Easy Cranberry Sauce

Greg and I have made this easy recipe several times this season.

12 oz fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon crystalized or candied ginger, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup sugar (according to taste)

Heat over to 450. Finely chop ginger and combine with cranberries. Place mixture on two layers of aluminum foil. Fold and crimp foil tightly to make a sealed packet. Place directly on over rack and cook for 30 minutes. Remove cranberries from foil and stir with sugar to taste.

The best Cornbread

The Best CornBread

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream
3 Tbsp oil
2 eggs


Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl & then add the wet ingredients. Mix well & pour into a greased & floured 8x8 pan. (sometimes I am lazy and just grease it) Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until the top is golden, & firm, with no jiggles

Chocolate Torte

We recently had a couple of friends over for dinner. For dessert, I made a chocolate cake in a 9"x13" pan using an organic cake mix from Whole Foods. To my chagrin, the cake didn't rise. (I'm not sure why; maybe organic cakes aren't supposed to. Next time I'll stick with Duncan Hines.) So I cut the cake into thirds and stacked the pieces to make a triple layer tort. I made frosting from 1/3 cup butter, powdered sugar, a little milk, and a melted Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bar. My presentation distracted from the leavening failure, and our guests were very impressed.

Greg's artistic photograph of dessert, complete with cow pepper shaker

Crepes, anyone?

I made crepes for Greg's birthday breakfast, stuffed with clementine oranges, strawberries, and bananas. I used Alton Brown's recipe (ingredients below), but I like Mom's Swedish Pancakes recipe better. Brown says to let the batter rest in the fridge for 1 hour to let the bubbles subside. He says this makes the crepes less likely to tear when turning them.

Alton Brown's Crepes

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
  

Pumpkin Bars

Bars:

* 4 eggs
* 1 2/3 cups sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 15-ounce can pumpkin (1/2 of a large can)
* 2 cups sifted flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

* 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
* 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
* 2 cups powdered sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin on medium speed until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars. I made these bars in a large cookie sheet and baked them for 23 minutes.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Zucchini Brownies

Prepare and shred enough zucchini to make two cups. Let drain while preparing the following:
Sift together:
2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa

Mix:
2 cups zucchini
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla

Combine the dry ingredients with the zucchini. Spread batter on to an oiled cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes. After it is cooked, melt marshmallows over the top. Let cool. Then frost.

Recipes with history?

I'm working on writing a food history of pioneer Utah, and I was just wondering if anyone here has old family recipes going back several generations? Or perhaps a sourdough start with some antiquity? Or even just a story about a particular dish in your family? Drop me a line if you have goodies to share. Thanks.