Cranberry Salsa

Extended Shelf Life for: Red Onion, Lime Juice, Jalapeno

A teacher at the school I work at prepared this unique salsa just before the holiday's and I knew immediate that I needed to prepare a batch and take it to our family Thanksgiving celebration. It's sweet, it's spicy and it features cranberries, can a holiday dish get any better? Yes! Because you also get to have tortilla chips at your holiday table, and who doesn't love some tortilla chips and salsa?

Ingredients/Directions:

Run one package of fresh cranberries through a food processor or the mincing component of a high-quality juicer. In a medium bowl mix minced cranberries and 1/2 cup sugar. Mix in 1 drained can of Crushed Pineapple, 1 diced Jalapeno (or 1 thawed jalapeno cube if your a preserver/freezer), 2 Tbsp. Lime Juice (again, if you have frozen cubes, this is a great time to use them!), 1/2 cup chopped Red Onion and 1/2 tsp. Salt. Let set for two hours or overnight and enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips!

Tip: If you have leftovers (since it's a pretty big batch), AND you're in need of a quick lunch, make up a quick batch of brown rice (or quinoa, pasta, etc.) mix in a few large spoonfuls and you'll have a delicious and relatively nutritious lunch!

Cranberry Coffee Cake

With Thanksgiving leftovers and weekend desires for sweet eats I opted to make a few substitutions and alterations to a recipe found in the Gooseberry Patch Pumpkin Cookbook. The recipe is for Pumpkin Coffee Cake and while I could have defrosted some pumpkin, I opted rather to use up leftover Craisin Cranberry Sauce and turned out a quite delectable Coffee Cake.

Ingredients/Direction:

Blend together 1/2 cup Butter, 3/4 cup Sugar and 3 eggs until creamy; add 1 tsp. Vanilla.  Mix in 2 cups Flour, 1 tsp. Baking Powder and 1 tsp. Baking Soda. Add 1 cup Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt (I used plain yogurt), set batter aside.  Combine 1 1/2  cups Cranberry Sauce with 1 Egg and a dash of Cinnamon; set aside. Prepare streusel by combining 1 cup Brown Sugar, 1/3 cup Butter, 2 tsp. Cinnamon and 1 cup Sliced Almonds; set aside. Using one large, well-greased 9x13 baking dish (or 2 cake rounds) spoon in half (or one quarter) of the batter, top with half (or one quarter) of the streusel then all (or half) of the cranberry mixture followed by the remaining batter and steusel. Bake at 325 for 50 minutes to one hour (or less for the cake rounds) enjoy with your morning tea.

Carrot Cranberry Bread

Every other week or so I've been meeting up with my dear friend Jen and we meander one of Daejeon's traditional markets, snack on street foods and grab a cup of coffee, all while relating the latest antics from our English classrooms or online Master's Program. It is pure joy and beauty. Our most recent outing sent me packing a few lovely carrots for less than a buck and less than a clue as to how I would use them. A week went by and the carrots remained in the fridge, begging for the dirt to be washed off and their greatness used in something delectable. Wanting something sweet and breakfast like, I replied to the plea of these carrots with this absolutely divine loaf of carrot-cranberry bread. Using the batter concept from a recent loaf of Banana Bread, I made a few substitutes: carrots for bananas, cranberries for walnuts and here you have it, Carrot-Cranberry Bread hot from the oven!

Ingredients/Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C) and prepare a loaf pan with oil. Cream together 1/2 cup Margarine and 1 cup White Sugar (or combination white and brown if the mood so strikes you). Beat in 2 eggs and 2 grated Carrots (about 2 cups). Add 2 cups flour and 1 tsp. Baking Soda. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for approximately one hour until toothpick or metal chopstick inserted into the loaf comes out relatively clean and free of doughiness. Enjoy with a touch of butter and mug of hot tea!