I have so many holiday traditions, but will have to stick with the cranberry muffins. They are the one thing the family wants each year. We've had them for over 30 years each Thanksgiving and Christmas. The kids love them, and so do the adults. The second recipe is the Christmas pancakes. We have them every Christmas morning for breakfast before opening gifts. A tradition we adopted once I discovered the pancake recipe in a magazine.











Cranberry Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups chopped cranberries
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Cranberry Spread:


1 (8 ounce) can whole cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup margarine


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray or grease a 12 cup and 6 cup muffin tin. (I use the large muffin pans and double the recipe.)

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, orange peel, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. (I mix this all together in a zip lock bag a week before the holiday to let the spices flavor the flour. I leave out the orange peel as it can mold inside the bag.)

Cut in shortening; stir in juice, vanilla, eggs, cranberries and nuts. Pour into muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until brown.

Prepare the topping in a saucepan over low heat by whisking together the cranberry sauce, brown sugar and margarine. Cook until heated and smooth. Remove from heat and serve as a spread for the muffins.


Christmas Pancakes

Ingredients

• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup raisins

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the oats and buttermilk. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
2. The next morning: In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the oatmeal mixture, eggs, butter, and raisins. Stir until just moistened. Allow batter to sit 20 minutes before cooking. If batter is too thick, add buttermilk 1 tablespoon at a time, until the batter reaches the desired consistency.
3. Heat a lightly greased, large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto the hot griddle for each cake. Cook pancakes until bubbles appear on top, flip, and cook until lightly browned on bottom.

Flavor Of The Month Oct. 2009 Pumpkin

These cookies are a tradition for my kids when they were growing up. They loved to decorate the faces. I miss doing them every year.



Pumpkin Jack-O-Lantern Cookies

• 1 package Yellow Cake Mix
• ½ cups Quick Cooking Oatmeal
• 2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1 can Pumpkin, Pureed (16 Oz.)
• ¼ cups Butter Or Margarine, Softened
• 1 container White Frosting Or Your Own Favorite Frosting Recipe
• 3 bags Candy To Decorate Pumpkin Faces. I Use M&M's, Candy Corn And Mini M&M's
• Food Coloring (green And Orange)

Heat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

2. Mix together all ingredients (except candy for decoration, frosting, and food coloring) until well blended.

3. Drop cookies by 1/4 cupfuls onto prepared cookie sheet. With the back of a spoon, flatten to a round pumpkin shape; move a little dough to the top in a ’stem’ shape. (You will decorate this with green frosting to resemble a pumpkin stem.)

4. Bake 350 F for 14-20 minutes, or until edges are light golden brown.

5.Divide and tint small portions of frosting with green food coloring, the other portion with orange food coloring.

6. Once cookies are cool, frost the stem with green frosting, and the rest of the cookie with orange frosting.

7. Decorate faces with M&M’s, gum drops, dots, licorice, candy corn, etc.

Recipe Friday delayed for Flavor of the Month

I am baking the Pumpkin Pecan Tassies for the Flavor of the month right now. They smell wonderful. It will be fun to see how they turn out. I've only used store bought pie crust once before. A foreign substance for me. I generally make my own pie crust. But since this has been such a busy week, I cheated.




Pumpkin Pecan Tassies

1 15-oz package rolled refrigerated unbaked pie crusts (2 crusts)
3/4 c. canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 c. half and half, light cream or milk
1/3 c. chopped pecans
1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
Maple Syrup (optional)

1. Let piecrusts stand according to package directiosn. Preheat oven to 350F. unroll piecrusts, use a 2 1/2 inch round cutter to cut 12 rounds from each pie crust. Gently ease pastry rounds into the bottums and up sides of 24 ungreased 1 3/4 inch muffin cups.
2. for filling, in a large bowl, stir together pumpkin, granulated sugar, pumpkin pie spice and sale. Add eggs, stir until combines. Gradually add half and half, cream OR milk, stir just until combined.
3. For topping, stir together pecans, brown sugar and melted butter.
4. Spoon about 2 tsp. filling into each pastry lined cup. Top each with a scant 1 teaspoon pecan topping. . Bake in preheated oven about 35 minujtes or unitil filling is set and crust is golden brown. Remove tassies from muffin gcups and cool completely on a wire rack. If desired, drizzle tassies with maple syrup just before serving. Makes 24 tassies.
   

To store: Place tassies in a single layer in an airtight container, cover. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Before serving, thaw about 1 hour at room temperature.

Flavor of the month: Lemon Lime Recipes Aug. 2009

August' flavor of the month was Lemon Lime, combined or separate. I am not a fan of either, so with an open mind I did an internet search for lemon lime recipes. I browsed and looked. Then I hit upon this recipe. I am a sangria person, I make different recipes, testing and tasting. This summer at the art show I asked a potter to make me a sangria pitcher, I'd love to have one to keep the fruits in the pitcher where they belong. Try this, I think you will like it.

Strawberry, lemon and lime must be the perfect trio of summery flavors. Look at all the candies and desserts that feature this combination! Here they combine to create a delicious sangria sensation.

You can make this with either red or white wine depending on your tastes. White wine will be lighter and have the added benefit that you can see the fruit floating around in the glass.

Ingredients
1 750ml bottle red or white wine
1 whole sliced orange
1 whole sliced lemon
1 whole sliced lime
3/4 cup sugar, or more or less to taste
6 oz soda water
3/4 oz Grand Marnier
6-8 fresh strawberries, halved

Slice orange, lemon and lime thinly into pitcher. Pour in the wine, then add the sugar. Stir well. Add in the liqueur and again stir well. Finally add in the strawberries.

Cool overnight in refrigerator. Right before serving add chilled soda water and ice cubes.

To turn this into a single-glass sangria recipe, a typical assumption is that one 750ml bottle of wine yields four large glasses of wine. Divide all ingredients shown by four. If you're making just one glass worth you probably don't want to wait for the overnight soaking. If the mixture doesn't soak, you just won't get as much of the fruit / berry flavors permeating the sangria.

I joined Flavor of the Month

This month it is PIE as the challenge. I made some pies already this month, today I baked a pecan pie again for Sonny before he leaves to go back to school.

I'll post pictures when we are supposed to do that. It is somewhat like Daring Bakers, but this should be a little easier. The Daring Baker recipes were too complicated ingredient wise...........no place to get 1/2 the items required to make their recipes!!!!!

Too bad, too. I would have loved to have done them!!!