Cranberry Sauce

Simple cranberry sauce that is best when made in advance and refrigerated.

1 bag fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice

Rinse cranberries.
In a medium size pan dissolve sugar in the orange juice and add cranberries.
Bring to a boil and turn heat down to medium low.
Continue to cook on medium low for about 10 minutes, you'll hear the cranberries popping. 
Remove from heat and let cool about 5 minutes before refrigerating. It will get thicker as it cools.
Refrigerate until serving.

Pumpkin Bars

Pumpkin Bars are one of the desserts I make every year for Thanksgiving. They can be made a couple of days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin Bars
3/4 c unsalted butter
2 c sugar
4 eggs beaten
1 (15oz) can pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 c all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional-1 cup chopped walnuts. I like to just sprinkle on top of the icing on half of them since some folks don't like them.

Icing
Beat...
3 oz cream cheese
1/3 c unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat 350
Butter a 10x15 jellyroll pan
Cream butter & sugar til light & fluffy
Beat in eggs one at a time
Stir in pumpkin
Combine flour, salt, spices, baking soda, & mix into pumpkin mixture
Bake 30-35 minutes or until center is set.

Spread on icing when cooled. Top with nuts if desired on all or half. Cut in squares.

Peach Blueberry Cobbler

I love peaches and blueberries together especially in cobbler. If you're not a fan of peaches or blueberries you can use the fresh or frozen fruit of your choice. You can also double this recipe for larger pans.

Ingredients

Batter:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large or jumbo size egg (2 eggs if medium sized)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Fruit mixture:
2 cans of peaches in light or heavy syrup, drain the juice leaving about 1/2 of one of the cans juice (do not use the no sugar added)
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (thaw, rinse and drain)
1 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375
Butter a 9x9 pan
Cream butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla
Add dry ingredients. Beat until the batter resembles a softer cookie dough.
Combine fruit with vanilla, cornstarch, cinnamon, and sugar.
Place fruit mixture in the 9x9 pan.
Spread dough mixture over the top of the fruit mixture.
Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cook times really depend on your oven, so you need to keep an eye on it. Check at the 15 minute mark and cover with aluminum foil if it is browning too quickly and the inside is not cooking as fast.

Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers. 

Plantains

YUM! Best word I can think of to describe plantains is yum. Plantains are super easy to fix and super popular in the Caribbean or even South Florida. For those of you that have never tried a plantain let me give you a brief description. They look like a banana, but are larger, and harder to peel. Oh! And you don't eat them raw, you cook them first. They have stages to ripeness, but I won't bore you with all those here since the most flavorful stage in my opinion is when the skins have turned almost black, that means the plantains are fully ripe, and very aromatic and sweet. You can cook plantains many different ways, but I like mine best fried and served hot.

Ripe Plantains (peel and slice like you would a banana about 1 inch thick)
Vegetable oil or butter (enough to coat the bottom of the pan)

Over medium heat, heat the vegetable oil or melt butter and place plantains in a single layer the pan (don't crowd the pan you will do multiple batches)
Cook about 2-3 minutes on each side until they are a caramelized brown color
Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain any grease
Serve hot

How easy can that be. Serve as a side dish.

Frittata

You can really get creative with frittata. The recipe below is just one of the many ways I like to make it. Mix it up with various veggies like peppers & mushrooms and top with ripe avocado. Be creative!

You can certainly double even triple the recipe, but make sure you adjust the cook times accordingly.

Frittata for two

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon
4 Morning Star breakfast patties or links (I like the hot & spicy version) you could use 3 oz chorizo sausage for you carnivores
1/2 c chopped tomato
1/4 c chopped green onion 
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 c soy milk (or cow milk)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro, divided
1/2 c Mexican cheese blend shredded

Directions
Preheat oven to 400
In a small oven proof skillet, I use a cast iron, heat oil over medium-high heat.
Add thawed patties chop and brown
Stir in tomatoes
In a small bowl combine eggs, milk, salt, and pepper
Pour over the patties and tomatoes
Reduce heat to medium, stir in green onion and 1 1/2 tablespoons cilantro
Cook until eggs set in the center, about 5 minutes
Sprinkle with cheese
Bake until the cheese fully melts (5-10 minutes depending on your oven)

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Who likes strawberry cheesecake? Unfortunately making homemade cheesecake takes a long time and can be pricey (I will be posting a recipe for the real thing one day). Cheesecake stuffed strawberries are super easy and can be made ahead of time for any occasion.

Ingredients
1 lb large strawberries
8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
4 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
optional-graham cracker crumbs, melted chocolate, or whatever you want to top with

Directions
Rinse strawberries and remove the top and hull the inside with a pastry tip or paring knife
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy.
Add cream cheese mixture to a piping bag or ziploc with the corner cut off.
Fill strawberries with cheesecake mixture.
Once strawberries are filled, dip the top in graham cracker crumbs or drizzle with chocolate or both! If not serving immediately, refrigerate until serving.

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin and Fall go hand and hand, so I thought I better post my pumpkin bread recipe now, I actually make this yummy bread year around. This recipe makes one loaf, but can be easily doubled for two loaves. You can also make mini loaves, but will need to reduce the bake time. If you are like me I like mine hot, so it's hard for me to wait for it to cool completely before I dig in! Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 c sugar
1 c pumpkin puree
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 c AP flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Optional-you can add or cover with 1/2 c coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions
Preheat oven to 350
Grease one loaf pan
Mix sugar, pumpkin, oil, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl
Stir in remaining ingredients
Pour into pan
Bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
Cool at least 15 minutes before you loosen and remove from the pan
Cool completely on wire rack before slicing
Store tightly wrapped in refrigerator up to 1 week