I know, I know… I’ve been very bad about posting recipes recently, but I can explain!
Courtesy of me.
You see, Patrick and I have never been on a vacation, just the two of us. Ever. Sure, we’ve been places together, like upstate New York for a wedding, but we’ve never just gone somewhere for a weekend, stayed in a hotel, and relaxed together. And we will have been together two years, this December! It’s sad that it’s taken so long, right?
It had to be remedied, so we went to Boston over Halloween weekend. Not only was it beautiful, but it was just what we needed since we have been so busy as of late; we needed some us time.
You’re still mad at me, aren’t you? I said I was sorry! Okay, how about I make it up to you with an amazing recipe? Would that make things better?
Yes, yes, I promise to warn you next time and to at least call when I’m running late.
As I have mentioned before, I absolutely love the holidays and that includes Thanksgiving. This year, however, is a very special Thanksgiving. It will be the first year that Patrick and I will be spending it with his family, and it will be the first year that I will be contributing significantly to Thanksgiving dinner.
I’m not contributing one dish. No, no! I’m contributing a number of dishes. This is especially daunting since the most I have ever contributed to a Thanksgiving feast are those Pillsbury crescent rolls that come in a tube.
Needless to say, over the next couple of weeks, I will be test driving a few recipes because I’d rather a new dish bomb within the confines of our one bedroom apartment than in front of my future in-laws.
When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of turkey, stuffing, pie… and cranberries.
It’s funny to me how I consider cranberries to be such a staple of Turkey Day when I don’t even particularly like them. See, I have a particular aversion to mixing certain sweets and savories. For example, I cannot comprehend pineapple pizza. It simply does not make sense. Cranberries on, around, or touching my turkey makes me outright uncomfortable.
Another way to put it is that cranberries are as useless at Thanksgiving as fruit cakes are to Christmas. (For you fruit cake enthusiasts, yes, I’m sure there is a fruit cake out there with my name on it. I just haven’t met it yet.) As useless as fruit cake is, however, it is a beacon of Christmastime. Same goes for cranberries.
It’s tradition!
The question was how. How was I going to get cranberries on our Thanksgiving table this year? I decided to take a page from my stepmother’s playbook. You see, there is a story that years ago my stepmother, as an adult, was instructed to bring a vegetable dish for Thanksgiving. She does not like vegetables. Her solution? Corn pudding.
I liked her strategy. She won on a technicality! Brilliant.
My solution for Cranberrygate 2009?
Do you know how hard it was not to eat this dough straight with a spoon? Admittedly, I was not always able to resist temptation…
Fresh Cranberry Orange Bread with Walnuts
Ingredients:
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
1 cup raw walnuts, chopped (or dry roasted walnuts, chopped; if you use this option, omit 1/2 teaspoon of salt)
1 large orange
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flower
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons almost melted butter or margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
You will need a 9″x5″ greased loaf pan.
Directions:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) combine your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Take your orange and zest the entire fruit. Set zest aside. Cut your orange in half and juice. You should end up with approximately 1/2 cup of orange juice.
4. Add orange juice, zest, and butter to your egg. Mix slightly and then add to your dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly.
5. Mix in the walnuts and cranberries.
6. Spoon the mixture into your loaf pan. As it doesn’t really pour, I’d recommend using a rubber spatula to spread the dough out evenly. Do not worry of the top does not look smooth.
7. Bake for one hour, but start checking on it at the 50 minute mark. If your knife or toothpick after sticking it in the center of the bread, comes out clean, your bread is ready.
