, so I get to be dinner and nightime caregiver, while Willow is teaching ESL  classes.

Aidan has a cold, cough, runny nose and a slight fever.  He is not feeling well at all.  And yet he is such a trooper.  I went with them to the doctor and he was so cooperative- breathing deeply and holding real still for the examination.

He is really talking!  Counting and naming items, people and toys. 

He has a hard time saying Gramma- so I had him call me Heidi.

EVERYONE calls me Heidi (except my boys who call me Mom.)

I’ve never been the Aunt-type or the Mrs. Fodor type-  and Heidi is real easy for little ones to say.

Anyway, as I said he is pretty miserable.  And he isn’t eating very well- food just doesn’t really appeal to him.  Except for apples, cheese, sweet potatoes, and bread.

AND- these healthy peanut butter balls his mother makes him.

So that was supper.  Here are a few shots of him devouring these balls- which by the way- he asks for by name.  Pea-buttah-baws!

Here’s the recipe.

1 cup natural peanut butter

1/4 cup oatmeal

2 TBS. honey

2 TBS>  coconut

2 TBS. ground flax

Mix together and roll into little balls

Refrigerate until set.

YUMM!

I have a friend who lost her sense of smell.

HORRORS!

I need all of my senses- I would miss each one to a different degree if I no longer had it.  But it is like the olfactory is just a minor sense that we can live happily without, in many people’s opinion.

Not mine!

When my son, Luke, was little he would say, ” Mom, you smell real good”, and I knew he wasn’t talking about my perfume.  I DO have a good sense of smell.

I can smell when bread and cookies are done. 

I can smell the separate ingredients in a cooked dish.

I can also smell snow and rain and delicate scents that linger in the air around certain flowers. 

And I can smell the roses!

Yesterday was a sensory delight for a dedicated smeller like me.

First, I had a friend come over to make potpourri.

She had some flowers she was drying from her son’s wedding and wanted to make a couple of bags of potpourri to share with her new daughter in law and her mother.  And I have much potpourri paraphernalia!

MUCH potpourri paraphernalia!

So we mixed and smelled and added and stirred and sniffed until she was happy.

I made a couple of lavender wands while I was waiting so I had already had a fragrance fix before she got here.

And then I made some chocolate and spice cookies to have with tea on the porch.

Spicy gingerbread with dark chocolate centers,  YUM!

And then I made dinner-

Orzo with cinnamon brown butter and parsley 

Makes 8 servings

Perfect for a fall dinner

1
#
orzo

1/2
stick
unsalted butter

2
Tbl
olive oil

1/4
tsp
cinnamon

1/4
tsp
freshly ground black pepper

3/4
cup
fresh flat leaf parsley – chopped

METHOD:

1. Cook orzo according to package directions, drain and set aside.
2. While orzo cooks melt butter in small skillet and then simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes until golden brown and nutty.
3. Remove from heat and stir in olive oil, cinnamon, and pepper.
4. Add drained orzo to skillet, scraping bottom to mix in any small brown bits.
5. Add parsley and toss to combine.
6. Season with salt and serve.

This smells as good as it tastes.  And it tastes real good!

And then I made brownies.

I have made many pans of brownies over the years.  I have a recipe that makes enough brownies for a crowd that my mother used to make All the time.

I have a recipe for Raspberry truffle brownies that is elegant and rich and deadly.

I have a recipe from a friend that is titled – “best ever brownies”

And they are all good.

So I’m making a huge confession and endorsement when I tell you that my favorite new way of making brownies is……………………………………………………….

a mix from Ghirardelli.  These are quick easy and delicious.  Deep dark and smooth with a cakey exterior and a dense fudgey interior that satisfies the chocolate urge like only a good brownie can.

I don’t usually talk about brand name products.  But these are absolutely worth a try.

So- have you smelled anything good lately?

I just finished washing half of the dishes and while I’m waiting for them to air dry so I can put them away and finish the other half, I thought I’d come and post a recipe.

I’m not sure if I’ve given you this recipe before.  Even if I have, I can’t find it and so it might be lost in my in-between blog archives.  And this is such a great soup- comforting and smooth with just a little heat and lots of vegetables.I’m going to repost it because I think you should HAVE this recipe!

You can start off by making your own stock with a whole chicken, 3 slices of fresh ginger root, 1 stem of lemon grass, 2 large ribs of celery, 2 large carrots and a large onion- sautee the chicken in 2 TBS of olive oil, add veggies and 6 cups of water, salt and pepper to taste.  Cook down until chicken is done, and veggies are soft.  Then discard the veggies and tear the meat off of the bones.  Put broth in the refrigerator and cool.  When the fat congeals at the top of the pan, throw it away ( the fat, not the stock ) and add a couple of chicken bullion cubes for a richer flavor. 

Now you need to dice or chop up some more vegetables. 

To make this soup look as good as it tastes, cut your vegetables in an uniform size and slice them on a slant.  Chop, slice and dice up the same vegetables you discarded and in the same amounts. 

Add a potato sliced thin and small.  As you can see, I totally cheated and used a Thai Coconut Curry culinary broth.  This works well too and you can forget about making your own stock.

Either way, at this point you need to cutup 2 chicken breasts (if cooked- don’t add them until your vegetables are sauteed.)  if raw, sautee them in 3TBS of olive oil and season with about 1 1/2 tsps of curry powder.  Add vegetables and sautee all together for about 15 minutes.  Add broth and simmer another 30 minutes.

Chop up a small can of bamboo shoots, and partially cook some medium sized noodles to add to your soup.

And then let the whole thing simmer for another 30-45 minutes.

  Now add the Lite Coconut Milk and simmer for at lest 10 minutes more. 

You can add the juice of 1/2 lemon if you like it a little more sour.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve with a good crusty bread and a green salad.

I really cannot tell you how very good this soup is – you have to taste it for yourself.   My d-i-l Willow first made it for me when they were still in college- and I’ve been making it ever since.  Try it-  you are going to love it!

I was so busy having fun yesterday, that I forgot to take pictures.

And I really wanted to take pictures!

We read books and made scones (singin’ hinnies, actually)

and played with clay, and made stone soup and bread and played with Aiden and visited with Allyson, and colored maps and coloring books and made magnets-

ALL of which could have been great picture opportunities- and I have nary a picture to share. (Nary is such a neat word, albeit not often used- kind of like albeit and whilst- let’s use these wonderful old words more often folks, or we will lose them!)  Any way, whilst I was having such a great time- my camera was sitting very quietly in my purse.  So I DONT have any pictures.

I do, however, have a wonderful recipe for Stone soup/bisque. 

We have all heard the community sharing and inspiring tale of “Stone Soup”-

A wanderer comes into town, and commences to make a soup with only a stone for a base- he does so with such faith and flourish that all the village gets involved in the making of said soup – offering up their bits and pieces of veggies and meats and spices and by the end of the tale they have a wonderful stew and enough to feed the entire group.

This is a great way to get children involved in making and contributing and EATING a vegetable based soup!   The kids I was working playing with yesterday do NOT like vegetables.  It has been an area that we go back and forth with each time I show up. 

Them:      “Aunt Heidi, I don’t like _____________(fill in the blank with anything in the vegetable family)”.

Me:      ” That’s fine.  Why don’t you try just a bite of ____________(fill in the blank with the vegetable of the day that I have garnished or filled with peanut butter or provided a dip to go along ).”

So, they were suspicious of the whole Stone Soup gig, right from the beginning.

I had found a wonderful soup stone earlier this summer (and inadvertently been carrying this stone in my purse for months!)- so I scrubbed it up and put it into the pot, first thing.  This is the most important part of the recipe. 

Stone soup/Bisque

Start off with a likely stone.  It needs to look potworthy.  A shiny smooth stone will not work, here.  Brown and palm-sized with just a hint of darker coloration- it needs to look a little like a potato.

Add about 3 TBS olive oil and set temperature at med low (3) to start the sautee.

Add 1/2 cup onion- very finely diced

and 1/2 cup celery- again- Very Finely Diced- the idea is not to have any stand out veggies- the stone is the main character in this soup!

Sautee until onions are translucent and celery is stewed.

Now add- whatever you can get your kids to offer.  We opened the fridge to see what  they had to share with my poor little stone.

(I suggest that you do a lot of the slicing and dicing beforehand and employ some magical slight of hand to get it into the pot.  Unless your kids LIKE vegetables, the more they work with them, the more they will object to them being added to something they are expected to eat.  Keep their attention upon the STONE part of the soup!)

We added corn off the cob (give the cob an extra scrape to get all the “creamy” parts into the soup)

and ham, diced small.

Let all of these simmer gently for about 10 minutes, get all the children to stir it about and remark upon the aroma and the sizzle of the soup- paying particular attention to the hard working stone in the midst of all those very small other ingredients.

Now add, 1 can of chicken broth

1 cup of water

3 medium size potatoes, peeled and cubed small.

This part is fun- because the kids can put the potatoes in by the handful, making some good splashes.  The broth and water aren’t hot at this point and so they won’t burn their hands.  Don’t let them cover up your stone- it needs to remain the focal point visually as well as in the final outcome of this soup.

Put a lid on the pot, turn the heat down slightly and let the entire pot simmer for at least an hour.

By this time, the aroma of the cooking soup is all around the house, the stone is making little drumming noises letting you know it is at work, and the kids are off doing their own things.

So  you can mash up the potatoes, add salt and pepper to taste, and add

1 can of evaporated milk.

The milk makes this into a magical brew.

Simmer for another 30 minutes-

At this point I thought it was a little liquidy- so I went into the fridge and grabbed out the leftover macaroni and cheese and added it to the pot.

Now- THAT was magic.

Because everything melded together “in the most delightful way”!

I left the stone behind.  Kristen said she is putting it into the pantry for future use.

They all at least tried the soup. 

Which is a small victory on the road to healthy eating -

and a joy for every storyteller’s heart.

I was sharing a bowl of soup and crackers with Jordan when he decided that his snack mix would go better than the crackers.  I started making this mix up when Meredith was here last, and Jordan asked me to keep making it.

It is really easy.

You go to a bulk foods store and buy Rye bagel chips, garlic bagel chips, and plain bagel chips, alphabet pretzels, sesame sticks, and flax seed corn chips.

Then you mix them all  together

in a big container,

and close the lid.

You can also play around with the pretzels and spell out your name and then photograph it.

This is really good stuff- I just made this container on Friday and already it is showing lots of space at the top.

Whoever  first said “easy as pie” was a liar.

And all of us who have repeated it over the years are just as bad.

Pie Ain’t Easy!!!

       Sometimes, the pie fairy hovers over your shoulders and all goes quite well.

Most of the time, the fickle little guy is hurrying off somewhere else and your pie dough falls apart, or is too tacky you add too much flour and it becomes doughy.

However, I have finally found some small success in making pies and I’d like to pass it on.

First of all- if a recipe says knead gently, THROW it away!

I bake bread,  you cannot knead gently.  And you cannot knead pastry AT ALL!

EVER!!!!!
In fact , don’t even use a spoon, use a fork.

Second, always use ice cold water.  As in -put ice cubes in your water.

Third- ask around for a recipe that is almost fool proof.

(Not that there is such a thing, but some recipes are better harder to mess up than others.)

Fourth- use pastry flour if you can find it.  It’s a softer flour and allows for a much flakier crust.

And lastly- pray.  I do not say this lightly.  I have been baking professionally, off and on for the last 30 years. and I very rarely bake anything that I don’t pray over.  (My niece’s son is just learning this verse- I Thessalonians 5:17- only he learned it – pray without seasick- LOL!)  But if you are praying without ceasing I find it easier to pray over whatever you are doing.  For me it has been a preponderance of baking.  So I think you SHOULD pray when you bake- don’t question- just do it!

Here are two recipes that are almost foolproof.   One is from a MS cookbook that Allyson always makes, and it contains lots of butter.

Double crust pie dough

2 1/2 cups flour    

1 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup ice cold water

Cut butter into flour and salt mixture with a pastry blender, until the butter is in very small pieces and incorporated with flour.  Add ice water and mix gently with fork.  Push together into 2 disks and refrigerate after wrapping in plastic wrap.

Don’t worry if you don’t pick up all the flour.  DO NOT knead it to pick up the rest of the flour. 

The next recipe I got from a lady at church many years ago.

Funny thing- I forgot about it until I read the same recipe here in reference to church ladies!   But then I looked it up and use it when I’m making pot pies or quiche- I like it better with heavier ingredients.

Pie Crust- vinegar recipe

4 cups flour

1 3/4  cup shortening

1 TBS sugar

2 tsp salt

1 TBS vinegar

1 egg

1/2 cup ice cold water

Basically, you just do the same stuff you did for the first  recipe, except you add the egg and vinegar to the water and then  mix gently with fork.

( If you went to the link, you will have noticed by now that she says to knead it a little-  don’t listen to her- this is MY recipe from a lady at church, and you shouldn’t knead it.  Not even a little.)

After you have refrigerated it for about an hour.  Take out one piece and flour your surface like a blizzard.  Then rub flour all over your pin and roll the dough to the outside.  Never roll inwards- it is really confusing and will give your pie wrinkles.

Next make sure the dough is about 2 inches larger all around than your pie plate.  Then fold the dough- gently into fourths- and place it into the plate and unfold it to fit. If it tears, you can piece it back together-

PRAY that it doesn’t tear!

Crimp around the edges and fill.

I had some frozen quiche filling,

so I added egg and half and half and swiss cheese and made a quiche with the vinegar pie dough.

Here is a neat trick I just figured out with foil to keep the edges from getting too brown.  I had been making a crust guard with foil- fitting strips around the edges and slightly crimping them to keep the foil from falling off.

BUT, if you use just a square of foil-

torn slightly in the center-

and keep tearing the foil-

from the center outwards, it is a lot easier and works just fine!

You already knew that, didn’t you?

Here is the quiche and a pumpkin pie I made with the butter dough.

So- that’s my story about pie dough and the many trials and failures I’ve had.

And that, my friends, is the truth.

And it wasn’t easy either.