Sweet Tart

In honor of Turkey Day, here is my simple recipe for homemade cranberry sauce. One of the best things about this recipe is that it makes the house smell truly wonderful!

• 1 bag cranberries
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 orange, juice and zest
  
• 1/2- 1 cup sugar
  
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 cup water
  

Rinse and sort thru your cranberries discarding any that are mushy or too bruised. Zest the orange. Add all ingredients to a pot, squeezing in the orange juice. I usually start with 1/2 cup of sugar and add more as needed, since I like my cranberry sauce pretty tangy. Turn on high until the pot comes to a boil - the sugar should be dissolved and the cranberries should pop. Turn to medium-low and simmer until it has thickened (45 min or so) and coats the back of a spoon. Let cool and store in fridge.

This is about how it should look when done.

I like a little cranberry sauce with my turkey as much as the next girl, but I find that it is even better in the following applications:

• serve as an accompanyment to brie or another soft cheese with bread
  
• use store-bought puff pastry and make little cups in a mini muffin tin. put in a dollop of brie and a tsp of sauce and bake until golden and melted (or you could make a brie en croute with a layer of cranberry sauce and nuts)
  
• Spread on pumpkin bread or other bread like jam (even better with a schmeer of cream cheese)
  
• warm it up and serve over vanilla ice cream (oh so good!)
  

Happy Bday Dr Kiang!

Now that I have given it to her, I can post about the mini clutch/make-up bag I made for Dr Kiang for her Bday, which is today! Happy Birthday, my fabulous friend!

However, one significant issue with this post is that I completely forgot to take pictures of the finished product!! DOH! But here it is prior to assembly.


I have to make more ruffles like this. It really looked good! Dr Kiang, when you get a chance please send me a photo or two for my portfolio!

Turkey, pecans and more...

Yesterday's Pre-Thanksgiving turned out to be a bigger deal than Phineas and I had planned. Usually, it is just the two of us and maybe a friend or two indulging in too much gravy. But when my MIL learned that we were cooking, the event mushroomed and the rest of Phineas' family joined in.

Phineas' turkey was perfect and his stuffing was delicious. He added some walnuts for crunch and some currants which were languishing in the pantry for sweetness. It was to good effect. He really has a way with roasts. This bird was treated to a butter and herb massage.

The apple-pecan tart was also a hit. Even Miss Julia ate two slices, although I suspect that she was in it for the home-made whipped cream sweetened with vanilla sugar. I had to chase her away from the bowl more than once before dessert.

Is there any aroma more heavenly than pie in the oven? Doubtful.

Anyway, this tart was definitely the love child of apple pie and pecan pie. It has some of the qualities of both - the sweet nuttiness of pecan pie and the warm perfume of apple. I ended up using some Lyle's and some maple syrup, which worked out well. I think next time I would saute the apples less so that they were firmer in the tart.

I used the tart shell recipe in the NY Times article. It was essentially pie crust but with the addition of an egg yolk, which made it a much softer and pliable dough. I didn't love it as much as my crust, but for the purposes of this tart, it worked well. So, I give the recipe two thumbs up with a dollop of whipped cream.

Twilight

Just in case you didn't realize the depth of my 13-year-old-self's obsession with this series... this is where I will be tonight, wearing my Twilight tee shirt.




In my defense, at least my tee is not from Hot Topic and has no images from the movie on it.

Update at 3pm: Thank you to Terpischory and Polyhymnia who emailed me the link to last night's South Park episode, which was all about the high school vampire phenomenon. I'm still cracking up laughing and even more thankful that I didn't get my tee at Hot Topic.

Pucker Up

For quite a while, Phineas has been planning to try his hand at homemade limoncello. He finally made good on this threat last night. It is a relatively straightforward procees and all you really need is sugar, water, lemon zest, alcohol and time.

For the lemons, Phineas used a mix of Meyer lemons and ordinary supermarket lemons. Really, the only work involved in this process is peeling or zesting a whole lotta lemons.

Did you ever think you would have a grown-up use for Everclear? Me neither. But limoncello really is the perfect application and gives this lowly grain alcohol an opportunity to get dressed up and act sophisticated.

And now for time. Phineas will turn or gently shake the limoncello-to-be every day or so for the next few weeks. Later, this Everclear and lemon peel mix will be diluted and refined with the addition of simple syrup (sugar & water) and vodka and bottled. Then more waiting while the flavors meld in the bottle. Phineas' finished limoncello should be ready for Santa's visit.

Random Pecan Pie Obsessing (Or I'm an Adult; I Can Have Dessert for Breakfast if I Want To)

No sooner had I finished the last slice of my pecan pie than this article appeared in the NY Times with a recipe for an apple-pecan tart.

Doesn't it look good? Yeah, it does.

A week or two before Thanksgiving, Phineas and I usually cook a turkey and all the sides that we just don't seem to get enough of on Thanksgiving itself. Yesterday, Phineas came home with our bird, so this weekend seems like the perfect time to take this tart for a test drive.

My fellow baker, Mar Mar, also reported back to me on the success of her pecan pie. She posed the following philosophical question: If you had pecan pie for breakfast, would you work off the calories throughout the day? My answer is a resounding: YES! Why the heck didn't I think of that?? What a perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee!

I fear that dangerous habits are about to be formed. Perhaps I shouldn't shout them aloud on my blog. But what's done is done. And soon the pecan tart will be, too...

No Show-n-Tell Today

I did a lot of work on my pants and jacket over the weekend, but have nothing at all to show you. So much of sewing is prep work. I cut the fabric for both garments and transferred all the markings from the patterns. Had I photographed it, all it would look like is a pile of black fabric with random chalk marks on it. Not too exciting

I also worked on a small project that is going to be a birthday gift for Dr Kiang, who reads this blog. So, I can't really show you that either. And now I am feeling rather self conscious about my small gift when Magenta, apparently, is buying her a house. Drat.

Sigh. It's gonna be a long week in the blogosphere.