Cranberries, Cranberries

I keep posting about cranberries. And I'm serious about them. I have several quart size bags of dried cranberries. I need to use them up! This really nice parent at our school brings them to us from his company - all the staff members get bags of them. I give them to my brother and mother and then I search for recipes for me because I still have more.

My friend, Yvette, is the lunch program coordinator at school. She also gets the cranberries, often making them part of the menu for the day. She also reads my blog, and therefore gave me a cranberry recipe to try. Her lunch food is wonderful. In an era of processed and frozen lunches at many schools, Yvette makes most of her lunches from scratch - with nutritious and wholesome ingredients. Katie and I especially love her soups. Katie can tell you what she likes about every one of Yvette's soups. One day Katie revealed that the only school soup she didn't like was the tomato soup served when Mrs. N (Yvette) makes grilled cheese. Katie believes that it is the only soup that the lunch program doesn't make from scratch. Smart girl, eh?

Yvette has shared many ideas and recipes with me - mostly in the form of cookies which seems to be a talent for Yvette. Her cookies are mouth watering, no matter which kind she makes. On this Memorial Day Monday, I made a Cranberry Shortbread Cookie recipe that she gave me. This recipe is a keeper. So incredibly simple - 4 ingredients. Crunchy on the outside; soft and chewy on the inside. The cranberries burst in a sweetly sour moment in your mouth.

The recipe is from www.cooksrecipes.com - Check it out and...

Bring on the cranberry recipes!

A Dog-Eared, Stained Cookbook

I remember my mother cooking for us when we were kids. I mostly remember her Betty Crocker, 3 ring cookbook. It was stained - a couple pages had burn marks where pans were set down on them. It was dog-eared and falling apart. She used it often.

Tonight I used my Better Homes and Garden cookbook. Easy and delicious recipes to the food in the fridge and the pantry together for a great meal. In my quest to get better at preparing pork, I bought country style boneless pork ribs at the market. They were plump and pretty. I made "Oven Roasted Honey and Beer Ribs". The recipe calls for pepper sauce - one of my favorite flavors. The ribs turned out sweet and spicy. Everyone ate them up. Katie had several glasses of milk as the rib sauce was too spicy for her, but ate up the pork despite the heat.

Arnie, the fearless chef, made his own potato salad to go along with the ribs. He said, "It's Memorial Day Weekend; seems like we should have potato salad." The kids liked both items on the menu. Robby did not like the egg in the potato salad, but ate the potatoes and celery when I produced a pickle for him. Mind you, not ketchup this time!

The Better Homes and Garden cookbook is in the early states of overuse. It has a few sticky pages and some stains on it. Mom will be proud!

A Garden of Plenty

Gardening. Something I do pretty well without a lot of knowledge. Even before we had kids, I loved to work outside, especially in the beds with flowers and vegetables. The northwest has great weather for all kinds of seasonal plants and vegetables, so I try to branch out and try new things every year.

The garden is an important way to connect kids to food. They experience where food comes from and how to nurture food. My kids help me pull the weeds, fertilize the soil, plant the seeds, and harvest the crops. Fresh vegetables are incredible and truly can be grown anywhere, even on the patio in pots. We, of course, call them salad bowls on our patio. This year we are growing bunching onions, many types of lettuces, and tomatoes in our salad bowls. We are growing potatoes in one really huge pot as well. This is a new crop for us. Last year we tried some small potatoes and really loved them. So this year, russet - and lots of them. Bush beans are also great in pots on patios. I bet bush peas would be great in pots, too. My pots are huge, but you can use wide and shallow pots for lettuce, bunching onions, and herbs of all kinds. Tomatoes, beans, and potatoes will need deep pots.

A small garden bed, if you've got it, is great for radishes (so easy to grow), carrots, beets, and lots of other root vegetables. I've never tried them in pots, but I bet if the pots were deep and wide root vegetables would grow well. Pole beans and peas can grow in a small garden beds also. All you need is a trellis. I love onions, so we grow red, yellow, and sweet onions. They don't always grow well, especially if we don't get hot, sunny days. They are delicious right out of the ground, though. Every year I also grow leafy greens like chard, arugula, and endive. The kids like the arugula now, but didn't at first. They always try the chard, but so far don't really like it.

In the northwest, zucchini and squashes grow bountifully and need a larger garden bed. I have a really big garden bed for these and the cucumbers. Last year I introduced the kids to butternut squash. So delicious. We roasted it and grilled it often - through November! The kids really liked it and were especially interested in it because they watched it grow all summer. This year we bought starts for a flying saucer shaped squash - looks fun. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and corn are easy to grow in a larger space, too. I really like to grow these with the kids so that they experience the awe of these veggies. They get so big and beautiful.

Tonight we harvested our first radishes. Beautiful and crunchy and spicy. This is why summer is my favorite time of the year. Next: entries on my experiences with canning!

It's Arnie's turn to be away. I miss him. My creative juices don't flow as well when he is not around. In my writing and in the kitchen! The kids and I got home really late. We made pancakes and french toast - extravagant for a school night, but I spoil them. Robby wanted pancakes; Katie wanted French toast. I pulled out the Bisquick and got busy. We fried a little sausage and some hashbrowns. Pulled up our chairs in front of the TV, and watched "Dancing With the Stars" for dinner.

They both went to bed with satisfied little bellies. A quick, simple, and not very nutritious dinner. Oh, well. I'll have to think about how I can do better tomorrow!

It's all about the food

As I said before, I was away from home for 3 days and 2 nights last week. I took my seventh graders to Marine Biology Camp in Port Townsend. I know that if I find it hard to be away from the comforts of home, the kids who are with me might look happy to be away from home, but are likely missing it.

Camp means lots of learning for the students and lots of work for the teachers and parents who come along. This year I took a teacher who used to teach science and two dads, who each took a turn making dinner for everyone. The other teacher and I made breakfast and sack lunches.

The word "foodie" was tossed around a bit over the three days. Both dads consider themselves "foodies". I'm not clear on what makes a person a foodie. If I like to eat, am I a foodie? If so, I'm a foodie. If I like to cook, am I a foodie? If so, then I'm a foodie. If I like to try different stuff, am I a foodie? If so, I'm a foodie. If I know a lot about food or cooking, am I a foodie? If so, I'm probably not a foodie. I have a lot to learn. I can definitely learn from the two dads who cooked for us at camp.

The first dad was fabulous. His dinner was at the Hostel, so he had the kitchen and refrigeration at his convenience. He bought way too much food, which was good for the kids. He served roasted chicken, pizza, pasta, broccoli, salad, baked apples and bread. The kids ate and ate. All the pasta with marinara sauce was eaten. The pizza was demolished. They tried the chicken, but there was a lot left. He asked all of them to try the broccoli - one young man tried to hold out, but caved with some cajoling. He struggled to swallow the broccoli, and said he'd never try it again. After eating dinner, we all ate ice cream. The students went to bed full and happy.

The second dad was fantastic. His dinner was at the fire pit on the beach. He brought 3 different kinds of dogs to roast. We had sausages, and kosher dogs, and plain old hot dogs. The kids were thrilled to roast their own dog in the fire except that the skewers we used were too short, and the kids were too impatient to wait for coals, so there was a lot of funny stances and people holding their sticks way out and with the tips of their fingertips. Most of the dogs were eaten - even the sausages. The kids also ate chips that night.

The best part about the fire was - drum-roll please! - the s'mores. Thanks to the overindulgence of the first dad, we made gourmet s'mores with Resees Peanut Buttercups. The kids and the other teacher had a rousing discussion about how a marshmallow should be roasted. Some of the kids liked to catch theirs on fire, blow out the flames, and put them on the s'more. Some liked to lightly brown theirs and then put them on the s'more. Neither of which melted the marshmallow enough to make it run all over the chocolate on the graham cracker. The other teacher had an expert method of deeply browning all side of the marshmallow without burning it so that all of the inside was melted. One of our kids had never had s'mores before. She raved about them and wrote in her journal that night that she had been missing mom all day, but now was excited to tell her all about s'mores.

I know camp was a success after reading journals - everyone enjoyed the lessons and the food!

Slow Cooker Soup

Mable Hoffman. I own three of her crock pot cookbooks. The crock pot is a great device for a busy mom. There is something very tantalizing about the aroma of dinner when you open the front door, starving and tired. However, I mostly like the soup recipes from her books. I've tried other recipes, like Autumn Pork Chops or California Pie, but I don't think they are super. Some things are amazing slow-cooked, but whole dinners...pot roast, maybe. I have made excellent roasts in the slow cooker.

Today Robby had a soccer game in Mossyrock, a town about an hour and 40 minutes away. We raced home from church, started Chicken Tortilla Soup (Thanks, Mable), changed our clothes, and took off. The sunshine beamed down on the car; I turned on the air conditioning. Robby laughed and called me crazy for making him bring his coat. "Always be prepared," I defended, hoping that he was right to call me crazy. We drove forever, through small towns and past quiet rivers. We hit I - 5 and had fairly easy traffic. The farther south and west we got, though, the cooler the air got. The closer we drove to the mountains, the darker the sky got. Needless to say, I wasn't crazy. Here's how the game went:

We lost and we were wet, but we weren't cold or unhappy. What a treat to drive back toward the sun! By the time we were back in Montesano, the air conditioning was back on and we were starving. Mable's soup was yummy. Katie went all out, putting cheese and chopped green onions on hers. The fried corn tortilla strips gave crunch to the soup. After dinner, we sliced up more strawberries, Robby whipped up some cream, and this time, we built Shortcakes on pound cake...Are those Strawberry Pound Cakes, by chance?

Mom's Home!

I was gone for three days for seventh grade Marine Biology Camp in Port Townsend. I really don't like to be away from my family, but Marine Biology Camp is worth the extra pain to all of us. The seventh graders learn so much about Washington marine life in three days, they come home teaching their families about it. We dissected herring, counted life in the eel grass, investigated low tide, had plankton races, made crab dichotomy keys, studied habitats, and made our own sea creature based on that knowledge. We were all exhausted, but full of accomplishment.

While I was off helping my students for three days, Arnie and the kids were fending for themselves back home. They certainly had fun, but both kids said they missed me because things are never quite right without me. Aren't they sweet? Arnie, too, was glad to see me Friday night.

On Saturday, I decided to spoil the whole lot of them. Usually after a long, stressful week, I don't sleep well. Anyone else have that issue? I know! A lot of us do. So I woke up too early. After being awake for a couple of hours, I was bored and lonely. I made the kids' favorite breakfast. Pancakes. Hmmmm. I just used a mix, but added vanilla extract for extra yumminess. Then, I snuck into each room with the hot steaming plate, wafting sweet baking fumes toward each child. Pretty soon, they were up, hugging me and eating up the pancakes.

Next, I planned a picnic lunch. Pizza puffs and pasta salad (with pepperoni and cheese) - all their favorite foods. The pizza puffs were a big hit. I had Portuguese sausage, so I used that with both cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. I loaded the pasta salad with veggies and wheat macaroni. We picnicked at the Riverfront Park in the sunshine. Arnie and the kids played some ball and we even got to see a train go past about 30 feet from us.

Finally, the kids helped me prepare dinner. Again, I went for their favorites. We had barbecued burgers, french fries, and salad. Robby made the fries for us. Peeling potatoes, cutting them into wedges, oiling and seasoning them. They were delicious and crispy. That kid can cook. The burgers were great, too, I must say. For dessert, Katie helped me make strawberry shortcake. She sliced the angel food cake and whipped the cream. Again, besides the sugar, she and I splashed some vanilla in it. Yum. Sweet and creamy. I feel so much happier tonight after spoiling my family all day. I leave you with Robby's amazing homemade french fries recipe.

Homemade French Fries

6 small russet potatoes
1 tbsp seasoning salt - Robby chose Lawry's tonight. We also like the fries with Tony's, or sometimes with our own concoction.
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash, peel (I don't always peel them), and slice each potato into wedges. You should get 8 wedges from each potato. Soak them for 5 minutes in water, then pat them dry with paper towels. Put them in a bowl. Add the oil and seasoning and stir to coat well. Lay them in one layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn them over with a spatula and bake for 10 to 15 more minutes. Check at 10 minutes. My family likes them crispy, so I usually go an extra 5 minutes.

Kids Will Always Eat Cookies

I have to be away from my family for 3 full days. I really dislike being away. I miss them terribly. Even the screaming hugs they attack me with when I get home don't make up for the time away. So tonight I made their favorite cookies for them to enjoy while I'm gone. Those cookies buffer times that the kids are missing me - especially bedtime when I'm not their to make their beds over the top of them as I tuck them in. And for Arnie, after the kids are in bed, when he has no one to talk to, he can have a cookie and think about me.

This chocolate chip cookie recipe is amazing. It is packed with chips and cooks crisp on the outside, but stays soft on the inside. I collect recipes from all over the place. The backs of packages, the internet, magazines, friends...this chocolate chip recipe is from a spice catalog. Penzeys Spices, Summer 2009. I ate a dessert at my mother-in-law's during the summer of 09 and complimented the spiciness. She pulled out Penzeys Spices Catalog to show me where she had ordered the spice used in the cake. This awesome catalog has wonderful recipes in it. The cookies we like are called white chocolate chip cookies, but we use so many kinds of chocolate chips, that we just call them "those yummy cookies".

Once, I thought I had lost the catalog. After searching the house and the internet, I wanted to cry. I couldn't find it anywhere. Happily, I found the catalog one night while searching in another cookbook for a chicken recipe - somehow it had gotten stuck inside. I celebrated by making 4 dozen cookies.

Penzeys Spices White Chocolate Chip Cookies
6 oz. white chocolate chips
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz. milk chocolate chips
6 oz. various chocolate bars, chopped (hmm. We actually put another 6 ounces of chips - whatever we have left over. One time I had some of those 60% cocoa chips - wow. Yummy.)
4 oz. toffee baking bits (Good. But we add caramel bits instead - creamy and melty.)

2 1/4 Cups all purpose flour, sifted (I use 1 cup of wheat, 1 1/4 cups of unbleached white flour)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks)
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium size bowl, combine all the chips and candy pieces. In another medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar and brown sugar and mix gently. Add the butter (I usually cut the butter into pieces to help it incorporate better) to the sugar mixture and mix well. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until thoroughly blended. Scrape the sides of the bowl and the beaters so the batter is well mixed. Fold in the chip mixture and stir gently until blended. Drop by the rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 375 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned.

Makes 48 cookies

Mother's Day Omelet

I had a great Mother's Day. I woke up to a little person snuggling in bed with me. Very sweet. I went to the kitchen to make some coffee, but was sternly told, by a very excited nine year old, "Ok, but then you have to go back to bed because Daddy and I have a surprise for you."

I made my coffee and headed back to bed; this time with my less snuggly laptop. I laid in bed surfing the news and thinking about my blog. The smells from the kitchen gave me hunger pains. I was so happy to see a scrumptious omelet come in on the plate - and a fragrant cup of coffee along with it. It was full of salmon (canned by me last august), Roasted Red Pepper and Artichoke Tapenade from Trader Joe's, and pepper jack cheese. Katie had ground fresh black pepper on the top, and Arnie had grated the pepper jack very finely around the plate. Very pretty.

Robby hadn't gone to church yet, since he was still out with his buddy yesterday when Katie and I went, so we went again after breakfast. We had a quick lunch of left over pizza and then went to our local Dennis Company hardware and garden store. I got to buy more vegetables for my garden, some extra pots, soil, and compost. We spent all afternoon planting. So great to get the garden started earlier than usual.

The grand finale was champagne for Mommy and a wonderful curried chicken dinner with rice and green beans fried in butter and dill. Wow. The curried chicken was an Arnie creation of which I am treated to on special occasions. I savor these as there is no repeating them! They are all one-of-a-kind dishes made with lots of love. Everyone helped to make a delicious Mom's Day dinner.

We topped the evening off with brownies frosted with cream cheese frosting. I'm so proud of my kids. They really are great people.

Missing a Kid

As the kids get older, Arnie and I try to relax and let them spend the night at friend's houses. Why is this so hard for us? Arnie always pretends like it is no big deal, but he will ask sublte questions before they go. "So are both of Lexie's parents going to be there?" or "How many people are in Brandon's family?" It's cute. We are super careful. I want to know the parents pretty well before I say they can stay over night anywhere. I want to know that those parents watch their kids like Arnie and I watch ours. We've only had one experience - with Robby - in which he reported that the mom of the birthday boy left the overnight party during the night to get a slurpee. 7-eleven is about 5 minutes from her house, but still, it seemed weird. They were only 8. He hasn't gone back there.

I digress. We try now to have extra fun with the kid who stays with us. When Katie stayed the night at her friend Katie's house, Arnie and I took Robby shopping in Olympia. That, of course, is the biggest meca near us. We think it is huge and amazing, when, probably, it is a modest size capitol city. No matter, for us, it is an adventure. For dinner, we decided on Outback Steakhouse. Easy, quick, and fun. Arnie and I both ordered the shrimp, lobster tail, and steak combination. Yum. Even at a chain restaurant, lobster is a treat.

All Robby wanted was cheesy fries. I made him have salad, too, but boy, he was so excited about those cheesy fries. When my lobster tail came, I asked him if he wanted to try it. He was digging in to his fries and said, "No, thanks." However, I knew our mantra "just try it, it is a good experience" was sinking in, when several minutes later, he said, "Actually, mom, can I try a bite?" So, I tore off a small bite of lobster. He bit off a smaller piece and daintily chewed. His face was thoughtful. He shook his head. He set the rest of the bite down on his plate. He simply said, "It's different." I celebrated silently. He didn't say yuck. He didn't spit it out. He didn't swear that he would never try it again. Success.

This weekend, it was Katie's turn to hang out with Mom and Dad while Robby spent the night at his friend Brandon's house. Katie is a fun and easy-going kid who makes everything we do special. She and I decided to wash the cars together, then we planted part of our garden together, and then, we made dinner together. She wanted pizza burgers - funny since that is Robby's favorite burger. Think she was missing him? I only had whole wheat dinner rolls, so we cut those in half for the buns. We actually liked them and think we will use them again. The burgers were yummy - full of tomatoey goodness and...you guessed it! Pepperoni. We also had home-made sweet potato fries seasoned with cumin and salt. Yum. I didn't even make Katie eat a green vegetable - oh, she put lettuce on her burger.

Pizza Burgers
1 lb ground hamburger
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons pizza sauce
1/4 cup chopped pepperoni
1 tsp italian seasoning (sage, parsley, oregano...I improvise when I don't have a bottle of seasoning)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
hamburger buns (we like this recipe with wheat buns or french rolls)
Condiments (pizza sauce, ketchup, mayo, mustard, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles...the usual)
Heat grill to high heat. Mix all ingredients - except buns and condiments! - in bowl. Form into palm size, 1 inch thick patties. Turn gas grills down to medium high; spread charcoal out under patties to lower heat. Grill patties 3 minutes per side. Burgers are ready! Everyone gets to dress their burgers. Rachael Ray has an excellent Pizza Burger recipe. This one started with hers and has morphed to fit what we usually have on hand.

Survival of the Busy Mom

Eating out too often is expensive and unhealthy. My kids are less likely to get their vegetables if we eat out. I'm of the opinion that french fries don't count! In an attempt to get our spending and our nutrition under control, my husband and I made a pact to eat at home every night. The problem is soccer twice a week, gymnastics once a week, swimming three times a week. The solutions are varied and a lot of work. The better I get at cooking, the more fun I have doing all that work.

Here are some strategies that people who are too busy to cook do to eat at home more often:

1. Make double batches of a dish. Eat half, freeze half, or eat half in a couple of days.
2. Cook big on a free day. We'll make a couple of dinners on the weekend and keep them in the refrigerator.
3. Do the Robin Miller strategy. Make a "meal kit" - prepare pieces of a dinner so that they are easier and faster to put together on a late night.
4. Cook after dinner on nights that you aren't too tired.
5. Eat big salads. They are filling and store well in the fridge.

When the kids were little, one of our favorite books to read with them was The Piggybook by Anthony Browne. Have you read it? Mrs. Piggot cooked when the family woke up in the morning, then she cleaned the house, then she went to work. When they all came home in the evening, she cooked dinner, then she cleaned again, then she cooked some more! Poor Mrs. Piggot. She was a tough cookie, though. She gets her way and by the end of the book, the boys and dad are cooking and mom is fixing the car. This week, I was Mrs. Piggot!

Monday night I made fast and yummy chicken soft tacos with left over chicken from Robby and Katie's roast chicken. After dinner, I went to choir practice. Upon returning home, I made a big pot of chicken and chorizo stew for tonight. Arnie reached home first, so he heated it up for us. It was really good. Everyone like it - especially Arnie since it had some spice to it. I bought the wrong kind of chorizo - soft and uncooked instead of hard cooked chorizo. It was still good, but wasn't chunky. In online research of chorizo, I discovered that Mexican chorizo is soft and uncooked while Spanish chorizo is cured - hard and in a casing. Oh well. I'll try the recipe again with Spanish chorizo. Robby thought the stew needed more chicken. Katie liked it as is. Arnie especially liked the spicy cheese.

Chicken Chorizo Stew

1 lb chicken tenders diced (Robby would say try 1 1/2 lbs)

3/4 lb chorizo sausage, diced

2 tbs olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 small potatoes, diced

1 15 oz can roasted chopped tomatoes

1 15 oz can dark red kidney beans, drained

2 tsp hot sauce

1 quart chicken stock (mine was from Sunday's chicken!)

2 cups shredded pepper jack or sharp cheddar (Arnie prefers the pepper jack)

tortilla chips

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Cook chicken in hot oil in heavy soup pot for 3 to 4 minutes. Add chorizo and garlic. Cook 3 minutes. Add peppers, onions, and potatoes. Cook 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, kidney beans, and hot sauce. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 12 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Ladle soup into bowls and top with shredded cheese. Melt under broiler and serve with tortilla chips.

Redeeming the Roast Chicken

So, I couldn't let it go. Ruining a roast chicken last week was too much for me. I set out to prove I could make a great roast chicken again today - with a fresh whole chicken, and my two trusty helpers, Robby and Katie. By the end of the night, we made it quite a fancy roasted chicken dinner, too.

Involving my two little chicks in cooking started early. Even when Robby was a toddler, he was interested in what we were doing in the kitchen. We took advantage of his curiosity to get him involved with food. He used to be quite a picky eater, so we thought having him help would get him more comfortable with different foods. It worked, too. We introduced him to toddler sized jobs. Robby would dump measured ingredients into the pot or bowl; he would stir with one of us helping him; he would hold the spatula with our assistance and flip pancakes or burgers. Helping us in the kitchen prompted the purchase of the Fisher Price Kitchen and the introduction of "Chef Tony" into our house. "Let's make some spaghetti!" "Now add the noodles!" "Where is the cheese?"

Of course, when Katie came along, she took over these mundane chores (and the Chef Tony Kitchen) and Robby graduated to stirring by himself, scooping ingredients with a measuring cup, and peeling or grating with assistance. I think involving them in food preparation accomplished its goal. It gave them skills in the kitchen and made them more familiar with food. It also tried my patience. I hovered over the use of sharp implements. I sighed over spills and got angry about having to start over when disasters struck.

Needlessly, though. If only we could see into the future as parents, we might stress less. Even the most difficult moments bring us to today. All that practice in the kitchen has created a lot of confidence in them. Today, Robby and Katie measured and stirred and chopped without hesitation. They both cracked eggs cleanly (into a separate bowl, of course, in order to check for stray eggshell). They know to wash their hands after cracking an egg or handling the raw chicken. Oh, I still hover! "Watch your fingers," I warned as Robby cut the butter into cubes for the cake batter. "Don't sneeze over the bowl," I remonstrated as Katie stirred the batter. But I didn't really need to tell them, it was just my mothering instincts holding on tight. We laughed and chatted and had a great time making dinner together. The exact same dinner that I ruined all by myself last weekend was quite fabulous tonight! So, here it is: A beautiful roasted chicken, cranberry stuffing, green salad, a decadent chocolate cake and a fancy table setting:

How about a recipe for the stuffing? I love this stuffing - and not just because I have bags of dried cranberries to use up!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter

1 cup of chopped celery

1 cup of chopped onion

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 cups dried bread cubes

1/2 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts)

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup chicken broth

Directions:

Cook celery and onion in butter in skillet until tender. Remove from heat, stir in sage, thyme, pepper, and salt. In a mixing bowl, combine bread cubes, celery mixture, nuts, and cranberries. Add chicken broth, tossing to thoroughly moisten mixture.

You can stuff poultry and cook according to poultry directions. Inside a chicken or turkey, the stuffing should reach 165 degrees. Or put the mixture into a casserole dish and bake, covered, in a 325 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes. I usually make enough to stuff my poultry and bake some on the side!