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Cranberry-Cheese Nut Bread
Wednesday, 6:48 pm
By Kate
Sep
13
2006
2½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
3½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1¼ cups milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1½ cups shredded Cheddar Cheese (about 6 ounces)
1 cup of cranberries, cut into halves
½ cup chopped nuts
Heat oven to 350°. Grease bottom only of loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches, or 2 loaf pans, 8½x4½x2½ inches. Mix all ingredients; beat 30 seconds. Pour into pan(s). Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 9-inch loaf 65 to 70 minutes, 8-inch loaves 55 to 60 minutes; cool slightly. Loosen sides of loaf from pan; remove from pan. Cool completely before slicing. To store, wrap and refrigerate no longer than 1 week.
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My baking gene is fired up again. I made this last night and it turned out wonderfully. Made the house smell absolutely to die for—just the way it should on a crisp autumn evening. And, well, it tasted mighty fine, too. The only change I made was leaving the grated orange peel out. My taste buds don’t prefer the combination of orange peel and cranberries.
Waiting for food
Sunday, 7:11 pm
By Kate
May
07
2006
An hour or so ago I came home from the grocery store and immediately put the eye of round roast in the oven. I had to. My mouth hadn’t stopped watering since the moment I picked it up and put it in the cart. The house smells wonderful! I don’t cook meat all that often so I wasn’t sure how to cook this lovely roast. But as I was cruising around the grocery store, I kept seeing the roast nestled in with potatoes and carrots and gobs of onions and a chopped up clove of garlic and cracked pepper, wrapped in a triple thickness of aluminum foil, kind of like a tent. I stuck a meat thermometer in the roast and wrapped it exactly as I’d envisioned in the store (after searing it on all sides). Seems to be doing very nicely. It had better be done soon. The smell is killing me. I’m hungry. And the lad is driving me crazy. “Is it done yet?” “When will it be done?” “Should you go see if it’s done yet?”
Hope it is worth all the suffering we’re doing.
What's cookin'
Friday, 2:28 pm
By Kate
Feb
10
2006
It was a cold morning and the house was cozy warm from the wood stove. But the air was very dry. I filled the cast iron pot with water and placed that on top of the stove. And then I got to thinking...why not put my heavy stainless steel stock pot on top of the stove with the not-nearly-thawed chicken along with some chicken stock and cream of mushroom soup and potatoes and carrots and celery and mushrooms and a few onions and a bay leaf to gently simmer for most of the day.
For the cost of 4 good sized hunks of split wood, I’ve heated and humidified my house all day, and cooked dinner. That’s a pretty sweet deal. Smells good in here, too.
Comfort food
Sunday, 10:01 pm
By Kate
Dec
18
2005
One of the ways to ensure that the house is clean is to invite someone over for dinner. I spent the better half of the afternoon picking up and putting things away. Then dusting. Then mopping the kitchen floor. Everything sparkled.
Once that was done, I dragged out some more of my Santa Claus collection (mostly old Victorian Santas) and placed them around the dining room. And got out some pretty candles and turned on some Christmas music. By the time I started preparing the meal, this house was festive indeed.
The dinner wasn’t exactly holiday fare, but I’d been promising to make this dish for a friend for a long time. She has been going through a hard time in her life over the last year and having someone cook for her is the height of luxury. She really didn’t care what I cooked. The idea that she was going to be served made her so excited that she could hardly wait until she could come over.
The fact that the house smelled as promised made her all the more delighted.
Well, really, it’s not a fancy recipe or meal. Not at all. And it’s certainly not a heart healthy meal. But it’s one that hits the spot on a cold winter’s night. I don’t think it even has a name. And I don’t have the foggiest idea where I originally found the recipe. It was years ago. As usual, the dish turned out just fine and received enthusiastic reviews. The real test though is when your guest digs in for seconds. I think it passed with flying colors. I also have a lot left over, which is a good thing. This dish seems to grow in flavor overnight. Microwave the leftovers and you’d swear it just came fresh off the stove. Yum!
So what is this recipe? It’s a pasta dish and so easy to make that it should be kept a secret. Nothing that good should take so little effort.
Ingredients:
2 pounds of linguine cooked to preference
2 large sweet white onions, sliced, with slices cut into quarters
1 pound of bacon
Cook the bacon in a deep pan until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain.
Add all the onion to the bacon fat. Saute until the onions are transparent.
Crumble bacon in the bottom of a deep bowl. Place hot pasta over it. Add the cooked onion and bacon fat on top of the pasta. Mix thoroughly.
Crack some fresh pepper over the top. Eat and enjoy.
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I know it’s probably enough to clog your arteries for the next six months, but once in a great while it’s the ideal comfort food for a cold night with friends and a bottle of wine. We had a lot of fun tonight.
Holiday mobs
Wednesday, 9:31 am
By Kate
Nov
23
2005
I went grocery shopping last night. Silly me for thinking I’d beat today’s crush by going last night. Everyone else had the same idea, only several hours earlier. By the time I reached the store, it looked as if angry mobs of looters had already been there. There was nothing left. And there were empty boxes ripped apart on the shelves where frantic hands had grabbed for the last remaining items. The store was out of orange juice and Philadelphia Cream Cheese. And bread. One shopper stood next to me as we surveyed the carnage at the cream cheese shelf. She wondered out loud, “So is everyone serving bagels this weekend or what?” The store did have some soy yoghurt cream cheese left, but we both passed on that. I found the rest of what I was looking for, but what I’d especially wanted was orange juice and cream cheese.
I found them at the convenience store. Now I can make my no-bake cheesecake. I couldn’t find my recipe and spent over an hour looking for it on the web. I cannot believe how many cheesecake recipes there are. Anyway, this is the old classic Philadelphia cream cheese no-bake cheesecake recipe.
8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
(Do not use low-fat or no-fat cream cheese)
1 small can condensed milk (Eagle Brand)
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup lemon juice (i use less)
1 9-inch graham cracker crust
Comstock canned cherries (for topping)
In medium bowl, beat cheese until light and fluffy.
Add sweetened condensed milk, blend thoroughly. Stir
in lemon juice and vanilla. Pour into pie crust, chill
2 hours. Top with fruit topping.
Serve cold.