Shortbread Cookies with Orange Essense and Chocolate Chips

I love the combination of orange and chocolate. And I love shortbread. The way it breaks apart in your mouth and crumbles and melts and the sugar and butter and orange and chocolate dance around on your tongue... It's perfection!

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3/4 pound butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• zest from 1 orange
  
• 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier
  
• 1 (heaping!) cup of semi sweet or dark chocolate chips
  
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the Grand Marnier. Add the orange peel. Add flour to the to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a 3 by 1-inch finger-shaped cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Cornmeal Muffins with Cranberry Butter

This recipe is Ina's. So I knew it would be perfect! To give it a festive Holiday flair I served these delicious muffins with my Cranberry Butter. D-lish!

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup medium cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 extra-large eggs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, and eggs. With the mixer on the lowest speed, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until they are just blended. Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each one to the top. Bake for 30 minutes, until the tops are crisp and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly and remove from the pan.

The Cranberry Butter was out of this world good! In fact it was so good that I packaged up a small jar to bring with us to my aunt and uncle's to serve with the not overly sweet orange cranberry bread where it was received with much appreciation!


Cranberry Butter

You might be wondering where I came up with this idea... how strange to mix fruit and butter... but not really! Years and years ago (Ok, centuries ago!) I had my first job at Williams-Sonoma. I loved it there. We were heavily promoting the bread machine at the time and there was always something baking in the store. It smelled heavenly! Whenever we baked simple breads we always had something to serve on them. We concocted all these crazy and delicious spreads. We would combine jam and honey and butter to create the most magnificent Fruit Butters! I can still taste them on the warm, just baked breads... Ahhh... So anyhow, that was the influence behind this creation. I think you will like it a lot!

Directions:

1 stick of butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
1 1/4 (give or take what you have leftover) of home made cranberry sauce or relish (or whole berried canned cranberry sauce)
2 Tbs of honey

In a small food processor (I use my Cuisinart mini chop) place all your ingredients in food processor and pulse until the result resembles raspberry jam. The butter will be blended but you will see white "flecks." This is good!

This was delicious on the cranberry bread as well as the corn muffins... I can't wait to have some more in a bit!

Cranberry Orange Quick Bread

I used fresh cranberries so this bread is quite tart. Feel free to substitute the dried, sweetened variety if you prefer. I'm looking forward to having a slice in the morning... maybe with a little smear of fresh butter. Mmmm... Maybe I won't be able to wait until the morning!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

This recipe makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour
1 1/2 cup of sugar, plus 2 tbs
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup of orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup of fresh cranberries

Using a knife or mini blender chop cranberries add 2 tbs of sugar and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together eggs and sugar
Add flour and baking powder
Add canola oil and vanilla
Slowly add flour and baking powder and mix until well blender
Stir in cranberries

Pour into 2 well greased loaf pans

Place in oven 1 hour until lightly golden brown. (45 minutes in convection oven.)

Serve with butter, Marmalade or on its own!

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Nothing less than Aaaaahmazing! Light and yet decadent... this recipe is Giada's (de Laurentis). I opted not to dip the cookies in melted chocolate as I thought they really didn't need anything else!

These would be perfect in any cookie jar... would make a lovely hostess gift or a wonderful accoutrement to any holiday dessert buffet table.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped ( I made one batch nut-free and used almonds in the other in lieu of the pistachios)
  
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries
• 12 ounces good-quality white chocolate, chopped (I used a good quality white chocolate chip)
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the flour mixture and beat just until blended. Stir in the pistachios and cranberries.

Form the dough into a 13-inch long, 3-inch wide log on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden, about 40 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes.

Place the log on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti until they are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.

Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Dip half of the biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off the excess chocolate. Place the biscotti on the baking sheet for the chocolate to set. Sprinkle with the sugar crystals. Refrigerate until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes.

The biscotti can be made ahead. Store them in an airtight container up to 4 days, or wrap them in foil and freeze in resealable plastic bags up to 3 weeks.

Cranberry Sauce Pear Cake

I made a batch of cranberry sauce about 2 weeks ago. It's so easy to make that even though I do love the canned version I wanted to make my own. I was in a Pre-Thanksgiving mood so I cooked up a chicken, whipped up some gravy and cranberry sauce that I served along with wild rice and baby peas. It was such a delicious meal and we were all so happy to have the house smelling like the holidays.

I love to spread leftover cranberry sauce on turkey sandwiches. I love the sweet and tart flavor it lends to to the savory flavor of the turkey. But a roaster does not yield too many sandwiches and I found myself with all this leftover cranberry sauce that I did not want to toss. So I created this cake. And when everyone was asking for seconds and thirds I decided I should blog about it and share the recipe with you. Hope the recipe is accurate... I forgot to take notes as I went along!

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, test for doneness after 1 hour.

OR 350 degrees F if cooking in CONVECTION oven (as I did) for 1 hour
(My oven has a convection setting and I have started baking and roasting on this setting and love it!)

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour
1 1/3 cups of sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla (I eyeballed it)
4 eggs
3/4 cups of canola oil
3 medium pears, peeled, and cut into bite sized pieces
1 1/2 cups of cranberry sauce (recipe below) the kind with the berries

* In your mixer's bowl add flour, baking soda and sugar and mix well
* Add oil, eggs and vanilla and mix well
* Add cranberry sauce, mixture will turn purple!
* Gently fold in pears

*Pour mixture in to a tube or bundt pan
*Place in preheated oven for time mentioned above

*Remove and let cool 15 to 20 minutes before serving

*Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top

Enjoy!

I served this cake in the morning for breakfast the following morning. I liked it better warm (had a sample the night before! I warmed each slice in the microwave for about 15 seconds prior to serving. This would make a fabulous tea cake as well. And a fabulous gift to bring your host and hostess if you are going away this holiday season!

Care to have a slice?


How to make Cranberry Sauce

This simply cannot get any easier!
You'll need:

1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
Optional, add 1 - 2 teaspoons of orange rind

In a medium saucepan add your ingredients and stir over medium heat until sugar and water mix together and berries start to pop open. Cook for approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat Mixture will start to thicken as it cooks and will continue to thicken as it cools.

If you are a cranberry lover as I am, you might also want to try Rebecca's Colonial Cranberry Cake or my Cranberry Raisin Cake

Cranberry, Raisin and Apricot Scones

Soft, flaky, light and fruity these scones are a perfect fall afternoon snack or breakfast. You can substitute any fruit you want, as much or as little, but the cranberry-raisin-apricot combination is one of my favorites!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of flour, plus more for rolling and cutting scones
3 Tbs. sugar
2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/4 cup butter, cold, cut into pieces
8 oz plain yogurt (I've used vanilla in the past and got the same good results)
1 egg
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried apricots, cut into pieces
1/3 cup raisins

* In a large bowl stir together sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda
* Add egg, yogurt and butter, mix well
* Add dried fruit, mix well
* If the dough is too wet add more flour 1 Tbs at a time until your dough is rollable and not too sticky
* If your dough mixture is too dry (crumbly) add water 1 Tbs at a time

* On a clean, flat surface, sprinkle some flour, then roll out the dough and cut out into circles using a cookie or biscuit cutter. Repeat until all the dough is used.

* Place on a baking sheet, about 1 inch apart, brush lightly with water, sprinkle sugar over the top and bake for about 12 minutes at 400 degrees F until lightly golden. (1o minutes in convection oven)

Let cook about 5 minutes and serve!

Green Noodles and Ham Saddle Hill (a Casserole)

Casseroles were popular when I was growing up. They were hearty and nutritious. They were easy to make and could be prepared fairly quickly. Even better they could be made ahead of time, refrigerated or frozen and then taken out and placed in a hot oven when needed. My mother made slews of casseroles when I was a young child in the 70s. Many of these were her mother's recipes that she made her children in the 50s and 60s.

I'm not sure where this recipe comes from (both my mother and her mother hailed from the Rochester, NY area) as I have tried researching it. It seems worthy of reintroducing. It was a favorite of mine as a child. I love the color of the green noodles with the pink of the ham!

This recipe serves 8. You can serve it in a large casserole or two smaller ones, which is what I did.


Ingredients:

1 lb green fettuccine ( I used both green and white, 1/2 each)
2 1/2 cups of diced ham (about 12 oz, 2 slices of packaged ham steak -- deli ham works well too)
2 1/2 cups freshly grated Swiss cheese **
2 cups of Sour cream (I used light)
1/2 cup of evaporated milk (I used 1 cup of 1% milk thickened with 1 tbs of flour)
3 tbs. butter (to grease the pan -- I used a non-stick spray)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/3 cups of coarse bread crumbs, optional

*In a large pot cook noodles, til al dente (per directions on package)
*While noodles are cooking cut ham into small cubes
*Pour sour cream and milk in a smaller pan and heat slowly -- because this is low fat, this could curdle so heat the cream mixture slowly
*As the sour cream mixture heats, in a small bowl add 1 to 2 Tsp of sour cream to the flour, mix well and then add to the pan
* Bring mixture to a boil, remove from heat and add 1/2 of the cheese mixture, salt and pepper.

*When the pasta is ready, remove from heat and drain, then return to pan and add the cream and cheese mixture
*Add ham to noodles and mix well
*Place mixture into one or two casserole dishes (oven safe!)
*Combine the remaining cheese with the bread crumbs and sprinkle them over the top of the casserole you will be serving.

Place casserole in a preheated oven, 325 degrees, for about 15 to 20 minutes so that the top is golden brown and the noodles are reheated throughout.

For a previously refrigerated casserole, bring to room temperature and then bake for 30 - 40 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

** A mild white cheddar may be substituted



I grated my own Swiss cheese



I used both the green and the white fettuccine


In the casserole, with the ham before the cheese was sprinkled on top


I even brought out my old Corningware dishes reminiscent of the era!