Cranberry Sauce

For the love of all that is good and tasty, can we all agree to ban the "cranberry log" from our tables this holiday season. Really, there are indentations from the can!!! The really unfortunate thing about the log, is that it only takes ten minutes to make real cranberry sauce that not only tastes better, but actually looks appetizing.  I never ate cranberry sauce until about five years ago, when mom made some from scratch.
Cranberries are in season right now so get local ones if you can, otherwise Ocean Spray distributes nationally.  Fortunately for me, my local supermarket sells Jersey Fresh produce, otherwise many farm markets have them as well.

Ingredients

• Cranberries
• Orange Juice
• Sugar

Tools

• Measuring cups
• Saucepan
• Spoon
• Stick Blender (optional)

Instructions
Making cranberry sauce is simplicity defined. Rinse an bag of cranberries (about 12oz) and put them in a medium saucepan. Add a cup of orange juice and a cup of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 10 - 15 minutes depending on how thick you want the sauce to be, cool and serve. The sauce will still be thin when you first take it out of the pan, but it thickens as it cools.

Probably the best part of making your own cranberry sauce is that the above recipe is just a guide. The OJ and sugar are just suggestions. If you like more tart cranberry sauce, use a cup of water and less sugar. Or try pineapple juice, or honey instead of sugar, or half water, and half OJ. My favorite is 3/4 cup OJ and a 1/4 cup Grand Marnier, definitely for adults.

Let us know how you like it, just don't tell me you prefer the log. Enjoy.

What to do with all those Blueberries

I can't believe how good this year's blueberry crop has been. Big, plump, and well... BLUE. The wet, cool spring (which yielded to a balmy summer) gave us great berries. While Wifey just likes to eat them right out of the package, I had to cook with them. So far, we used over 30 pints, and here are three simple, yummy ideas.

Blueberry Vodka
As promised, I brewed up some infused blueberry vodka. I used the exact same recipe as my strawberry vodka so I won't repeat it here, except blueberries don't need to be cut so, you don't need as much prep time, but they are better after a week and a half to two week soak. For some unknown reason I seem to prefer drinking the blueberry out of a snifter over a martini glass.

Blueberry Muffins
Obviously the standard thing to cook with blueberries are muffins. I base my muffing recipe on the "Old School Muffins" in Alton Brown's baking cookbook. For today's blueberry batch, I wanted healthier muffins so I modified the recipe to make whole wheat muffins and used Sugar in the Raw instead of white sugar.

Ingredients

• All purpose flour
• White whole wheat flour
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Salt
• Sugar
• Vegetable oil
• Large egg plus one egg yolk
• Blueberries

Tools

• Regular size muffin tin (12 muffins)
• Mixing bowls
• Oven (pre-heat to 375F)
• Kitchen scale
• Pam for Baking

Muffins are one of the simplest things you can bake. Since they are chemically leavened (baking powder reaction) they don't require proofing yeast. You simply mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ones in another, pour the wet into the dry, stir, and scoop. For this and many baking recipes sugar counts as a wet ingredient since it liquefies when it gets heated. Also, only stir just enough to mix all the flour in. Over-mixing leads to flat muffins because the bubbles being formed by the baking powder/soda escape. Let the dough stand for 5 minutes before scooping into a lubed muffin pan

Dry stuff:
163 grams (1 1/4 cup) all purpose flour - The most accurate way to measure flour is to weigh it because it can get compressed in the measuring scoop and you can add too much and get dry muffins
140 grams (1 cup) whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt

Wet:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Egg and egg yolk
1 cup plain low fat yogurt
1 cup blueberries

Mix, let stand, scoop and bake for 18-20 minutes at 375F. I turn the pan around after 10 minutes to make sure the cook even. The next time I make muffins I plan to use only whole wheat flour (315g) since you don't need any gluten in the muffins.

Blueberry Sauce
Without a doubt, Bryers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream is the best ice cream you can buy at a store. The off season standard for toppings is, of course Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, or maybe Magic Shell. During berry season, I make a fruit syrup with either strawberries or blueberries (same recipe) that really compliments the already great vanilla ice cream. The syrup would also go great with some of the Whole Wheat Pancakes from Alton's baking cookbook.


Ingredients

• Blueberries
• Sugar
• Pure vanilla extract

Tools

• Saucepan
• Stovetop

Combine a pint of blueberries (or cut strawberries), a half cup of sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat. Stir until the sugar melts and the juice starts to cook out of the berries (about 8-12 min). Reserve 1/3 - 1/2 of the fruit and blend the remaining fruit/sauce in either a blender or with a boat motor stick blender. Put the liquefied sauce and reserved fruit back together in the pan, lower the heat to medium low and simmer until desired thickness.

Strawberry Infused Vodka

I'm not a fan of cold rainy weather in the spring, but it has one benefit: great berries. A couple weeks ago, Wifey went to the local farm stand and brought home some of the best looking strawberries I've seen since, well, last year. Large, plump, and juicy, the berries worked great in my first attempts at strawberry vinaigrette, and strawberry syrup (Bryers Vanilla anyone). I may have issues, but I had to make some strawberry infused vodka for chilling on the hot summer days.

Strawberry infused is the second of the three infusions I ALWAYS make each year, apple cinnamon and blueberry (in a month or so) are the others. Like the apple-apple I often drink strawberry in a martini glass, but a snifter's worth after dinner is really nice.

Ingredients

• Strawberries
• Sugar
• Water
• Vodka

Tools

• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Infusion Jar
• Pan
• Stovetop

Infuse It
I use the same basic process as the Apple-Cinammon infusion: clean and cut fruit and fill jar with fruit and vodka. To enhance the strawberry flavor, I add a little simple syrup to the jar with the berries and vodka.

Simple syrup is, unsurprisingly, simple to make. For my 204oz jar, I make about 3/4 cup of syrup. Bring a quarter cup of water to a boil in a small pan, then stir in a half cup of sugar and stir continuously until the mixture is clear. That's it; let it cool a little and pour the syrup over the berries with the vodka.

Let the mixture sit for at least a week, then strain and serve. Keep any extra in the refrigerator so it stays fresh and can be served at a moments notice.