Cranberry Key-Lime Squares

Just in the nick of time here is my November recipe for my Twelve Cookies of Christmas series!

It combines two of my favorite flavors, cranberries and key lime. If you’re not a fan of tart foods, you may skip the cranberries and just make key-lime bars. The cranberries lend lovely holiday color and flavor, however.

One could also counteract the tartness by adding a tad more sugar. I like my bars tart, however. And I did put LOTS of confectioner’s sugar on top of the bars; they looked a bit like the ground after a dusting of snow. (The cranberries represent our hardy New England rocks!)

Until December……

Ingredients:

for the crust:

1 cup flour
6 tablespoons cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

for the middle:

1/2 to 2/3 cup cranberries

for the filling and top:

2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons key-lime juice
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons flour
confectioner’s sugar as needed for dusting

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8-inch-square pan.

First, prepare the butter crust. In a small bowl combine the flour, confectioner’s sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter.

Press this mixture (it will be crumbly!) into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for 5 minutes. Press the cranberries into the crust (they may or may not press down effectively; if they float up, they will be just fine!).

Move on to the key-lime filling. In a bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, and key-lime juice until they are thoroughly combined. Whisk in the milk, followed by the flour.

Pour the filling over the crust and cranberries, and return the pan to the oven. Bake until the filling sets and the edges are just a little brown. In my oven this took about 45 minutes.

Allow the bars to cool in their pan; then cut them into squares.

Makes 16 squares.

Cranini

My quest to use cranberries goes on.

This post uses items many of us have in the house on this day after Thanksgiving—turkey and cranberry sauce. (I also have a tuna variation for those who are sick of turkey but still want to use cranberry sauce!)

Lately, my mother will only eat warm sandwiches. So we have been making lots of panini. We don’t have a panini press, but my brother’s George Foreman grill works just fine. In a pinch I have even used two cast iron pans, one under the sandwich and one pressing down on top.

It took my cranberry-obsessed brain only seconds to come up with the concept of CRANini.

Variations on these themes are up to you. My nephew Michael wasn’t crazy about the idea of cranberry-chipotle mayonnaise so he made a turkey sandwich with turkey, cranberry sauce, and Swiss cheese. He didn’t bother with any mayonnaise at all, using the cheese and the cranberry sauce to bind his sandwich.

Anyway, here are my two variations. The turkeyberry sandwich takes a little forethought since the cranberry-chipotle mayo tastes best made in advance.

By the way, readers who love to bake may want to take advantage of King Arthur Flour’s Black Friday sale to stock up on baking essentials. The sale ends today, but it’s worth a look. (No, King Arthur Flour didn’t pay me to tell you this; I just happen to love its products!)

If you’re interested, click here.

Happy shopping—and eating…….

Cranberry-Chipotle Mayonnaise is VERY pink!

I. Turkeyberry Panini

Ingredients:

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce
1 chipotle in adobo, finely chopped (less if you don’t like spice)
1 pinch salt
two pieces of bread (we used soft French bread)
sliced turkey
the cheese of your choice (we used Swiss)

Instructions:

First, prepare the cranberry-chipotle mayonnaise. In a bowl stir together the mayonnaise, cranberry sauce, chipotle pieces, and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Put a small amount of the prepared mayonnaise on each side of the bread. On one side of the bread, cover the mayo with turkey and then the cheese.

Pop on the other piece of bread and press the sandwich together while cooking. Serves 1 spicily. (You will have leftover mayonnaise for several more sandwiches!)

II. Tunaberry Panini

Ingredients:

two pieces of bread (we used soft French bread)
a small amount of mayonnaise for binding
a simple tuna salad (tuna, as little mayonnaise as you can get away with, finely chopped celery, lemon juice, salt, and pepper)
whole-berry cranberry sauce
the cheese of your choice (we used cheddar)

Instructions:

Put a small amount of mayonnaise on one side of the bread, and spread tuna salad on top. Cover with a little cranberry sauce (too much will spread all over your pan while cooking), the cheese, and the other piece of bread.

Press the sandwich together while cooking. Serves 1 happily.

Upside Down in the Kitchen with Cranberries

Expert baker Nancy Baggett recently wrote on her blog that the U.S. cranberry yield offers a challenging message to cranberry lovers:

EAT CRANBERRIES OR THEY WILL DIE! (The cranberries, that is, not the lovers.)

Apparently, growers have gotten so good at cultivating cranberries that they produce more and more of the things every year. If they can’t sell these tiny red pearls, the growers are told by the U.S.D.A. to let them rot in their bogs.

I was taught by mother that wasting food is a crime so naturally I have to help any crimson beauties doomed to end their lives in the bog like some pathetic monster in a horror movie.

I hope readers will do their part as well. Make cranberry sauce to accompany your turkey for Thanksgiving tomorrow, of course. Also please consider serving it with hamburgers, garden burgers, ham, fish, and eggs. Its flavor is as perky as its color.

See how many baked goods you can create with cranberries or dried cranberries this holiday season—muffins, cookies, scones, pies, cakes, breads.

Finally, think about cranberry-based main dishes and appetizers. I am working on a cranberry pot roast for Christmas Eve. If it tastes as good as I think it will, I’ll share that recipe here.

In the meantime, here is a simple cranberry recipe suited to Thanksgiving or any other day in the next month or so.

Regular readers may have noticed that I have a positive passion for upside-down cakes—pineapple, rhubarb, peach. The other day I got to wondering how cranberries would work upside down.

Of course, they were fabulous. The berries provided a tart contrast to the brown-sugar topping.

Enjoy … and happy Thanksgiving to all………

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients:

for the upside-down topping:

1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup) plus a little more if needed
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups fresh cranberries

for the cake:

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

My mother Jan and nephew Michael toast the holiday with a nonalcoholic cranberry cocktail.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

First make the topping (which goes on the bottom).

Melt the butter in a skillet—a 9- or 10-inch cast-iron skillet, if possible. Stir in the brown sugar and cook, stirring, until it melts and bubbles—3 to 4 minutes.

If your brown sugar is old, it may have trouble melting properly, in which case you’ll need to add a little more melted butter to it. Try to avoid this if you can; the cake is rich enough without it! I was recently stuck with old sugar, however, and had to punt.

If you’re using the cast-iron skillet you may continue with the recipe at this stage and cook the cake in the skillet. If not, transfer the brown-sugar mixture into a 9- or 10-inch round cake pan. Spread it through the bottom of the pan. Arrange the cranberries on top as artistically as you can.

In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the baking powder and salt.

Add the flour and milk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the vanilla.

Spoon the batter over the cranberries in the cake pan or skillet, and place the pan in the oven. Bake until the cake tests done (in about 40 minutes).

Let the cake stand for 10 minutes; then invert it onto a serving plate. You may need help with this if you use the cast-iron skillet as it feels a bit heavy during the inverting process.

This cake is best served slightly warm with or without a little whipped cream.

Serves 6 to 8.

Loyce’s Flu Season Emergency Chicken Soup

This recipe comes from Loyce Cofer of Tyler, Texas, a loyal reader of this blog.

Loyce is 70 and lives in East Texas with Don, her husband of 51 years. I asked her about her life, and she replied that the pair had sometimes had to struggle to make ends meet. “We’ve managed with a lot of perseverance,” she added.

Loyce can’t cook or get out as much as she used to since she suffers from diabetes and neuropathy in her feet. She is also a seven-year survivor of breast cancer. Despite her aliments she is grateful for every drop of rain in her dry area and for the gifts of life, friends, faith, and family.

“My life as a stay-at-home mom was rewarding in a way as I loved our sons so much and strived to make it warm and welcoming,” she wrote. Obviously, this chicken soup—perfect for the cooler weather and the season of colds and flu –would contribute to the literal and figurative warmth of that home.

“I’m a recipe hound as you know and do love to cook with herbs and spices, even wine occasionally but not a gourmet,” Loyce told me. She sounds like a woman after my own heart. “I make this for my husband and myself since our sons live out of state but I would make it for friends that are feeling poorly.”

Loyce makes her soup with a tablespoon of Wyler’s chicken bouillon granules. I had the bones and leftover meat from a small chicken leftover in the house so I added them to the soup instead of the granules. If you don’t have leftover chicken, do try her method. (Of course, this coming week most of us will have leftover turkey.)

The recipe may be increased or decreased as needed.

Here’s a tiny photo of Loyce with her husband Don taken during the spring flower display in Tyler, a town famous for its azalea trails.

Ingredients:

1 chicken carcass with some leftover meat (or 1 tablespoon bouillon granules)
enough water to cover the chicken (plus a little to spare)
garlic to taste; Loyce used minced dried garlic, but I used 2 cloves of minced fresh garlic
1 onion, diced
2 medium diced carrots, diced
1 stalk celery, peeled of fiber and diced
parsley to taste and other herbs like thyme and rosemary (fresh or dry; I used fresh parsley but dried thyme and rosemary)
salt to taste
pepper corns to taste

Instructions:

Place all the ingredients in a stock pot and slowly bring them to a boil over medium heat with the pan covered. Watch the pot so it won't boil over.

When the water comes to a boil reduce the heat and cook the soup, ALMOST covered, for 3 hours, adding water if needed.

Loyce skims the fat from the soup as she cooks. I’m not very good at this so I waited until it was done (see below).

Remove the ingredients from the pan and strain the stock away from the sold ingredients. Save the pieces of chicken (without skin), carrots, and (if you like) the onion and celery bits; mine had given their all so I discarded them.

If you haven’t skimmed the fat off, refrigerate the stock and other ingredients until the fat solidifies at the top of the stock pan. Remove the fat, add the saved bits of chicken and vegetable, and bring the soup to a boil again. Let it cool slightly before pouring it into bowls.

Serves 4 to 6, depending on the size of your chicken pieces and the amount of water you added. Loyce likes to serve this with cornbread.

Cranberry Salsa and Procrastination

Regular readers may have been wondering, “When the heck is Tinky going to get around to Thanksgiving?”

I’m a last-minute girl in a last-minute family, I’m afraid. So we’re only now starting—and I do mean starting—to talk about the menu for next Thursday.

In case you can’t wait until Wednesday night at midnight for suggestions, here are a few posts from the past to enhance your Thanksgiving plans (many more can be found on this blog!):

Cyndie’s Cheesy Corn Pudding
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Cider-Maple Vinaigrette
Cranberry Waldorf Salad
Parker House Rolls
Hush Puppy Pudding AND Cranberry Chiffon Pie
Cranberry Apple Crumb Pie
Pumpkin Gingerbread Pudding
and my personal favorite, Cranberry Cream Puffs

As we contemplate contemplating Thanksgiving my family members are enjoying a combination of two of our favorite foods, cranberries and salsa.

The salsa below is quite mild. At one time, I thought all salsas had to be ultra hot. Lately, however, my palate is craving subtlety.

You may of course add more jalapeño—even more lime and cilantro if you wish.

We’re enjoying this version right now on chips and on crackers with cream cheese. We may even throw it on the Thanksgiving table next to the turkey and see what happens.

By the way, dear readers, I’d love it if you’d take just a moment to support this blog. It’s a finalist in something called the “Blog of the Year” competition. Just go to the voting station at the Blog Revue and click on “In Our Grandmothers’ Kitchens.”

This is a simple vote; you don’t have to register or anything weird like that. I’ll let you know if I win. Thank you—and now here’s the salsa recipe.

Cranberry Salsa

Ingredients:

2 to 3 scallions, chopped (white part and some green)
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced (more if you like spice)
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
the juice of 1 lime
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups homemade whole-berry cranberry sauce (I could give you the recipe, but honestly it’s on the side of most bags of cranberries; just add a pinch of salt to the basic formula)

Instructions:

In a medium bowl combine the scallions, pepper, cilantro, and lime juice. Stir in the salt, then the cranberries.

Mix thoroughly. Chill, covered, for at least 1 hour before serving.

Makes about 2-1/2 cups.

Miss Mogli is not sure what to make of cranberry salsa. The human members of the Weisblat family love it.

First Try Butternut Squash Pizza

Neighbors returned recently from a dinner at the Charlemont Inn with tales of being fed squash pizza.

As a fan of both squash and pizza, I was intrigued. It was only a matter of time before I fed a version of this dish to my family.

My success was mixed although generally positive.

As I note in the recipe below, I think the squash needed more spices to offset its sweetness. And it DEFINITELY needed the thinnest crust possible.

On the other hand, the color was pretty gorgeous, and we definitely ate the slightly sweet/slightly spicy combination. So I have decided to post the recipe.

If any of you try it (and/or adapt it), please let me know what you think! I’ll probably make it again next fall and post an update.


Ingredients:

extra-virgin olive oil as needed for sautéing and roasting
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, finely diced
1-1/4 pounds butternut squash (cut into chunks)
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon cumin seed (I will increase this next time!)
1 teaspoon chili powder (ditto)
3/4 cup water
more water or cream to thin the squash as needed (I used a couple of tablespoons of cream, but I think water would do as well)
1 pizza crust
grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese as needed (I used about 1-1/2 cups)
1/2 bell pepper, cored and cut into thin strips (I used a yellow pepper because I had it, but green or red would make a prettier contrast with the squash.)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If your pizza dough is refrigerated, take it out of the fridge so it can come to room temperature while you are doing the rest of the work.

Place a Dutch oven on the stove top, and heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in it. Toss in the onion and garlic and sauté until they begin to brown.

Toss in the squash, salt and pepper, and seasonings, and stir to coat the squash with spices and oil. (Add a little more oil if necessary.)

Place the pan in the oven, uncovered, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring from time to time. Stir in the water and continue to cook, covered, until the squash is very soft—about 1/2 hour longer.

Remove the pan from the oven, and mash the squash and remaining water together. Preheat the oven as indicated in your pizza dough instructions.

Mash in a little liquid to make the squash puree spreadable. Next, roll and/or stretch the pizza dough out gently (this may take a few tries) so that it forms a 14-inch circle (or a rectangle to go onto a cookie sheet if you don’t have a pizza pan). Use a little flour to help with this if necessary.

Spray your pan lightly with cooking spray and oil it even more lightly. Place the dough on the pan. Spread a very thin film of olive oil on top.

Spread the squash puree on top of the crust, and top that with the grated cheese. Arrange the pieces of pepper onto the cheese topping.

Bake the pizza until the cheese is nicely melted and the bottom of the crust turns golden brown. With my crust (from Trader Joe’s) and my oven this took about 20 minutes.

If you are using a thicker pizza crust, you may want to cook the crust a bit before you spread the toppings on so that the pizza cooks all the way through.

Serves 4 to 6.

Tinky's Apple-Pumpkin Scones

I know I’ve been a bit fixated on warm breakfast foods lately—probably because of the chill in the air.

These scones are so seasonal that I had to keep up the breakfast trend for one more post!

I have seldom met a scone I didn’t like, but even to my sconophilic taste these are special. You can taste and feel everything in them—the apples, the pumpkin, the spices, and of course the butter.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking power
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold sweet butter
2 small apples, cut up
1/2 cup (generous) pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons sweet cider
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
additional sugar as needed

Instructions:

Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Cut in the butter, but be careful not to overmix. Stir the apple pieces into this mixture.

In a separate bowl, thoroughly combine the pumpkin, cider, egg, and vanilla. Add this mixture to the dry mixture and blend just to moisten the dry ingreidents. They won’t ACTUALLY get completely moist at first.

Transfer the ragged dough to a board, and knead it a few times to make the ingredients start to hold together. Shape it into 1 or 2 slightly flattened rounds (1 for large scones; 2 for small). Using a serrated knife, cut each round into 6 or 8 pieces.

Place the wedges of dough (your future scones) on a cookie sheet covered with a silicone baking mat. Allow the sheet to cool in the freezer for 1/2 hour.

While it is cooling preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Remove the scones from the freezer, sprinkle sugar generously over them, and bake them for 15 to 18 minutes, until they are a nice brown on the bottom.

Makes 6 to 16 scones, depending on size.

Mystery Apple Pancakes

The sleepy child can barely manage to pour syrup on his pancakes.

In my continuing celebration of apple season I decided yesterday to try putting apples into pancakes. My nephew Michael was sleepy when he got up for school but endorsed the idea as well as a drowsy child could.

Michael’s mother Leigh had to go run an errand as I was preparing to throw the pancakes together. I found most of the ingredients in her kitchen, but the flour was a mystery. I had NO IDEA what Leigh had in her flour bin.

It looked like plain old flour—but Leigh has been known to use white whole wheat flour and even gluten-free flour in her cooking. The child was stirring in his bed so I decided to take a chance and use whatever it was.

When Leigh returned home she informed me that I had in fact made the pancakes with King Arthur Flour’s gluten-free multi-purpose flour blend. This blend worked like a charm. I’m a little fussy about consistency, and I had nothing to fuss about here.

Young Michael—and everyone else—pronounced the apple pancakes a roaring success. He even finished the meal looking much more perky than he does in the photo above.

Ingredients:

1 cup gluten-free flour (or the flour of your choice)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 medium apple, finely chopped
butter as needed for heating

Instructions:

Using a whisk combine the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and sugar.

In a separate bowl whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and melted butter.

Gently stir the wet ingreidents into the apple mixture. Do not overmix. Stir in the apple pieces.

Heat a frying pan or skillet to medium heat (375 on an electric skillet), and melt a small amount of butter into it.

Dollop a generous serving spoon of batter onto the pan for each pancake. Do not crowd the cakes in your pan.

Turn the pancakes after a minute or two, when they are nice and bubbly on the surface and easy to lift. Add a bit more butter as needed to prevent sticking. Remove and serve with butter and warm maple syrup.

Makes about 12 pancakes.

Easier Than Pie Apple Fritters

The first weekend in November in our corner of western Massachusetts is reserved for Cider Days, our annual celebration of the end of the apple harvest.

Events are scheduled all over Franklin County this year. They will include a special tribute to the late Terry Maloney of West County Cider, who started this festival in 1994 with his wife and business partner Judith.

Local food lovers should plan on attending some of the events on Saturday and Sunday, which include orchard tours, cider-based meals, and (my personal favorite) a cider salon.

I am lining up some cider and apple recipes for the West County Independent. They will doubtless find their way onto these pages eventually.

Meanwhile, here is a preview to get you in the mood.

These apple fritters are the brainchild of Sheila Velazquez of Pen and Plow Farm in Hawley, Massachusetts.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler. If you slice the apples quite thin and make sure the batter is spread throughout the apple pieces, you get a lovely combination of sweet and tart, crispy and slightly soft. The fritters can be used as an accompaniment for pork or stew—or as a simple dessert or breakfast treat.

Sheila says she omits the sugar and uses this same recipe for corn and zucchini fritters. I can’t wait until next summer to try those. The apple version is absolutely addictive.

Sheila’s Apple Fritters

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar (I actually couldn’t find confectioner’s sugar and used regular sugar, which worked just fine!)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional--Tinky’s addition!)
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups thinly sliced apples (try for a relatively crispy apple; I used galas)
canola or vegetable oil as needed for frying

Instructions:

In a bowl whisk together the flour, the baking powder, the salt, the sugar, and the cinnamon (if you are using it; I loved it). In a smaller bowl whisk together the milk and egg.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir just until they are blended. If your batter is a little too wet, add a tiny bit of flour; if it’s dry, add a small amount of milk.

Toss in the apples, trying to coat them lightly but thoroughly.

Cover the bottom of a nonstick frying pan with oil and heat it until the oil shimmers. Pop in a few apple pieces at a time and reduce the heat so that the fritters won’t cook too quickly. Fry the apple fritters on one side; then the other.

Keep the fritters in a warm oven until their relatives are ready to serve. Or just dole them out to those waiting eagerly at the table as they are ready.

Serves 4 to 6.

Laurel's Squash Risotto

This recipe was inspired by Laurel Ritmiller Lucrezia of Boston. I “met” Laurel on Facebook when she informed Mass Farmers Markets (and therefore all of that organization’s friends!) that she was getting ready to make some butternut squash risotto. I was taken by the idea and asked her for her recipe.

Of course, being me and having the ingredients I had in the house, I changed the recipe! (Laurel said I should feel free to do so.)

I had just used up my butternut squash so I tried a delicata instead. The butternut would probably provide squashier flavor and require more chicken stock since it’s larger. The delicata was lovely, however. Its flavor was subtle, and it lent a gorgeous seasonal color to the risotto.


Ingredients:

1 medium delicata squash
4 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet butter plus another 1/4 cup later if desired
2/3 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-1/4 cups Arborio rice or long-grain rice
1 cup white wine
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup finely diced carrots (optional)
4 teaspoons chopped parsley
several sage leaves, finely chopped
I small fresh tomato, diced
grated parmesan cheese to taste (start with 1/2 cup)
1 6-1/2 ounce roll of chèvre cheese (optional but what a great idea)

Instructions:

Peel the squash. Cut off the ends and scoop out the seeds and the goop in the middle.

Cut 3/4 of the squash into small cubes. Cut the remaining quarter into tiny julienne strips and set them aside.

Pour the chicken stock into a saucepan and pop in the cubes of squash. Cover and cook until the squash softens, about 20 minutes. Let the squash and liquid cool for a couple of minutes and then puree them. I used a potato masher for this, but you could also employ a food processor or blender.

Put the squash stock into the saucepan and keep it on low heat as you make the risotto.

In a heavy saucepan over moderate heat melt 1/4 cup butter and add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the rice. Cook for 1 minute.

Add 3/4 cup of the wine plus the bell pepper and carrots (if you’re using them), and stir. Add 1 cup of squash stock and keep stirring.

As the mixture cooks and the rice dries up, add the remaining squash stock a bit at a time. Cooking will take quite a while–somewhere between half an hour and 45 minutes. (In my experience, the only sure-fire way to know whether risotto is done is to taste it and decide whether the rice has cooked.) If you run out of squash stock, add a small amount of water.

About 20 minutes into cooking your risotto, add the small pieces of squash.

Just before serving, add the tomatoes, the herbs, the remaining wine, the last bit of butter (if you want an extra rich risotto), and the parmesan.

For extra deliciousness, top each serving with a wedge of chèvre. I didn’t have any in the house so I omitted this, but I’m trying it next time!

Serves 6.