Mom's Cranberry Sauce

Simply put, I cannot deal with that canned crap that passes for cranberry sauce or it's ribbed cousin, cranberry jelly. Yuck and yuck.

Cranberry sauce is just too easy to make yourself. There are lots of variations out there, but we like ours with a hint of orange and cinnamon. This is what I use:

1 package fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 naval orange - reserve the zest and juice separately
1 t. ground cinnamon

In a large saucepan, over medium-high heat, dissolve the sugar in water and orange juice. Add cranberries and let it bubble away, stirring occasionally. When it has thickened and most of the berries have burst, after about 8 minutes, remove from heat. Stir in orange zest and cinnamon, then allow to cool to room temperature. Transfer to a covered container and refrigerate at least a few hours - I leave it overnight.

In the event you have Thanksgiving leftovers, this chunky sauce is good on Black Friday brunch French toast or waffles. Served with mimosas, of course.

Happy Thanksgiving!

- MomNextDoor

Good Morning Sunshine!

The kids were up unusually early this fine summer morning. Likely due to the fact their band is performing on Saturday so the neighbors have been blessed with lots of rehearsal time. In any case, teenagers independently awake before noon calls for a special breakfast offering. Today it was cheddar polenta topped with a backyard-fresh, over-easy egg and accompanied by their favorite summertime fruit.

They loved the egg yolk stirred into this super easy polenta:

Bring 4 cups salted water to a boil. Whisk in 1 cup cornmeal very slowly and reduce heat. Continue to cook, stirring very frequently, for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper and stir in 1 tablespoon butter, 1/2 cup milk and a handful of grated cheddar cheese until everything is melted and creamy.

Next time we think we'll try it with sauteed mushrooms and spinach or something.

Have a great weekend!

How Mom Does Dinner: Stuffed Peppers

I used to sit down every Saturday morning and, with input from the whole fam, formulate a menu for our weekly meals. Then I would carefully make my grocery list based on the menu and any other depleted staples. Finally after all that I would head off to do my shopping. But I don't do that anymore because it just sucked.

The whole reason I gave it a go was that I kept hearing that it was a great strategy for minimizing grocery expenses. It made sense to me that if you had a well organized plan that you would be less apt to buy a lot of stuff you didn't really need. I reasoned that the time I invested would be rewarded with savings at the cash register and then I'd have more money to spend on fun family stuff. Time is important to me because I do work full-time, I have three school aged kids, I actively participate in their school and extracurricular activities, I have personal interests I like to pursue and Dad and I need time to nurture our relationship too.

As it turned out, I found that the more carefully I formulated my lists, the more I actually spent. So I ended up with less time and less money. I have since decided to just pick up general staples that I use all the time so there's always something I can put together for dinner. That's also the reason I am not such a recipe follower.

On any given night, I just sort of check out what protein I have thawed out and then build around it from whatever is on hand in the fridge and pantry. It's not always fancy pants, but it doesn't steal our family time either and that's a good thing.

Last night I had some ground sirloin that needed cooking and my pretty bell peppers were speaking to me so I decided to do a stuffed pepper variation. This is what I used because that's what was there - you use whatever you have:

• 1 lb ground sirloin
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• 2 t cumin
• salt
• 6 oz tomato sauce, because I had no paste
• 3 t chopped fresh oregano
• 1 1/2 cups corn, I used a can because I had no fresh
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 2 cups water
• 2 cup grated cheese, I used 50/50 cheddar and mozzarella because I had no Monterey Jack
• 3 bell peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brown meat in a large skillet. Add onions, garlic and jalapeno then cook until softened. Add cumin, salt and tomato sauce then simmer until the tomato reduces and the mixture tightens up. Add corn, oregano, rice and water then cover and simmer 15 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

While that mixture is cooking, place peppers skin-side down in a baking dish. Add 1/4 cup water to bottom of the dish and bake for 15 minutes to soften peppers.

Stir cheese into stuffing mixture and fill peppers. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Easy peasy. Stress-free shopping and cooking, kid friendly, healthy dinner.

Mom's Chicken Enchiladas

If you're like us and end up with an entire beautifully roasted chicken left over from dinner because your kids' house-guests have an aversion to eating foodstuffs that don't come either prepackaged or out of a drive-thru window, you might need a re-purposing idea on occasion. Last night was one such occasion here at the Hacienda. After perusing the fridge, Mom decided it was enchilada night. 

Like most things around here, we work with what we have and go with the flow so there isn't so much of an exact recipe as an approach. There are two parts to our wannabe enchilada supper: the actual enchiladas and the corn relish.

For the enchiladas, we used:

• one whole roasted chicken, deboned
• one onion, chopped (we used purple since that's what was in the fridge)
• couple of handfuls mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 5 handfuls fresh spinach
• salt, crushed red pepper, cumin - put however much tastes good to you
• 6 oz. goat cheese
• corn tortillas
• 32 oz green chile enchilada sauce

We sauteed the onions until nice and soft, then added in the mushrooms, garlic and seasoning. Once everything was soft and juicy, we piled on the spinach and cold chicken. When the spinach had begun to wilt, we turned off the heat and stirred in the cheese until it melted into creaminess.

We wrapped the filling in corn tortillas and crammed them into an oiled baking dish. After getting coated in the green chile sauce, the enchiladas baked uncovered at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, until bubbly and browned.

While they were baking, we whipped up a corn relish. This is what we used:

• 1 can of corn, drained (The Hacienda was plumb out of fresh corn today)
• an equal volume of quartered cherry tomatoes
• one jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
• half an onion, chopped
• the juice of one lime and a drizzle of olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

It would have been better with the addition of cilantro and avocado. This was just an ADD sort of cooking night so they got left out, oopsie. The relish chilled in the fridge until the enchiladas were baked and slightly cooled. They're easier to dish up if they aren't a hot sloppy mess.

And there you have it. Mom's enchiladas at TheHaciendaNextDoor.

Holiday Cocktails

Every holiday calls for a special cocktail. A little treat once in a while is what life's all about after all. This Labor Day I'm breaking out one of my favorite recipes, the pineapple upside-down cake martini.

This simple nectar calls for one part vanilla vodka, two parts pineapple juice and a squirt of homemade grenadine. If you like the flavor of this martini you might also like to enjoy it over ice with a bit of club soda. Incidentally, I do not prefer Smirnoff and I can't get into the red sugar water that passes for grenadine at your local market.

So what about that grenadine? The homemade stuff is just too easy to cut corners. You just grab a 16 oz. bottle of pomegranate juice from the store, put it in a saucepan with a cup of sugar and then simmer until slightly reduced and thickened. Pour the syrup into your squirty bottle of choice and keep in the fridge for use in your favorite cocktails and teas.

Happy Labor Day!

-- MomNextDoor