Hazelnut/Pecan and Cranberry Bread

This Thanksgiving was pretty low key for us - only 8 gathered around the table.  While my brother did not make it up for the holiday (paying his dues so he gets Christmas through New Year's off), we were joined by my cousin and her family from Minnesota!  They unfortunately cannot make it to the wedding, but generously offered to come out to Boston for a visit - I mean, they had to meet Nick!  With only 8, my mom had the majority of dinner under control, but still wanting to contribute something to the meal I volunteered myself for the breads.  I figured the possibilities were endless!

Cranberry Hazelnut and Pecan Bread

I remembered a bread recipe that sounded delicious I had seen somewhere with hazelnuts and cranberries.  Knowing we had a bunch of frozen cranberries from our CSA and a bunch of hazelnuts on hand, I was on a mission to find the recipe.  Luckily Nick came to the rescue and did a quick online search and found the recipe on Real Simple's website.

The Ingredients

The Necessities...(adapted from Real Simple)

• 1 cup 
• hazelnuts
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups cranberries

To begin, I spread the hazelnuts out on a baking sheet.  Only at this point did I realize I did not in fact have the cup on hand that I thought I had.  So off to the store I went.  However, it turns out there was a run on hazelnuts and neither Savenor's nor the Charles Street Market had any left, and since there's no true substitute for hazelnuts, I decided to buy some pecans to add to the bread instead.  To prepare the nuts, I let them roast in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Once fragrant, I then removed the skins from the nuts (a little harder than I thought!) and coarsely chopped them up.

Meanwhile, I combined the dry ingredients and set aside for later.  In a separate bowl, I whisked together the melted butter, eggs, vanilla and milk.

Wet Ingredients

Once all whisked together, I slowly added the dry ingredients into the wet.

Adding the dry...

All Combined

At this point the batter was all ready, so I folded in the cranberries, which had thawed out nicely...

Cranberries...

as well as the chopped hazelnut and pecan combination.

get folding...

I gently combined all the ingredients so the cranberries and the nuts were evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Finished Batter

I then poured the batter into a greased bread pan and put it in a 350 degree oven for about 55 minutes until the toothpick came out clean.  To sweeten it up a bit I sprinkled the top with some white sugar, which created a great crust to the bread.

Ready for the Oven

This bread was really easy to put together (once I had the nuts!) and was something I could do ahead of time.  I merely wrapped it up tightly in Saran wrap after it completely cooled.  We sliced and served this bread during appetizers and it provided the perfect transition from breakfast treats into the Thanksgiving feast we were looking forward to!  The combination of the crunch of the nuts and the tartness of the cranberries was delicious and offset the sweetness of the bread perfectly.

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Shepard's Pie...ish

This recipe goes back aways - back to when we had fresh corn and onions on a weekly basis.  I mean, its only been two weeks and I am really missing our CSA goodie bag!  Having received so much corn and potatoes for a number of weeks in a row, we really were looking for meals that utilized these ingredients.  Nick decided to take the lead in the kitchen on this night and wing a recipe.  While not really a traditional shephard's pie in any way, the same flavor profile was there.

The Necessities...

• bunches of red onion
• the kernals from 1 or 2 ears of corn
• potatoes
• Johnsonville chicken sausages

To begin, Nick cut up loads of onions and put them in a saute pan with some olive oil and kept them heating low and slow for quite some time to get them fully caramelized.

Caramelizing onions....

Using the special corn trick, Nick cut the kernels off of the ears of corn.

Kernels of corn...

Meanwhile, I helped peel some potatoes, Nick cut them up and plopped them in a pot full of water and let them cook until soft.

Boiling Potatoes

The onions continued to cook down until they were nice and mushy.

Caramelized Onions

Once the onions were done, Nick put them in a bowl and set them aside for later and added the corn to the pan to heat up.

Cooking corn

Once the potatoes were done, Nick mashed them up, added some salt, butter and leftover sour cream that we had in our refridgerator and served them in the base of the bowls.

Mashed Potatoes!

Nick then spooned the corn and the caramelized onions to the top of the potatoes.

Almost ready....

In the meantime, Nick had grilled the Johnsonville Chicken Sausages easily on the Foreman Grill and placed them on top of all the yumminess in the bowls.  Nick and I are big fans of this chicken sausage - flavorful and easy to cook.  They have a variety of styles like three cheese Italian and apple chicken.

Dinner is Served!

This dinner was easy (not necessarily quick!) and flavorful, and is definitely something more suited for the cold days ahead - in fact, I think we'll have to make something similar again with all the corn that is sitting in our freezer.  With Thanksgiving ahead, there are plenty of variations to this meal that can use up plenty of leftovers!

Butternut Squash Chili

After so many amazing months of getting great veggies from my CSA, I am so sad it has finally come to an end.  Mondays now come and go with no boxes of fresh produce.  However, I get to relive some of the last great pick-ups by writing them up here.  When I had a couple squashes to use, I turned to trusty Gojee and plugged in acorn and butternut squash (delicata squash is an easy substitute for butternut) and found a recipe for Cincinnati Chili from the Judicial Peach.  This recipe was for a regular chili, but had some squash, avocado and chocolate - how could I resist!

Dinner!

To begin, I started the long process of preparing the squash.  Luckily, delicata squash does not need to be peeled, so it cuts down on a lot of the prep, but stilled needed to be cubed.  The acorn squash, however, not only had to be cubed but also peeled.  Peeling a ribbed vegetable is not easy to say the least.

Squash

Finally, I got all the squash cubed and tossed it into a bowl.

Loads of squash

I then added a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper.

Once it was all mixed in, I put the squash on a baking sheet and sprinkled it with some brown sugar - because I am obsessed!  I allowed the squash to bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  About half way through I did toss it up to make sure it all cooked evenly.

Ready for the oven

While the squash was cooking and then cooling I started to get the rest of the chili going, which required quite a few spices:

• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon smoked chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice

Spicy!

Other ingredients included:

• Vegetable oil
• 1 pound ground veal, pork and beef mix
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup low-sodium broth
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 heaping tablespoons semisweet chocolate
• 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• Avocado 

Best of the Rest

To get started I chopped up the red onion.  In the meantime I added the some vegetable oil to the dutch oven and brought it to a medium high heat and added the ground meat.

Red Onion

Once the meat was almost browned and crumbled (about 3 minutes) I added the chopped onion and minced garlic.

I allowed all of these flavors to cook together for another three minutes.  I then added the tomato paste and all of the spices and cooked it for another minute or so.

Once all the spices and other smaller items were fully mixed, I added the broth, beans and tomatoes, stirred it all together and brought it to a boil, where I then turned the heat down to low and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

Almost there...

The squash had finally cooled down a bit...

and the chili was done simmering.

To keep busy while the chili was simmering, I shredded the cheese, grated the chocolate and chopped up the avocado.  Our box grater broke, so I had to use a microplane - the cheese was definitely a lot finer than I normally would have liked!

Finally, the dish was ready to assemble!  I added the squash and the chocolate and gave it a big stir.

Ready to Serve!

To serve, I spooned a bunch of the chili into a bowl and topped it off with some chopped avocado and grated cheese.

Dinner is served!

I loved this chili!  The flavors all just worked.  I won't lie - I was totally suspect of adding the squash, and then to add the avocado and chocolate I was not sure what to expect.  In the end it really came together.  The squash added a lovely fall flavor, while the avocado added a freshness to the dish.  Both ingredients had such a fun texture.

This meal was such a great version of chili, I would highly recommend this to anyone, especially it you have some squash hanging around!

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Fruit Crisp!

When Nick moved in last year,  Ina Garten also moved into our condo.  He brought along a bunch of her cookbooks and set up the DVR to record her show.  However, she has proven to be a great resource on many occasions.  Even better, her show has taught me a lot of good basics (that I probably should have already known!).  So when I needed a good basic recipe for a crisp, I looked no further than at Ina!

Ina Garten

In our CSA for two weeks we got a ton of plums, ground cherries and apples.  Having already made the Plum Clafoutis and the Ground Cherry Pie, I was looking for something different.  I figured a crisp was a great way to combine a lot of these fresh fruits.  Even better, we had a friend's house to go to that evening with plenty of hungry mouths to feed.

Fruit Crisp

The Necessities (Recipe adapted from the Plum Crunch in  Ina's Back to Basics)


For the inside goodness...

• About 2 pounds of fruit
• Ground Cherries
• Plums
• Apples
• 1 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of flour

For the Crispy Topping...

• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• salt
• 1 1/2 cup of oatmeal (save the extra 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 chopped walnuts
• 2 sticks of cold butter

Having learned that ground cherries are very liquidy I decided to cook them a bit beforehand.  To begin, I husked the ground cherries.

Ground Cherries

I put the ground cherries on a baking sheet in the oven at about 375 degrees for about 8 minutes - until they softened up.

Ready for the oven

While the ground cherries were in the oven I set to cutting up the plums.  These were the nice little ones - Italian prune plums I believe.  I cut each one into about 6 pieces.

Sliced Plums

Once those were sliced I set out on the apples - I just used a variety of apple types (whatever we had on hand).

Apples!

All Sliced

I combined the apples and plums into a large bowl and gave it a bit of a stir.  I then added the brown sugar and flour to the top.

Sugar!

Using a wooden spoon I stirred in the sugar and flour, making sure that the sugar came into contact with each piece of fruit.  From there I dumped the sugary goodness into a shallow baking dish.  During the cutting, I had taken the ground cherries out of the oven and allowed them to cool for a bit.  They were nice and smushy with plenty of liquid spilling out onto the baking sheet.

Nicely Smushed

Using a slotted spoon I sprinkled the cherries on top of the plums and apples in the baking dish.

Sugary Fruit!

After the fruit was all set, I grabbed a medium sized bowl and combined the flour, white and brown sugars, and salt.  Using a pastry blender I cut the butter into the dry ingredients.

Almost there....

I kept cutting until the the mixture was nice and crumbly - pea sized.  Once it was the right consistency I added the oatmeal and the walnuts and stirred it completely.

Almost there...

Fully mixed

Once mixed up, I poured the topping onto the fruit mixture - making sure it was spread evenly.  I sprinkled the extra half a cup of oatmeal over the top ensuring a crispy topping.

Ready for the oven

Once set, I put the dish in the 375 degree oven and allowed it to cook for about 50 minutes - until the top was nice and crispy and the juices were bubbling.

Hot and Steamy

Bubbling Fruit Juices

I really loved this crisp!  The combination of all the fruits worked so well together.  The apples got soft and tender, the plums were good and mushy, and the ground cherries just added a bit of sweetness to the bite.  The combination of the fruits' textures was delicious with the crispy crunchy topping.  The oatmeal and walnuts were my favorite part of the crispy topping.

A good, warmed, fruit crisp served with a bit of ice cream really does make an evening perfect!