Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family!!!  It's a quiet day at home for Tim and I.  We still cooked up a feast and ate in the dining room.



Smoked Turkey Breast
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Doni's Cranberry Sauce

We brined the turkey breast in this brine, used a local rub and smoked it in the smoker.  It was moist and delicious!  Michael Symon's stuffing is unlike any I've ever tried before.  The addition of the juice of an orange and the zest adds an interesting flavor.  We liked the stuffing but I think if I make it again, I would just a little less orange.  Doni's Cranberry Sauce is the recipe of my son's girlfriend's mother.  We enjoyed it when celebrating Thanksgiving with everyone a couple of years ago and it's now my go to recipe for Cranberry Sauce. 

I can't comment on the bread pudding just yet because we'll be enjoying it a bit later.  Perhaps, it will become a post of it's own.

Did you try some new recipes today or make the family favorites?

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Nantucket Cranberry Pie

For November's Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned Sarah's Kitchen.  It was hard to decide which recipe to make, there were lots of tempting ones on her blog!!!  Always looking for a new cranberry dessert for the holiday season, I chose this Nantucket Cranberry Pie!!! Why is it certain ingredients like cranberries and pumpkin seem to be reserved for October and November.  Delicious and versatile, why don't we use them more often?

This isn't your typical pie recipe, there's no bottom crust and the top crust is more like cake batter.  The recipe didn't say what size cake pan to use and my 8" round seemed small.  I decided to use my 9" springform pan.  While my cake was baking, I was watching the finale of Master Chef Junior.  Are those kids amazing or what?  When I started smelling something burning, I checked the oven and there was cranberry juice all over the bottom of the oven.  The good news, I use an oven liner.  The bad news, it's a two piece one so some juice had seeped onto the bottom of the oven.  What a mess!!  It's been a while since I've had a kitchen disaster!!  Note to self, springform pan was a bad idea!  More good news though, I have two ovens, so I finished the baking in the second oven. 

Despite the mess in the oven, the pie was a success.  The tartness of the cranberries combines nicely with the hint of almond and buttery dough. 


Nantucket Cranberry Pie
Recipe Courtesy of Sarah's Kitchen

Butter, for greasing pan
2 cups (heaping) cranberries 
3/4 cups pecans, chopped 
2/3 cups sugar 
1 cup flour 
1 cup sugar 
1 stick unsalted butter, melted 
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract 
1/4 tsp salt 
1 tbsp sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter a cake pan.  Add the cranberries and chopped pecans to the pan, top with 2/3 cup sugar.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, melted butter, beaten eggs, almond extract and salt.  Pour the batter over the cranberries.  Bake for 40 minutes, top with the tablespoon of sugar and continue baking for an additional 5 minutes.