Cranberry Heaven!

This is the time of year to stock up on fresh cranberries!  I like to buy a few packages and throw them in the freezer every fall.  Cranberries can be so elegant and are pretty versatile actually!  You don't need to just eat them on Thanksgiving as a sauce.

Here is another way to enjoy them this season!  This recipe is actually a bonus two-in-one recipe!   You make sweet and tangy sugared cranberries that you can add to candy bowls, your favorite apple pie recipe, as a topping on cheesecake, baked brie, pancakes or even on top of ice cream!  But wait!  There's more!  The sauce it cooks in becomes a tasty, spicy syrup that almost tastes like candy canes which is a fun addition to your holiday breakfasts this winter!

Sugared Cranberries and

Cranberry Spice Syrup

Sugared Cranberries

 Makes 3 cups cranberries

3 cups sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
3 cups water
3 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed
1 cup superfine sugar

Mix sugar, cinnamon sticks and cloves with water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer for 1 minute, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Stir in cranberries. Cover and refrigerate for about 8 hours. Drain cranberries. Reserve liquid, strain out cinnamon sticks and cloves and use as a simple syrup to add a holiday touch.

Place superfine sugar in a bowl and gently toss in cranberries, coating evenly. Place cranberries on a baking sheet to dry, about 1 to 2 hours.

Store in an airtight container.

To Can Syrup

Fill jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace and boil in water bath canner for 20 minutes. When serving, if you'd like a thicker syrup, simply add a little cornstarch before heating it up.

~~~

I hope this convinces you to buy a few extra packages of cranberries this season to give these a try!  They are delightfully festive and tasty!

Do you have any favorite cranberry recipes? 

Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

Thanksgiving is coming up fast! Many of my stateside friends are gathering up all the ingredients for their own traditional Thanksgiving dinners.  I love that it is a holiday filled with tasty food traditions!  I love celebrating with food!

So today I thought I would share two of my favorite recipes that are always at our Thanksgiving meal.  To me, it just isn't Thanksgiving without them!

First up!  A scrumptious cranberry sauce!  Not your ol' goo from a can!  This is made from real, fresh cranberries and is chocked full of other fruity goodies!

Scrumptious Cranberry Sauce

1 cup water
1 cup white sugar {or sweetener of choice}
12 oz package fresh cranberries
1 orange, peeled and pureed
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 pear, peeled, cored and diced
1 cup chopped dried mixed fruit
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

In a medium saucepan, boil water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to simmer, and stir in rest of the ingredients. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries burst. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Leftovers taste great as a pie, wrapped and baked in phyllo, as a crisp, spooned over ice cream or baked over brie, as well as more traditional uses such as on a turkey sandwich.

 ~~~

The next one is a family favorite passed down through the generations--my grandmother used to make this, my mom makes this and now I do too.  I don't have an old picture in my files of this one yet, but I will add one to this post after I make it this year.

Yams and Apples

6 sweet potatoes, cooked and sliced thinly
6 small apples, peeled and sliced thinly
1 cup orange juice, mixed
2/3 cup sugar {or other sweetener of choice}
1 stick butter
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Layer yams and apples in a buttered casserole dish. Combine ingredients for sauce. Stir and cook til thick and smooth Pour over yams and apples. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Waaaayyy better than anything with marshmallows on them! To me, this is the only way to enjoy yams! And for those that say they don't like yams, I always think to myself that they certainly would if they ever tasted this recipe!  These are not your average yams with carmelized brown sugar, or marshmallows on top but a delicious fruity blend with apples and orange juice!  I'm telling you, it is TASTY my friends!

What are some of your favorite

traditional holiday foods? 

Under Construction

I just realized that I haven't blogged in almost two weeks!  Yikes!  I admire those of you out there who seem to be able to manage frequent, sometimes daily blog posts!  I just find myself busy and forgetful!  This time I've just been pretty busy....

I have been living under construction.

What started out as simply repainting 

a few rooms before we get new carpets ...

Has turned into a minor remodel

where we have been knocking down walls...

And trying to decide what sort of trimwork to use.

We plan on beefing up the baseboards, and

I want to trim the openings out in 

something like this or this. 

My husband wants to trim them out

in something real fancy using

something more like this.

While I like fancy capitals, I"m not sure

they feel appropriate in this house.

I like the simpler, cleaner lines of what I chose.

 I hope my choices win out in the end!

{fingers crossed!}

We shall see I guess!

Only time will tell . . .

November Love

The other day on Facebook I declared November as my absolute favorite month of the year!  It truly is!

I love November because it finally turns crisp and cool.  It is high canning season to get the grapes, apples and other fresh things squirreled away for winter.  And the house is cozy and warm.  But most of all the air is filled with gratitude, thankfulness and thoughts of home.  I love that!

Today is a perfectly blustery sort of day!

{Say "perfectly blustery" real fast 10 times! I dare ya!}

 I hope you are all staying cozy and warm!

Organ and Tissue Donation

 I am helping out with a fundraiser for Organ and Tissue donation services and was passed over for a news interview for someone "more dramatic" than "just a cornea transplant".  I'm not upset about that {truly} because being on the news was kind of freaking me out.  But the attitude that tissue donation isn't as important as organ donation kind of bothers me.    Maybe it's just not as dramatic and sensational to draw people into the news piece and I guess that's ok, but it is every bit as valuable and important to those who receive tissue donations like myself.

I was at a very low point in my life with the loss of my sight.  It came right on the heels of having a premature baby born at 30 weeks with respiratory problems and heading into the winter time and RSV season.  I was confined to home with my medically fragile baby, and then confined to home again when my husband got home at night because I couldn't drive in the dark anymore.  I couldn't escape.  I had to rely on people to drive me everywhere.  My sight was so bad towards the end that I couldn't even drive during the day and I remember wishing they would just take my eyeballs out so I wouldn't have to worry about them at all.  I felt truly disabled.  I couldn't even smile and talk with the animation I used to because the slightest weird twinge of my eye would pop out my contact lenses that tried to help me see a little better on my distorted misshapen corneas .  I felt completely devoid of personality, like I had lost a part of myself and I was depressed.

Tissue donation is just as important as organ donation.  Sure it may not be as dramatic and life-saving, but for me it was.  Not only did someone give me back my sight when I received my cornea transplant, but they gave me back my expressions and my mobility and made me feel human again at a very dark time in my life. 

I will be speaking more about my story {if they still want me to} at the BeeCause Fashion Show to help raise money and awareness for Organ and Tissue donation on November 12th  if you want to hear more about it.

I will also be speaking about my brush with an actual organ transplant that placed me on the transplant list when my other child was born ~ I guess it's a little more dramatic than the  cornea transplant.  At least it includes some pretty funny hallucinations and conspiracy theories and the miracle of organ regeneration.  Because yes, livers can regenerate if you're lucky enough not to pass the point of no return, which for me I was fortunate enough not to pass.  I have been to the brink of no return causing my doctors to place me on the list and begin to organize transport for me to the transplant center and luckily {miraculously!} I stepped away from that precipice. 

Visit here for more details if you're interested in attending the event ~ it will be filled with fashion shows and concerts and will be a lot of fun!

Frightfully Fun!

Last night we handed out our traditional

hot chocolate for all the cute little
ghost and goblins of the neighborhood!

As usual we had a roaring fire going

to warm them all up!

My cute little guy was
Ironman last night!

I just love that little boys
want to be superheroes!!!

After trick or treating we

drank hot chocolate

sat around the fire and told "spooky" stories!

Little kids can tell some pretty scary ones!

~wink~wink~

But my mom tells a pretty scary version of

Little Orphan Annie!

LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE

by: James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916)

INSCRIBED WITH ALL FAITH AND AFFECTION

 

To all the little children: -- The happy ones; and sad ones;
The sober and the silent ones; the boisterous and glad ones;
The good ones -- Yes, the good ones, too; and all the lovely bad ones.

 

ITTLE Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,

An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,

An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,

An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;

An' all us other childern, when the supper-things is done,

We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun

A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,

An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you

Ef you

Don't

Watch

Out!

 

Wunst they wuz a little boy wouldn't say his prayers,--

An' when he went to bed at night, away up-stairs,

His Mammy heerd him holler, an' his Daddy heerd him bawl,

An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wuzn't there at all!

An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' press,

An' seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an' ever'-wheres, I guess;

But all they ever found wuz thist his pants an' roundabout:--

An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you

Ef you

Don't

Watch

Out!

 

An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,

An' make fun of ever' one, an' all her blood-an'-kin;

An' wunst, when they was "company," an' ole folks wuz there,

She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!

An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide,

They wuz two great big Black Things a-standin' by her side,

An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'fore she knowed what she's about!

An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you

Ef you

Don't

Watch

Out!

 

An' little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue,

An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!

An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,

An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--

You better mind yer parunts, an' yer teachurs fond an' dear,

An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,

An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,

Er the Gobble-uns 'll git you

Ef you

Don't

Watch

Out!

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!