Cran-Apple Pie...Better Than Raisin

It's really all in the title, everything you need to know.

This is my replacement for that goofy raisin pie on my original Thanksgiving menu that turned out to be such a dud. But this pie wasn't just better than the raisin pie, it was really great, in my humble opinion. I love the slight sweetness and the tangy tartness in this pie. I like apple pie by itself, but the addition of the fresh cranberries made this a much more interesting dessert with a more complex flavor. I did use the pie crust recipe from the raisin pie though, and it was nice and flaky.

I have been using fresh cranberries so much lately, I don't know what I'm going to do when they disappear from the markets. I think I might have to stock up on them and freeze them to make them last longer!

Cran-Apple Pie
Makes 1 standard pie

Ingredients:
2 1⁄2 cups flour
1⁄2 tsp. salt
2 tbs. sugar+ extra for the top
1⁄2 lb. chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup ice cold water
4 cups tart apples, cored and sliced (about 5 medium apples)
1 cup fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbs. orange juice
2 tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 egg white

Directions:
-Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Cut the chilled butter into very small pieces and add to flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or two knives until the butter is in pieces the size of peas. Add ice-cold water to the mixture a few tablespoons at a time until the dough comes together. Form the dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for at least two hours.
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-Combine apples, cranberries, sugar, orange juice, cornstarch cinnamon and nutmeg, and toss until combined.
-Roll out each piece of dough separately. (This is easier between two pieces of parchment paper.)
-Place the first piece of dough in the pie dish, pour in the fillings. Cover the top of the pie with the second piece of dough and seal the edges. Cut four vent holes in the top of the pie. Place the pie on a cookie sheet to catch any overflow from the pie.
-Brush the top 0f the pie with the egg white and then sprinkle with sugar.
-Bake for 45 minutes. Cover the crust with foil if it starts to get too dark.

NOTE:For a larger, deep dish pie multiply the recipe by 1.5 and bake covered with foil for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 30 minutes more.

A Thanksgiving Miracle, Accomplished

I'm happy to report that we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My family, good friends, and good food. There was a lot of laughing and good times, I am so thankful that my family and my best friends could be here. I love cooking, but more than that, I love sharing what I make with the people I love, so thank you Mom, Dad, Maxx, Jake, Donald, Nic, Carrie, Alec, Taylor, and Chris! And a BIG thank you to Poppop, who sent down pumpkin pie, cookies, and banana bread so my life would be a little easier.

I am thankful that we were blessed and able to enjoy this holiday during these tough economic times, because as Mom said last night, "By next year we might all be eating pigeon."
Even if we are, I will still be thankful for the family and friends. Besides, they make delicious pigeon in Egypt, I bet I can find a recipe for it...

Where to start with the food? I guess the logical place to start would be the turkey. I made a 13 lb. cider-brined turkey and two 4lb. turkey roulades. An unscientific poll came up 50-50 over the favorite. As final judge and arbiter, I'm giving the first-place, blue ribbon turkey prize to the cider-brined whole turkey (which I don't have a picture of yet, but I will get one up as soon as I get reports from my unofficial photogs for the evening). It was very moist and flavorful because of the brine, and it was considerably easier--just plop it in the bag with the brine for 24 hours, take it out, stick some oranges and herbs in the cavity, and roast.

The turkey roulade, on the other hand, required de-boning (ok, the butcher actually did that part for me, but I had to ask, twice!), pounding flat with a rolling pin, filling with stuffing and rolling up and tying with little pieces of string. In fairness though, the turkey roulade was delicious also, and it was quite a few peoples favorite, including Nic's. So it will be awarded a second-place ribbon and a permanent page protector in my recipe binder. (Where do recipes who do not earn a page protector go, you might ask. They get stuffed in the side pockets, become splattered with food, crumbled, and sometimes lost or forgotten. A sad fate.)

I know no one even wants to think about making turkey the Friday after Thanksgiving, but for the sake of preserving history, and my recipes in case I ever lose that binder, I'm going to post both recipes today. Feel free to ignore for the next 364 days, unless you are a turkey for Christmas person. In which case, this might be useful sooner.

Cider-Brined Turkey
Ingredients:
Brine
9 cups cider (You can use water if you don't have cider.)
1 cup kosher salt
1 tbs. black peppercorns
1 tbs. all spice
6 cloves
2 bay leaves
7 cups of ice

Aromatics
1 orange, quartered
1 onion, quartered
bunch of sage
bunch of rosemary
salt/pepper
olive oil
butter

Directions:
-Boil cider and the rest of the brine ingredients, except ice, for 5 minutes.
-Remove from heat and add ice.
-Remove neck and other innards, rinse turkey, and place turkey, breast side down, in large plastic bag (a trash bag works, but double bag to be safe).
-The brine should be cool from the ice. Pour brine over turkey. Cinch bag with rubber band and place in the fridge for 24 hours.
24 hours later...
-Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
-Remove turkey from brine and rinse. Place on a roasting rack, tuck the wings underneath the body. Stuff herbs in the bottom of the cavity, then fill with oranges and onion.
-Run your hand between the skin and the breast meat of the turkey. Stuff two small pads of butter between the skin and breast on each side. Now tie together the turkey legs with kitchen twine.
-Brush the outside of the turkey with olive oil and sprinkle with salt (just a little!) and pepper.
-Roast for 20-30 minutes in 500 degree oven, until the turkey is nicely browned. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to roast until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 165-170 degrees. Don't wait for the little pop-up to pop if you have one. The turkey will already be a little overcooked usually if you wait for that.
-Remove the turkey from the roasting pan and tent with foil. Let rest at least 30 minutes so the juices redistribute before you carve it.
-In the meantime, tip the roasting pan and skim some of the fat off the pan drippings. Stradle the roasting pan over two burners on medium heat. Add about 1 cup dry red wine (or white wine, or turkey stock, or vermouth...) to the pan drippings and reduce by half. Strain the pan drippings and reserve juices to serve with turkey or to add to gravy base.

Notes:
-The turkey has to be defrosted before you brine it, or the brine won't really have the same effect.
-After you put the brine in the bag, try to pull the bag snug around the bird so that the brine is in contact with at least most of the bird. This is why you put it in breast side down, so you are at least sure the white meat, which tends to be what gets dry, is totally covered by the brine. (Credit where credit is due, the upside-down brining technique was Nic's idea.)

Turkey Roulade w/ Cranberry Stuffing
Adapted (i.e. simplified) from Gourmet
Ingredients:
Stuffing
2 cups diced baguette
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 tsp. finely chopped garlic
2 tsp. finely chopped fresh sage
1 1/2 tsp. salt (I didn't measure this)
3/4 teaspoon black pepper (I didn't measure this either)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 large egg
1/4 cup whole milk

Turkey and Sauce
1 (4 1/2- to 5-lb) boneless turkey breast half with skin
1/2 cup medium-dry Sherry
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 cup apple cider

Directions:
Stuffing
-Preheat oven to 350°F.
-Toast bread cubes on a baking sheet until dry and just beginning to brown around edges, 12 to 15 minutes.
-Put cranberries and water in a small heavy saucepan over low heat and simmer uncovered until cranberries are rehydrated and all the water is absorbed, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat. (Drain any water that doesn't absorb.)
-Cook celery, onion, garlic, and sage, in 2 tbs. butter in a skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat to let cool.
-Whisk together egg and milk in a large bowl, then add bread cubes, cranberries, and onion mixture, and season with salt and pepper. Let the bread absorb all of the liquid and let stuffing cool.

Turkey
-Arrange turkey, skin side up, on a work surface with narrower, pointed end nearest you. Determine which long side of the breast is thickest, then, starting from that side and holding knife parallel to work surface, cut breast horizontally almost in half, stopping 1 inch from other side. Open breast like a book and put between 2 sheets of plastic wrap
-Pound turkey to 1-inch thickness with flat side of a meat pounder or with a rolling pin.
-Spread stuffing evenly over turkey, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Start rolling the turkey from the skin-less half toward the half with the skin, so that the skin ends up on the outside of the roll.

-Arrange rolled turkey breast seam side down, then tie crosswise at 1-inch intervals with string.
-In a heavy skillet, sear the roulade, seam side down first. Brown all sides of the roulade. If your skillet is oven safe and has high sides you can put it directly into the oven. Otherwise transfer the roulade to a roasting pan.

Pan sauce
-Combine sherry, soy sauce, cloves, bay leaf and apple cider.
-Pour this over the roulade, then cover the roulade with foil.
-Roast in 350 degree oven until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees, about one hour.
-When the turkey is cooked, remove from roasting pan and tent with foil. Let the meat rest at least 20 minutes so the juices redistribute.
-In the meantime, stradle the roasting pan over two burners and reduce by half. Pour through a strainer and reserve the juices to serve with the roulade.

Notes:
-You could brine the turkey breasts, using the cider-brine from the whole turkey, before assembling the roulade. This is what I will do next time to get the best of both. Although, as Mom said, this might make this recipe dangerously good.
-You can toast the bread cubes and flatten out the turkey breasts the night before.
-I did 1.5X the stuffing recipe for two turkey breasts that totaled about 6.5 lbs. This was the perfect amount for that much turkey. Then I made an additional 6X the recipe for a side, but I reduced the cranberries, using only 2 cups for the total 12 cups of bread cubes. That was plenty of cranberries in a side-dish stuffing.

Cranberry-Orange Bread for Bribery

Monday night, after my lovely book club trailed out the door and after I cleaned up, I remembered that I had promised to bake something for my office as a Thanksgiving treat. It was 10 p.m. and I had had some red wine, but I was determined not to disappoint. I have this theory that bringing snacks to work gives me a smidgen of extra job security. I'm not delusional. I still work really hard to do a good job. But I figure if times get tight, and they have to lay someone off, and they are choosing between me and someone else, and we both do the same work equally as well... then I'll have the edge. Because I bake bread. With this in mind I pulled my gigantic, five-pound bag of cranberries (I love Costco) out of the fridge at 10:15 p.m.

By 11:15 I had one normal size loaf and four mini-loaves of cranberry-orange bread. My pre-work taste test the next morning was a thumbs up. Cranberry and orange zest might be my new favorite flavor combination for the holidays, which is good news because I have a lot of cranberries left. (The scones from earlier this week were also this flavor.) The bread was deliciously tart, and the overall texture was very light for quick bread, which can sometimes get a little cakey. I was impressed with how good this tasted considering the relatively small amount of butter and sugar. Nic found it to be a little bit too tart, so I might consider adding few tablespoons of sugar to the cranberries before I mix them into the dough next time. If you don't like tart, you should definitely do this. If you are big fan of tart cranberries (like me), you can probably leave the recipe as is.


Cranberry-Orange Bread
Adapted from Good Things Catered
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour*
1/2 cup granulated sugar (+ 2-3 tbs. for sweeter, less tart bread)
1 tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbs. grated orange zest
2/3 cup orange juice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tbs. unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 cup fresh cranberries, coursely chopped

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Sift together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
-Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from an orange, then finely chop the zest. Add zest to the flour mixture.
-In a small bowl, combine orange juice, eggs, and butter.
-If adding sugar to the cranberries, combine 2 to 3 tbs. sugar with chopped cranberries in a small bowl.
-Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
-Fold in cranberries.
-Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (Mini loaves take 35-40 minutes.)

*You can use 2 cups of all purpose flour if you prefer, but I find that half and half does not compromise the flavor or texture too much.

Note: I asked Katie, from Good Things Catered, if letting the bread chill on the counter wrapped up in plastic wrap, changed the flavor, since her original recipe called for doing this. She said: "If you wait a day or two [to eat the bread] the flavors meld and the bread ends up tasting a *bit* sweeter because of it. But not by much. It is fresh cranberry, so you could add some more sugar if you like." Thanks Katie! (P.S. Not only do we share a name, but she is also part Lebanese on her dad's side. Crazy, right?)

The Ghost of Thanksgiving Past

Thanksgiving 2006

The last thing I remember was the ball of blue, firey gas barreling out of the oven. The force from the fireball, or maybe it was my natural reaction to reel backward, pushed me across the kitchen until the refrigerator brought me to an abrupt stop. I still had the match in my hand.

To explain how I ended up nearly blowing myself up, I have to back up about a day. We had a long weekend for Thanksgiving because we went to an American university in Cairo, and we were supposed to go to Upper Egypt to check out the tombs and whatnot. I was not even supposed to be making Thanksgiving dinner. Then Nic got sick, had a 104 degree fever, and we canceled our trip. I went to the pharmacy at the bottom of our building and bought Nic some super strength antibiotics and prayed they would bring the fever down. I had seen the inside of the hospital once, and I didn't want to go back unless the situation was really dire. I’m talking hit by a bus dire.

The square my apartment building sat on. I have no pictures of the kitchen for some reason...
This is when I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner. All our friends were gone, Nic was sick, and I had nothing else to do other than take his temperature every couple hours. I went to the big "Western" grocery store in the "suburbs" to get some things to make a "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner. I got everything I needed for stuffing, mashed potatoes, and even pumpkin pie. I bought a little chicken to stand in for the turkey. Everything was going smoothly. Until I had to light the oven.

Our stove was a 1950s gas model that had seen better days. You had to turn on the gas then light the pilot with a match. To light the oven though you had to turn on the gas and leave the door shut for just a minute or so or else the pilot would never light. I guess I left the door closed for a minute too long.

I jumped up from the floor in front of the refrigerator screaming, "I'm on fire! I'm on fire!"

I wasn't actually on fire, but I was at a loss for words to describe what had just happened.

Nic, delirious with fever, came running to meet me on my way to the bathroom. I felt my face. It was still there. I felt my neck, that was ok too. Then I grabbed my hair. And it came out in my hand. I started wimpering. Confused to see me not actually up in flames, Nic grabbed me and started shaking me. "Are you ok, do we have to go to the hospital?"

I couldn't really form words. I was staring into the mirror wimpering, watching a significant portion of my bangs flutter into the sink. I leaned into the mirror and saw that my eyelashes were also gone.

"Are you crying because you’re hurt or are you crying because you lost your hair."

"My hair," I wimpered.

I know it’s vain, but I really liked my eyelashes. They were ALL gone. But other than that, I was ok. No visible burns, except for a squiggly line across my neck where the flame hit the chain from my necklace and a very uncomfortably warm face for about a day. I still managed to finish Thanksgiving dinner. The pie even turned out somehow. Neither Nic nor I went to the hospital. But I know how lucky I was to walk away with just a handful of stinky burnt hair. This is why I will never, ever deep fry a turkey. I don’t want to press my luck.

Six months later when we were moving out, we told our landlady that we thought the oven was a little dangerous.

"That oven? I love that oven! That’s the best oven I’ve ever owned! There’s nothing wrong with that oven. You just don’t know how to work an oven."

I guess not.

They might have had a point when they said to test it.

I told Nic I was making raisin pie for Thanksgiving. He said that sounded horrible. I told my mom I was making raisin pie for Thanksgiving. She said that sounded horrible. And that no one likes raisins.

I tried to argue the point that the pie was actually made from white raisins, which are not the same at all, but my ever-skeptical cooking advisers were having none of it. I have had this raisin pie recipe bookmarked for more than a month because it just sounded so cool. I mean, have you ever had raisin pie? I didn't think so. I could make pumpkin pie sure, but no one is going to look at a pumpkin pie and go, wow how unexpected. Obviously I was not going to abandon the raisin pie idea without a fight. And fight I did. By baking a test pie Saturday night.

The good news is raisin pie is not awful. The bad news is, it's not exactly a home run either. The main problem for me was that it was incredibly, incredibly sweet. Kind of like pecan pie, which is also too sweet in my opinion. I think that the pie would benefit from about a half cup less sugar than the recipe calls for and maybe some cranberries thrown in to make it more tart, say a half a cup or so. My friend Claire, who graciously agreed to participate in the taste test, suggested serving it with vanilla ice cream to break up the strong flavor.

The changes would make it better, but the thing is, eating raisin pie is also just kind of strange. I can't quite wrap my mind around it. I think it's the texture that's strange. It's like chewing on handfuls of raisins straight from the box. So basically I'm going to make a different pie for Thanksgiving. It won't be pumpkin, but it probably won't be as far out as raisin either.

O well, at least I got a great pie crust recipe out of it! If nothing else, check out the recipe for the crust, which is enough for a top and a bottom crust. Instead of refrigerating the crust for an hour or more, ever impatient, I put it in the freezer for 45 minutes and that worked great.

In case you missed it, the recipe for the raisin pie is here. I switched pecans for the walnuts, but other than that I made it the same. If you make it with any of the above recommendations let me know. But I'm guessing after my review, not many people are going to run to the grocery store to pick up the white raisins to make this.

Best Scones in the World, in My Opinion

If you ever bake one thing I post on this blog, make it these scones. These are the single most worthy use of flour, butter, and sugar I have ever offered up here. These scones are the perfect combination of tart and sweet and they are SO light and moist, especially for scones which tend to be a little on the dry side. You don't even need clotted cream or jam or butter or whatever else it is you normally put on your scones if you eat these when they are fresh out of the oven. I made one batch (which only yielded about 8 scones), and then decided I better make another, they are that good.

I made these this weekend and flash freezed them on the baking sheet (before baking), then put them in ziploc bags to store in the freezer until Friday morning. I actually picked this recipe because there was a note that said you could bake the scones right out of the freezer, which sounded like about the right amount of work for the Friday morning after Thanksgiving.

Then I spent the rest of my Sunday in the kitchen making turkey stock and snacks for book club tomorrow. (Why host one dinner a week when you can host two?) Neither the stock nor the snacks were as inspiring as the scones, although I did remember why I hate making mini-anything--it is 20X more work than making the normal size. Pumpkin pie from a can? Easy. Mini-pumpkin pies from a can? %$*&$%#

Back to the scones. Make them. Technically you can substitute dried cranberries, but I really don't think they would be the same. Also the original recipe called for lemon zest, but by batch number two all my lemons were bald already, so I used orange zest and it worked just as well.



Cranberry Scones
From SmittenKitchen, which adapted from Gourmet
Yield 8 scones
Ingredients:
2 tbs. lemon or orange zest (from about 2 large lemons; or 1 navel orange)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tbs. additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 stick (6 tbs.) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse (approx. in quarters)
... or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries (but it won't be as good!)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees if baking immediately.
-Peel the lemons or orange with a vegetable peeler, then finely, finely chop the zest.
-Combines the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles a course meal. The easiest way to do this, without a food processor which would really be the easiest way, is to dice the butter very small and make sure each piece is separated before you add them into the flour. The flour will keep them from sticking back together so shake the bowl before adding in more pieces. Then use two knifes to cut the butter pieces even finer.
-In a small bowl combine the chopped cranberries and the sugar, then fold these into the flour mixture. (Don't add sugar if you use dry cranberries, just fold them directly into the flour.)
-In another small bowl beat the eggs and the cream.
-Mix the liquid mixture into the dry mixture, just until combined.
-On a lightly flour surface, dump the dough out and press it into a 1 inch thick circle with your hands. Using the top of a glass that has been dusted with flour, or a circular cookie/biscuit cutter, cut out scones and place them on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Gather the scraps and reform into 1 inch thick circle as needed until all the scones are formed.
-If baking immediately, bake in 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until a pale golden color.
-If freezing, place baking sheet in the freezer for at least one hour or until the scones are hard and frozen. Place the scones in a freezer bag until ready to bake. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a pale golden color.
-Serve as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

EDIT NOTE 11/28: Baking these straight from the freezer didn't work that well. I would defrost them on the cookie sheet the night before. Otherwise the outside is browned before the inside is cooked.

A Thanksgiving Miracle

That's what I'm going to call it if I manage to pull off Thanksgiving for 12-15 in my 700 sq. ft. apartment. And even though I'm nervous about space, I have been having a lot of fun planning the menu for the last week. Alton Brown tried to scare me Monday night by saying that you should never make anything you have never made before on Thanksgiving, but where's the fun in that? I figure I have enough old standbys on the menu to mitigate any new recipes run a muck. Now that everything is planned, the next step is figuring out the exact configuration necessary to fit all the ingredients into the refrigerator...

Picture courtesy of Flickr user Sage
The italics in the menu are items someone else is bringing to the table. Can you hear the sigh of relief? I'll try to put links into this post as I get the recipes up. I will probably post one or two recipes I've made in the past before Thanksgiving, so check back!

before the meal
fresh vegetables w/ dilly yogurt dip
candied pecans and almonds
Taylor's holiday cocktail
pumpkin soup w/ savory whipped cream

main attraction
apple cider brined turkey stuffed w/herbs and citrus, served with pan juices
turkey roulade w/ cranberry stuffing

accompaniment
mashed sweet potato casserole w/walnuts
garlic-chive mashed potatoes
simple sage stuffing
cranberry-orange chutney
warm caramelized carrot and raisin salad
string beans w/almonds
mixed green salad
buttermilk biscuits
honey yeast rolls

the icing on the cake
raisin pie
pumpkin pie
orange and pomegranate fruit salad

Homemade Pepper Spray and Black Bean Soup

Does anyone know what happens when you try to soften jalapeño peppers by sautéing them for a few minutes in a pan? You fill your kitchen with a noxious gas somewhat akin to pepper spray. In fact, I'm fairly sure if you could figure out how to bottle it, you would have a self-defense mechanism. The sad thing is that I vaguely remember learning this lesson once before, albeit with crushed red pepper (used in a rub on steak and then thrown on a stovetop grill), but I still managed to repeat the mistake when I was making jalapeño-chedder cornbread last night. I was working from a recipe that called for canned chilis and since those are soft, I thought I should soften the jalapeños I was substituting for them. Then I sneezed and wheezed for the next hour.

The worst part is that the cornbread was HORRIBLE. I realized something was wrong with the recipe when the dough came out like soup, so I tried adding another cup of cornmeal and some flour. Even that wasn't enough though. After more than an hour in the oven, the cornbread was more like spoonbread. The flavor was good, but it was not cuttable or crumbly. Nic tried to make me feel better by saying, "Cornbread is hard to make." But let's be honest. It really isn't.

Luckily, dinner was not a total disaster because the black bean soup I made was a success. The soup turned out really delicious and was much easier to make than the cornbread. Added bonus it's really healthy, and if you use vegetable broth (I didn't have any in the pantry), it is even vegetarian. I'm sure it would be great served with, say, a slice of cornbread. Or something like that.

Black Bean Soup
Makes 4 dinner servings

Ingredients:
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic minced
glug of olive oil
1 jalapeño, minced (and deseeded if you want a milder soup)
1 tomato, diced
3 (15 oz.) cans black beans
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
-Heat a large pot with a glug of olive oil on medium heat. Sauté the bell peppers, onion, and garlic for 5 minutes, just until the start to soften. Add jalapeño, tomato, black beans, and broth.
-Bring soup to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower the heat and simmer 15 minutes.
-Season with chili powder, cumin, and salt.

Irish Soda Bread w/ Dried Cranberries

Sometimes, in over ambitious moments, I buy ingredients because I plan to make something. Like when I bought buttermilk to make a pumpkin butterscotch layer cake on a Friday night to bring to a friend's house Saturday morning. (Never happened.) Then I have a quart of buttermilk sitting in the fridge giving me the evil eye every time I open the door. I can hear it saying, "I'm going to go bad and smell awful and make you feel guilty for wasting me." Drives me nuts. And it's not like you can just throw some buttermilk on your cereal in the morning.

Then I saw this recipe that called for buttermilk on blog I like to read, herbivoracious, and it had about 15 less steps than the pumpkin butterscotch layer cake, and I don't even want to guess how many less calories. So last night when I got an unexpected reprieve from cooking dinner, I decided to make this so my oven didn't get lonely. It seriously took me about 10 minutes, start to finish, including washing the bowl, and there is only one bowl to wash. I really don't know why I ever made bread with yeast. This is just as good and there is no rising and kneading (well there's a little kneading, but nothing intense.) And there is no chance the bread will rise too much, overflow the bowl and make a mess. Not that I ever do that.

The bread was delicious for breakfast this morning with a little bit of butter. It's not a sweet bread but a nice hearty bread with a little tangy sweetness around the edges because of the cranberries. It is little bit denser than yeast bread, but not that much denser. (And if you live around here, where you can't buy decent bread even if your life depends on it, then it is probably lighter than some of the bread you've eaten.) A much better way to make buttermilk into breakfast than pouring it on your cereal. I will definitely be making this again, maybe with something else folded in instead of cranberries or maybe plain.

Irish Soda Bread w/ Dried Cranberries
Adapted from herbivoracious, which adapted from Saveur magazine. Go ahead adapt your own.

Ingredients:
2 cups pastry flour*
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tbs. sugar (use 2 tbs. for a plain loaf)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tbs. butter, cool
1 cup dried cranberries
1 egg, beaten
2 cups buttermilk

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
-Sift together flours, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.
-Cut in butter using two knifes until the butter is in very small little chunks (smaller than a pea).
-Mix in the egg and buttermilk with a spoon. A loose dough should form. It should be sticky but able to hold the shape of a ball.
-Add the dried cranberries and knead them into the dough. You can do this in the bowl.
-Grease a cookie sheet and place the ball of dough on the center.** Cut an X in the top with a sharp knife.
-Bake for 40 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow. (Internal temperature should be 180 degrees, if you have a meat thermometer you can use).

*herbivoracious notes that the pastry flour will make a more tender bread, but you can basically use 4 cups of any flour. I trusted him on this and used the pastry flour, and my bread was very tender indeed.

**The loaf pictured is half of this recipe. You can make it all as one loaf or you can divide it in half and make two smaller loaves. When making smaller loaves, it takes slightly less time to cook, 30-35 minutes.

Linguini w/ Clam Sauce

Some big cooking news came in this weekend: I will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner! (In my 700 sq. ft. apartment! For 12-15 people!) When you have a kitchen that small and that many people, you have to plan ahead. I ordered my turkey (free range, but not organic, I had to draw the line). I already have the menu down, except for the stuffing. I have figured out exactly how many and which casserole dishes fit in the oven. I bought two size roasting pans so I'm prepared for however big the turkey turns out to be. I have assigned tasks--Mom is bringing that huge salad she makes, Poppop is in charge of pies (if he decides to grace us with his presence), and Taylor is coming up with a fall cocktail to entertain pre-dinner. And I have contemplated exactly how to rearrange the furniture so we all actually fit!

So there will be quite a few Thanksgiving posts in the next few days, but for now, this very un-Thanksgiving recipe will have to do. One of my favorite meals my Mom makes, as I mentioned last week, this is how I make it. (How does she make it? Who knows, she doesn't measure anything or write anything down.)

This is my favorite pasta that is fast and easy to make. (Meat sauce doesn't count, it takes all day.) Even people that don't usually like clams (::Nic::), can appreciate this pasta. The flavor is not too fishy or too clammy. And you will be amazed how creamy the sauce gets without using any cream and with very little butter. It only takes as long to make as it takes for you to boil the water and cook the linguini. Be careful though, it is way too easy to eat several helpings.

Linguini w/ Clam Sauce
Makes 4 large servings.

Ingredients:
1 lb. regular or whole wheat pasta (I use whole wheat.)
2 tbs. butter
2 tbs. flour
4 (6.5 oz.) cans minced or baby clams, with juices
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tbs. fresh chopped parsley

Directions:
-Put pot of water on to boil. When the water boils, put the linguini in immediately.
-In a large sauté pan, melt butter on medium heat. Mix in flour and cook for 1 minute, just so the roux starts to darken slightly.
-Mix in clams (do not drain!) and bay leaf. Let the sauce simmer and reduce for 10 minutes or until it thickens. Add wine, and let it reduce again for 10 minutes or until the linguini is finished cooking.
-Cook the linguini according to the package directions for al dente/firm. Drain the linguini.
-Add the salt, red pepper, and parsley to the sauce, and stir. Add the linguini to the sauté pan with the sauce and toss with tongs.
-Serve topped with grated Parmesan cheese.