Since tomorrow is a foodie day, I thought I’d pass along three recipes I use every year.

Cranberry Sauce – Cooked

1 12-oz bag of raw cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice

Put it all in a small pot. Cook on high until the cranberries pop open — maybe 5 minutes, depending your stovetop. Put in a glass or ceramic dish (it might melt a plastic dish). Wash the pot because this stuff both sticks and stains.

Cranberry-Orange Relish (Uncooked)

Using a food processor or blender, add:

1 large cut-up (preferably seedless) orange
1/2 cup orange juice
12 oz. of raw cranberries
1/2 cup brown or white sugar

Grind until it’s coarse but all big chunks are part of the mix. Refrigerate. If you don’t finish it, it’s a great little desert. Applesauce but made with cranberries.

Banana Nut Raisin Loaf

This is the recipe I created after I ran out of molasses (treacle) and I only had two bananas. Also, I have a lot of dried fruit and nuts and need to use them.

2 big ripe bananas
1/2 cup raisins (soaked in warm water, then drained)
1/2 cup ground walnuts or almonds (I use a mini-chopper to grind the nuts)
2 cups flour
2 beaten eggs
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk or light cream
1 bar (8 tblspns) melted butter
2 teaspoons baking soda (but if you don’t have it, baking powder will work)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mash the bananas (I use a potato masher, but a big heavy fork will do the job too)
Melt the butter. I used salted butter as I was out of sweet butter.
Beat the eggs with the sugar (I use a basic hand eggbeater)

In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Give it a quick stir. Add the eggs, nuts, cooled butter (if it’s hot, it will cook the eggs which is not exactly what you want). Then add the dry ingredients.

Mix with a wooden spoon. It’s a thick batter, so a standard spoon or a plastic one is likely to bend or break. Do not overbeat. If it isn’t completely mixed, that’s okay.

Heavily spray a baking dish EVEN if it’s non-stick. Today, I used glass because it was handy and the right size — about 2 quarts.

Preheat oven to 350 F or 175 C. Use a rubber scraper to get the batter into the baking dish. Smooth out the top so it isn’t all on one side of the baking pan. Bake in a 350 F (175 C) oven for 1 hour. Remove and allow to cool a bit before removing it from the baking pan.

I won’t be posting tomorrow. It’s a family day. Have a great day, all of you whether you are celebrating or not.

Categories: #Food, #Photography, #Recipes, Anecdote, baking, Cooking, Holidays

Tags: #Photography, baking, Holiday food, humor, Marilyn Armstrong, recipes, Thanksgiving