Category Archives: Thanksgiving

Cranberry Chutney

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 25 November, 2013 None comments

Oh my goodness, if you like cranberries this is an amazing dish. You can use this as a side dish, appetizer, or for the main course. It is amazing!!! Needless to say, I made this with Pork for dinner and AFTER dinner, my husband informs me that he isn’t a big fan of cranberries. Now to my dismay I thought this would convert him to become a cranberry lover. He did admit that it was delicious but he doesn’t prefer cranberries. I was thankful that he ate dinner and didn’t say anything until afterwards, although I was so proud of this meal that my feelings were hurt just a smidgen.

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh cranberries
¾ cup water
1 ¾ cups sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
1 pear, chopped
¾ cup golden raisins
½ cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 275 degrees to roast hazelnuts. (see note below for roasting instructions)

Put water and cranberries into a 6-quart saucepan. Turn on medium high.

Combine sugar, cinnamon and allspice.

Add sugar mixture to the cranberries and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Continue to cook on medium for about 10-12 minutes until cranberries pop and mixture thickens up. Stir often.

Add pears, and raisins. Turn heat down to a simmer. Continue to simmer for about 10-12 minutes until pears are softened. Stir frequently.

Take off heat. Add roasted hazelnuts.

Discard the cloves if you can find them.

Serve chutney hot, or let cool and store for later. Refrigerate in tightly sealed jars for up to 3 weeks. I froze mine as my husband isn’t a fan. Thought I would use it for Thanksgiving for others who may appreciate it. Goes great with pork, chicken and beef, and as a spread with a variety of cheeses. I used goat cheese, crackers and this chutney as an appetizer. Yummy!!!

***Note:To roast hazelnuts:

Place the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet in a preheated oven (at 275 degrees) and cook until lightly browned. About 8-10 minutes. If the hazelnuts have skins, you can remove the skins when they are cool enough to handle, lay them on a clean kitchen towel, or between several sheets of paper towels and rub to remove most of the skins (they never completely come off).

This meal is beautiful and looks amazing on the plate. I served this with sautéed Brussels sprouts, apples and cranberries.

Isn’t it beautiful!?

Sister’s Pumpkin Loaf

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 23 November, 2013 None comments

By far the best pumpkin bread EVER. We went to visit my family for a week when my grandma passed away and while we were there my sister had a couple loaves of pumpkin bread. Truth be told, I think Cooper and I ate an entire loaf ourselves in the first day. Little did we know a second loaf was hiding out and the following day I literally had to pull the reigns in otherwise we would have devoured the entire thing. I can’t begin to explain to you the massive party in my mouth with this pumpkin bread. I could go off forever about it, but Cooper and I truly did devour these delicious loaves.

When we got home I set out to make this recipe and it was just as good as I had remembered. You really shouldn’t put this on your “list” to make, you should go ahead and make it right now, you wont regret it. :)

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
1/2 teas. baking powder
1/2 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. salt
3 eggs
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teas. vanilla

In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin, oil and vanilla; mix well.

Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Spoon into two greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

White Chocolate Pecan Pumpkin Muffins

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 20 November, 2013 None comments

When you have such a long name for the item you are baking, it says it all, the name being so long is a catalyst for the delicious ingredients that rest in the muffin. To me this is the perfect holiday food. Deee-licious! I keep them coming this time of year as it’s a great excuse to keep baking all the foods you want but can’t justify during the middle of summer. I believe this is why the holiday weight starts gravitating towards our hips and buttocks; lots of comfort food. :)

I actually started the morning off baking these muffins as our house was a bit chilly with the evening frost. The heat was already turned up and if I had a say, I would leave the heat at 78 for complete comfort but would create the perfect sauna for my husband. So, we steer clear of that and I resorted to baking to help add the extra heat that I absolutely love; a blazing oven.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tbsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree 1
¼ cups vegetable oil
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.

Line muffin tins with liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt and baking soda, stir to combine.

In a standing mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin-puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended.

With the mixer on low slowly add dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated

Add white chocolate chips and pecans and give it a good stir.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie Bars

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 19 November, 2013 None comments

Yesterday I went on a baking spree and made White Chocolate Chip Pecan Pumpkin muffins, Cranberry Cookie’s, Artisan bread and homemade spaghetti. My girlfriend came over for dinner with her son while our husbands went out and watched the Blazers game. I’ve been in a huge holiday cooking mode and have wanted to use the fresh cranberries I got last week.

Both of our sons are on a food strike and we both felt confident that they would eat spaghetti because what kid doesn’t like pasta? Ours! Okay it’s not that they don’t like it, but Coopers deal is anything and everything the last two months. He will not eat unless it’s scrambled eggs or desserts. It’s not suiting my fancy whatsoever so I’ve had to set limits that if he doesn’t eat in his highchair, he is choosing to go to bed hungry. This hasn’t really worked as he is getting most his nutrients from milk right now. I’ve had to come to the realization that I am providing him with a well-balanced diet so I can’t worry about him getting “enough” to eat. He will eat and drink when he is ready. This is a hard one for me, I feel responsible as I am the mother.

All that to say, last night my agreement with Cooper still remained: “if you don’t eat dinner, you go to bed hungry!” Sadly to say this lasted for only an hour. I was sitting on the floor eating my dessert and while I walked away for some water real fast, he stumbled upon the dessert plate. Clearly my strategy to hide it behind his giant ball where we were sitting on the floor wasn’t a good enough hiding spot. Or shall I say it wasn’t hidden at all and was placed directly in his sight. There was no stopping him at that point, he absolutely loved the sugary dessert but why wouldn’t he? Maybe the small amount of vitamin C from the cranberries will help provide some nutrients. :) It was very tasty and I let him partake in this dessert as it allowed me to get “seconds” now that I was sharing. Sweet baby.

Cranberry Cookie

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (if you use frozen, don’t thaw)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350ºF and spray a 9×13-inch pan with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, cream together canola oil, butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.

Add the flours and baking soda and stir just until the batter comes together.

Spread 2/3 of the batter in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with berries, then drop the remaining dough in spoonful’s over the fruit – it will spread as it bakes, and you don’t need to cover it all.

Bake for 30 minutes, until lightly golden.

This recipe was super easy and a quick last minute dessert. I enjoyed this recipe so much that I decided I would add this to the list of Thanksgiving desserts.