Pear-Cranberry Pie

Yes, I’m enamored with cranberries and you will be, too, after you taste this Pear-Cranberry Pie. The sour flavor of the craberries combines beautifully with whatever sweetener you choose. And the color! Who can resist the bright, shiny reds of cranberries. No need to buy canned cranberries or canned cranberry sauce. It’s so easy to cook your own, starting with raw cranberries that can easily be stockpiled in your freezer.

Have you noticed the spot in the right-hand column that says “Looking for a recipe using a certain ingredient? Look here... ?” Well, type in ‘cranberry’ or ‘cranberries’ and you’ll find that Step by Step in the Kitchen already features several recipes using cranberries. Here’s one more to use up those cranberries in your freezer.

PEAR-CRANBERRY PIE
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients...

1/2-cup sugar
11 ounces frozen cranberries
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4-cup water
18 ounces Bosc pears
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon white granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1/2-cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons butter
double pie crust

Directions...

1. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine sugar, cranberries, cornstarch and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Lower heat if necessary. Stir gently. Boil one minute or until thickened. Set aside to cool.

2. Wash, peel, core and slice pears. Stir in lemon juice. Cover and set aside. Can be refrigerated.

3. Prepare your pie crust. Using a cookie cutter or some other method, cut small designs in the top crust. Or, cut several slits in the top crust after the pie is assembled.

4. Spread thickened cranberry mixture in pie pan on top of bottom crust.

5. Arrange pears on top of cranberry mixture.

6. Sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mixture on top of pears and then sprinkle with walnuts.

7. Divide butter into eight pieces and place on top of pie.

8. Add and attach top crust. Place pie plate on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil, in case of spillover. Tear off four strips of foil and attach to each other, end to end. Use to cover outer edge of pie crust.

9. Bake in preheated 450-degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350-degrees and bake 30 minutes more. Remove foil and bake approximately 30 minutes more until golden brown and the filling can be seen bubbling through the openings in the top crust.

I chose Bosc Pears for this pie. Brought them home from the supermarket and let them sit on the counter for several days to ripen. At that point, they were just as firm as when I bought them. Peeled, they are lovely with no blemishes. A melon-baller came in handy for removing the core (a grapefruit spoon will work just as well). Although the Bosc Pears were just mildly sweet, I chose not to add any sweetener other than the sugar-cinnamon mixture being sprinkled on top.

I have to declare this my favorite dessert and my favorite overall next to the Scallop and Salmon with a Cranberry and Nut Sauce.

Scallops and Salmon with a Cranberry and Nut Sauce

Among the first recipes I tried out on Step by Step in the Kitchen was a quick and easy dish with beautiful red highlights provided by a homemade raspberry sauce and tender sautéd scallops from the sea.

After over a year of blogging, I’ve been reminiscing about past culinary creations and feeling the urge to retry and perhaps recreate many of them -- which is what I did on January 14 with Grilled Turkey-Olive Burgers.

Then I re-read one of my most popular posts -- Raspberry Scallops -- and knew I just had to make it again. That very night. But, wait, I already had a salmon fillet thawing. I could wait, or I could combine. I decided to combine the two creatures of the sea.

What about the raspberries? Why did I change that ingredient to cranberries? Because I could. Why pay a fortune, this time of year, for raspberries when I already have several pounds of raw cranberries in the freezer.

Okay, so I wanted to follow up on a successful recipe with some changes. Add salmon to the mix. I could have done it with the salmon alone, but instead I took off for Wegmans supermarket and bought six large scallops at $17.99 per pound. Wow! On the other hand, I did save money by not purchasing raspberries.

While at the store I noticed there were still bins full of unshelled nuts (I usually only notice them at Christmas time), so I decided to add one more ingredient to this re-creation.

SCALLOPS AND SALMON WITH A CRANBERRY AND NUT SAUCE

Ingredients...

6 large sea scallops
6 oz. salmon fillet cut into 5-6 strips
salt & pepper
1-/12 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 tablespoon brown sugar
zest of 1 lemon or 1 orange
juice of 1/2 lemon or 1/2 orange
2/3 cups cranberries
1/4 cup walnut halves and almonds

Directions...

1. Pat scallops and salmon fillet dry and lightly salt & pepper each side.

2. Melt butter and EVOO in fry pan over medium heat.

3. Saute fish fillets 2-3 minutes then turn them over. Add scallops and cook 1-1/2 minutes on each side. Lower heat if they are cooking too fast. Do not overcook.

4. Remove pan from heat; lower heat to medium-low. Remove scallops and salmon and arrange on two dinner plates. (Both will continue cooking.)

5. Return pan to heat and stir in brown sugar, zest, juice and cranberries.

6. Cook 3-5 minutes until cranberries soften.

7. Spoon sauce over scallops and salmon.

8. Scatter nuts on top.

Cranberry Orange French Toast

Woke up early on this USA fall-back-one-hour, change-your-clocks morning and lay in bed thinking about French Toast. Not just any French Toast. Rather, something fresh and lively and fruity.

Three pounds of raw cranberries waiting in the freezer and calling to me. Okay, so what could I do with cranberries? And what else did I have on hand?

I knew there was small amount of Organic Blue Agave Maple Flavored Syrup left over from other recipes. Not as sweet as other maple syrups--real or artificial--but it would be just sweet enough to complement the tartness of the cranberries.

I also thought about the Nutritional Yeast in the cupboard. Also left over from other recipes. Nutritional Yeast is a vegetarian support formula and would be an interesting ingredient to mix in with the cranberries and syrup. It also inspired me to add popcorn kernels to my shopping list.


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What does popcorn have to do with Nutritional Yeast? Place some kernels in a lunch-size paper bag and place it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, cooking until it stops popping.

1. Pour popcorn into a large bowl.
2. Add extra virgin olive oil and nutritional yeast. Mix well.
3. Taste and add more nutritional yeast if needed.
4. Optional. Add salt and/or freshly ground pepper.

The result is popcorn that is buttery-tasting, healthy and low-cal.


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Wait, this entry is supposed to be about breakfast. And it is, really. Here’s what I created after I got out of bed...


CRANBERRY ORANGE FRENCH TOAST
(one serving)

1/4 cup raw cranberries
1-1/2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons Organic Blue Agave Maple Flavored Syrup (or substitute your favorite)
2-3 drops orange extract
1 pinch (dried) orange zest
2 slices Pepperidge Farm Stone Ground 100% Whole Wheat Bread (70 calories each)
1 egg
1 tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
1 tablespoon water

1. Place cranberries and 1-1/2 T. water in microwavable bowl and cover with paper towel. Cook 1 minute on high setting, or until you hear cranberries ‘pop’.
2. Cool slightly, then stir in Agave maple syrup, orange extract and orange peel.
3. Mix egg, nutritional yeast and 1 tablespoon water in bowl just big enough to hold bread. Cover each slice with mixture and let sit 2-3 minutes to soak in.
4. Meantime, lightly grease or butter pan and heat at medium setting.
5. Place French toast in prepared hot pan and cook till both sides are well browned.
6. Dish up and top with cranberry orange syrup mixture.


Did you notice that I decided to mix the nutritional yeast into the egg mixture instead of the cranberries?

Some people prefer majorly thick slices of bread for their French Toast. The egg/nutritional yeast/water mix above will coat (and soak into) only one extra-thick slice, so double these ingredients for two slices

Cranberry-Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are a classic and the recipe is always the same: flour, soda, salt, butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. And, of course, chocolate chips.





While most chocolate chip cookies include equal amounts of white and brown sugar, my Cranberry-Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies are based on a recipe in Woman’s World (10/17/11) which uses more brown than white.

Plus, I like to add ingredients to cookies, so this time I chopped up some raw cranberries (I always keep a bag or two in the freezer) to add along with chopped walnuts.




Woman’s World directions say to sift the dry ingredients. As an alternative to sifters these days, many kitchens include whisks. Go for it, whisk the dry ingredients!




CRANBERRY-WALNUT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients...

1-1/3 all-purpose white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse or kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup white, granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks (substitute semi-sweet, if preferred)
1/2 c. raw cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (or other nut, if preferred)


Directions...

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift or whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl, beat (medium speed) butter and both sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes)
4. Beat egg and vanilla into sugar mixture.
5. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture. Beat on low just until blended.
6. Stir in chips, cranberries and nuts.
7. Drop tablespoon-size balls of dough 2-inches apart on baking sheets.
8. Bake 5 minutes then rotate pans.
9. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are lightly golden.
10. Cool on pans on racks for 2 minutes.
11. Transfer to racks; cool completely

I realize these photos are a little dark, but here they are, the finished product-- Cranberry-Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies. Every bite is a treat!







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Now... you remember my last post where you got a glimpse of my kitchen cupboards?

Last night, when I was finishing up washing dishes and straightening up the kitchen, I decided to take photos of my kitchen, particularly the counters so you can see how organized I am (not).

The thing is, it’s the way it works best for me in that itty-bitty kitchen.

I am the only dishwasher. The plastic bag is washed and drying, held to a cupboard door handle by clothespin. I pin up my rubber dishwashing gloves the same way to air dry them. That’s a plant-growing light on the back wall. I put it there so I can better see the dishes I am washing.




To the left of the stove is a catch-all corner. An electric kettle to heat water for my tea. A used tea tin to store homemade hot chocolate mix (with marshmallows!).




On the opposite side there is a see-through to my diningroom. A microwave with what used to be a mess on top now safely stored in a green basket. See the clothespin on the Kitchen Aid cover? That holds cooking notes or recipes when I need them. Beside it is a whiteboard with more cooking/cleaning notes. A glass of parsley from my garden. My exercise sheets and meds are on the counter as are my datebook and notes about what I’m to do the each day.








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Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chicken and Pancetta

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chicken and Pancetta is another recipe based on one in Woman’s World magazine (November 21, 2011). I began reading WW a few months ago and mostly like it for the foods and the crossword puzzles. Crossword puzzles are supposed to be good for your brain as you get older. My aging brain can use all the help it can get!

I am truly a fan of Brussels Sprouts! They are one of my favorite veggies. And any vegetable that is roasted tastes 50% better than something boiled, steamed or microwaved.

I added chicken to the original recipe, just because I happened to have a small piece of it to be used up. It was a good decision.

WW created the recipe to serve 8. I halved it since it’s just me at the table. After several days of Brussels Sprouts, I had eaten it all and was thoroughly satisfied.





ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH CHICKEN AND PANCETTA
(Serves 4)

Ingredients...
2 medium leeks, white and light green parts only
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound fresh Brussels sprouts
4 ounces chicken tenders
2 ounces pancetta, diced (about 1/2 cup)
1/8 teaspoon each salt and pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1/4 cup sweetened, dried cranberries



Directions...
(I like to prep my ingredients before preheating the oven. Your best bet is to read through the recipe and estimate how long prepping will take compared to how long it will take your oven to preheat.

1. Preheat oven to 425-degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cut each leek in half, lengthwise, then cut each half into 1-inch wide pieces. Wash leeks in a bowl of water, changing the water several times. Drain thoroughly and pat dry with a paper towel.

3. Cut the hard end off each Brussels sprout and remove 1-2 outer leaves.

4. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. The pancetta is often sold in diced form; if not, this is the time to dice it.

5. In medium skillet, melt butter over low heat, then transfer to a large bowl.

6. Add remaining ingredients EXCEPT CRANBERRIES to butter in bowl. Stir to thoroughly coat all ingredients.

7. Spread in single layer in an ungreased jellyroll pan.


8. Roast 20 minutes, then stir. Roast approximately 5 minutes more, or until sprouts are browned and pancetta is cooked through.

9. Remove from oven, sprinkle with cranberries and spoon into serving bowl.

To me this was a complete meal. If you are a family of 3 or four, you might want to add more chicken.



Absolutely delicious!


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and

Visit my other blog ~ Corning NY Step by Step, a pictorial view of the City of Corning NY.