I've had a huge bag of cranberries in my freezer since Christmas (and it's April), so I decided it was about time I used them in something. I'd considered doing cranberry cheesecake, but decided to cross cheesecake with bars instead. (I like bars!) They came out so good, that I made another batch with the remaining cranberries to send with Justin to work so he could share (and double-checking my recipe writing!)
The topping and crust is a little salty, the cream cheese filling is lemony and the cranberry sauce is tart with a cinnamon and vanilla warmth. All three layers just seem to compliment each other so nicely, I was way pleased with this recipe! It's a little time consuming but I've made them twice now and they're really not that hard - you just have to dedicate some time to them.
Justin was feeling like something early from The Offspring. "Jennifer Lost The War" from their 1989 self titled album. This was actually the first time I've heard this song, I think. -jen
1.5 cups rolled oats (also known as old fashioned oats)
1 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
Cheese Filling:
8oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
zest of 1 lemon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the
cranberry sauce first by bringing water, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon
and salt to a boil in a large sauce pan. Add cranberries and bring back to a boil, then
lower to a steady simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring intermittently - cranberries will pop and
begin to break down. (Careful not to let it boil over!) Remove from
heat and refrigerate to cool while you continue with the other steps.
Grease a 13"x 9" baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, butter or coconut oil. Set aside.
For
the crust, combine the flour, oats, pecans, brown sugar and salt in a
mixing bowl. Stir in melted butter and coconut oil until combined and all flour is absorbed.
Mixture should be slightly clumpy but break up easily. Set aside 1.5
cups for topping but spread the remaining mixture into your prepared
baking dish, pressing it evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake at 350
F for 15 minutes. Set aside.
While crust is baking
and sauce is cooling, make the cheese filling. Using a hand mixer or the
whipping attachment on your stand mixer, whip the softened cream cheese
on high for 2-3 minutes until very smooth. Add remaining ingredients
and mix thoroughly on high until smooth (remember to scrape the bottom).
Spread the cream cheese mixture
evenly over your baked crust. Stir in corn starch to cooled cranberry sauce, then gently dollop over
the top of the filling and gently spread it evenly with the back of a
spoon, trying not to mix it into the cheese filling. Sprinkle the
remaining flour and oat mixture evenly over the top. Bake at 350 F for
40 minutes. Let cool completely before serving. I like to refrigerate them overnight.
Stuffed pumpkinsrock! I'm definitely one of those annoying people that look forward to everything-pumpkin in the fall. I'd never stuffed a pumpkin until a few years ago and it's become one of my most favourite autumn dishes.
We have a recipe for a sweet Apple and Oats Stuffed Pumpkin, but we also enjoy doing savoury stuffed pumpkins, so I thought it was time to get a recipe up! This stuffed pumpkin was so delicious. While I chose wild rice and sausage, you can really put anything you like in one! Change up the meat and use chicken or shredded beef. Change up the grain and use barley or white rice. Add nuts - try dried apricots instead of cranberries. Try a theme - Mexican, Italian, Moroccan, Chinese...
How about The Hollowpoints - The Sickness. -jen
WILD RICE AND SAUSAGE STUFFED PUMPKIN Prep Time: 30 minutes Bake Time: 60 minutes Difficulty: Easy to Medium Serves: about 6
1 pie pumpkin (like a Sugar Pumpkin or a Winter Luxury)
5 links maple sausage
1 tablespoon coconut oil + 2 teaspoons, melted
1 small carrot, diced (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 medium onion, diced (about 3/4 cups)
1 large stalks of celery, diced (about 1/4 cup)
1 small green pepper or poblano, diced (about 1/2 cup)
1 apple, diced (like a Gala or Fuji) (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon ginger, minced (1 tbsp)
2 large cloves of garlic, minced (1 tbsp)
2 tablespoons maple syrup (brown sugar would be a suitable substitute) + 1 teaspoon
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 teaspoon salt + 1/4 teaspoon
1/4 teaspoon pepper + a pinch
1/2 teaspoon curry powder + 1/4 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage + 1/4 teaspoon
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1-2 cups cooked wild rice (recipe below)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Like carving a jack-o-lantern, cut the top of your pumpkin off and scoop the inside and the base of the lid clean. (Save your seeds and make Seasoned Pumpkin Seeds!) Discard the insides, keep your lid! Make sure you get all those stringy pieces out... it's worth the extra effort to make it totally scraped clean. Set aside.
In a large skillet over medium heat, cook sausages through. Set aside. In same skillet with the remaining sausage fat, add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and the carrots, cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the onion, celery, and green pepper. Saute about 5 minutes, until vegetables become tender. Add the apples, garlic, ginger, maple syrup, cranberries, salt, pepper, curry powder, sage, cinnamon, marjoram, and red pepper flake. Cook another 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.
Once cool, dice the sausages and add the sausage and the rice to the vegetable mixture. Add 2 teaspoons of melted coconut oil, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1/4 tsp salt, pinch of pepper, 1/4 tsp curry powder and 1/4 tsp of sage to the inside of the pumpkin, . Using your hands, massage oil and seasonings all over the inside of the pumpkin, as well as on the bottom of the lid.
Stuff the pumpkin completely full with the stuffing. Place the lid back on the pumpkin and place on a sheet
pan. Cook at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour. A sharp knife should slide easily through the skin and the flesh if the pumpkin is cooked thoroughly. Remove and let rest for 5 minutes.
Place on a serving tray. Remove lid. Slice wedges and serve. Don't forget to slice the pumpkin meat off of the lid, too!
If you have leftover stuffing you can serve it on the table with your stuffed pumpkin for folks who want extra. You can make an egg scramble out of it (which we did!) or use it as a side dish for your dinner the next evening.
In a large sauce pan, combine rice, broth and sage. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes and check. You'll want about half of the kernels to split open (they'll look lighter in colour)... could take up to 60 minutes. If there's any remaining liquid, drain it off. Fluff with a fork.
Note: Wild rice will triple or quadruple once cooked. 1 cup may yield 3.5 - 4 cups.
I went with some of my favourite folk punk - Defiance, Ohio doing "Condition 11:11". When I see the clock say that time, all I can sing in my head is, "At 11:11 every night I make wishes..." And I see the clock say 11:11 a lot. -jen
CRANBERRY PECAN MARSHMALLOW TREATS Time: 10 minutes Difficulty: Super Easy Makes: 9-16, depending on how big you cut 'em
3 tablespoons butter, plus a little extra
6 cups plain corn flakes*
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup pecans, chopped
4 cups mini marshmallows
Lightly butter a 2-quart (8"x8") baking dish with the extra butter.
In a large bowl, combine corn flakes, cranberries and pecans. Set aside.
In a medium sauce pan over low heat, melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted and combined.
Pour over corn flake mix and mix well. (Do this part quickly!)
Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and using a spatula or your hand, press mixture firmly into pan.
Let cool. Cut and serve. You can place them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to help speed up the cooling process.
For storage, I like to wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then put them all in a ziplock. Keeps the from getting stale.
*I used a name brand that comes with little honey and oat granola clusters, the kind you love "bunches"... but being pre-sweetened, it made the squares a little on the uber sweet side.
We both grew up with cranberry sauce out of a can... and when we discovered how easy it is to make your own and customize it, I don't think we could ever go back to the canned version. Earlier in the year I discovered Pomanders, which are oranges studded with whole cloves and used as a room freshener. We hung several of them up in our house, in closets, in the hallway, and they really made our house smell amazing... we both fell in love with the smell of oranges and cloves combined. So when I decided to make a cranberry sauce today, I decided to go heavy on the orange and also use cloves. Sweet, tart, slightly spicy... it pretty much smells like the holidays.
I've really been trying to cut back the sugar in recipes and I did so in this one as well. Most cranberry sauce recipes you find will use up to a cup of sugar or honey. With this one, I figured I've got the orange juice, the cranberry juice, the apple, the Triple Sec... plenty of sweet but a lot of tart. If you're not big into tart, you might want to use 1 cup of sugar in the recipe.
And in the holiday spirit, I chose Jim Carroll singing "People Who Died". (I apologize for the video showing Leo and Marky Mark.) -jen
juice and zest of one orange (about 1/3 cup juice)
juice and zest of one lemon (about 3 tablespoons juice)
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1/2 cup sugar
12 oz bag of fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup Triple Sec liqueur
1 apple (your choice), diced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, bring orange juice, lemon juice, cranberry juice and sugar to a boil. Add rinsed cranberries and bring back to a boil (about 5 minutes). Lower heat to a simmer and add citrus zests, Triple Sec, diced apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Simmer for 10-15 minutes (but not more than 15 minutes or it won't set). Remove from heat and let set. Serve at room temp or chilled - it's up to you.
Right before Halloween, Justin and I headed to the pumpkin patch to get our carving pumpkins... it's something I have to do every year. While we were there, we grabbed some acorn squash, butternut squash, carnival squash, and a few sugar pie pumpkins. We had ideas for them... until the lady who was running the show told us how good they were stuffed with apples and raisins. Well, we did a little research, and then like usual, we winged it. It came out so awesome! I felt like it was a dessert, though it wasn't overly sweet (which is how we like our desserts). My sister in law topped it off with whipped cream to add a little kick to it. Justin thought it was a perfectly good meal and had no need to be labeled "dessert". Next one I make, I think I'm going to add some oats to it to give the stuffing even more body. Either way you eat it... it's going to be awesome!
Here were this year's pumpkins - mine is evil, Justin's is the cyclops.
And so, even though it's past Halloween, we're going to lay down some Misfits' "Halloween". -jen
APPLE AND OATS STUFFED PUMPKIN
1 small sugar pie pumpkin (2-3 pounds)
2 medium Granny Smith apples, chopped
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons amaretto liqueur (or whiskey, or brandy, or rum - it's all good)
2 tablespoons butter, cubed small
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut the top off of your pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds and string insides, discarding. Mix all of the remaining ingredients except the butter. Pack firmly into the pumpkin until about half way. Sprinkle with half of the cubed butter. Pack the remaining filling into the pumpkin and top with the remaining butter.
Place the lid back on top of the pumpkin. Place on a baking sheet or in a pie pan and bake for 1.5 - 2 hours, until pumpkin insides are tender.
Slice the pumpkin into quarters and serve topped with the stuffing. Depending on the size of your pumpkin, you may have leftover filling that wouldn't fit inside. I suggest saving it and mixing it in with some oatmeal for breakfast the next morning!
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