Oatmeal cookies, I had forgotten you...

Before I got out the oats and flour and dried cranberries this weekend, I can't recall the last time I made oatmeal cookies. (Well, other than the dismal banana-oat cookie experiment a week or two prior. Too banana-y for this family. There's your two-sentence Pinterest review. Too dang banana-y.)

But that little dabble into oats-n-cookie land DID pique my interest in looking further for a semi-healthful cookie that could work for an easy weeknight snack.

So I kept looking, and it didn't take long to find a keeper.

Low-Fat Oatmeal Cookies with chocolate chips (or raisins)
(or, in my case, dried cranberries and pecans)
Makes about two dozen
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional--I skipped)
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
1/4 c plain applesauce
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips or raisins (I skipped)
My substitutions for the chocolate chips:
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with nonstick spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars. Beat in the egg, followed by the applesauce and the vanilla extract. Working by hand, stir in the flour mixture and the oats until just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Add nuts and cranberries just before the batter comes together.

Drop tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 12-14 minutes at 350F. Cookies will be light brown at the edges, but will not get as dark and golden as regular cookies.

Let cool on sheet for 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

Husband declared the cookies yummy, though of course they proved a little too healthy for Seth. Quite delicious right out of the oven, and certainly kept well enough overnight... I haven't had one yet today, though. Hmmm. Maybe they could be a twist on my old, favorite breakfast cookie? Ha... probably not quite THAT healthy.

Happy Tuesday! May a cookie find its way to you today.

Cranberry pecan streusel muffins

irthday season has continued (does it ever end? I think not!) and recently I was in need of a sweet treat to take along to a friend's birthday celebration. It was a morning coffee-come-and-go type of affair, so I pondered outside the cupcake realm a bit, and also wanted to get into the holiday swing of things with some cranberries... what better than a cranberry muffin with streusel on top?

Found this little gem at epicurious, and whipped them up in a flash! Yummy and quick, I did make a couple of adjustments based on what I had on hand, as well as personal taste. Definitely a make-again muffin, and worth experimenting in a loaf style as well.

Cranberry pecan streusel muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Topping
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut up
1/4 cup (1 ounce) pecans or walnuts, finely chopped (I used a combination of those nuts and included pistachios as well... love that hint of green!)

Muffins
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (2 ounces) pecans or walnuts, chopped (same nut combo as above)
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 large egg at room temperature
1 cup plain or orange yogurt, top liquid poured off
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted, or canola oil
2 tablespoons wheat germ (I substituted oat bran... just not wild about wheat germ flavor)
1 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda, if using (I did)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Coat the muffin cups with nonstick vegetable spray (then wipe the top of the pan with a paper towel) or coat with solid shortening. Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a medium bowl, toss together all streusel topping ingredients and pinch everything together with your fingertips to make crumbs. Set aside.

Measure the sugar. In another bowl, toss together the cranberries and nuts with the grated orange zest, extract, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg(s), yogurt or milk, melted butter or oil, the remaining sugar, and the wheat germ oat bran. Place a sifter over the bowl and measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into it. Stir/sift the dry ingredients onto the wet, add the cranberry-nut mixture, and stir everything together just to blend; don't over-beat.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling them nearly full. Sprinkle generously with the streusel crumbs. Bake 20 to 22 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and well risen and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool slightly on a wire rack, and serve warm.

I made a double batch, so there was ample for the birthday girl and friends, and plenty for home as well. In fact, I froze a few and have taken them out and defrosted as needed... still quite tasty. I would say the only downside to defrosting is the streusel gets a little gooey. But, hey, a little sweet gooeyness every now and again? Not so bad...

Relish the thought

In preparation for the Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner photo shoot on Wednesday, I needed to come up with a couple of different relish/sauce/accompaniments for the turkey. One I knew would be a pretty traditional cranberry sauce, the other took a little more thought, and some creative license!

Cranberry sauce the way Sher likes it:
2 bags of fresh cranberries, picked over and washed
zest of one orange
juice of one orange
1 cup sweetener--you can use sugar, light corn syrup, honey or maple syrup
4 cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 T vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan on the stove and heat slowly over medium-low heat, to avoid popping all the cranberries. Stir occasionally. When simmering and about 3/4 of the cranberries are open and bubbly, turn off and cool. Taste and adjust sweetener as needed.

The photo above is pretty monochromatic--I'm still working on ye olde food photography, and feel extremely limited with my kitchen lighting, especially with zero sunshine when I'm cooking most days. Anyway, all that is to say that when we're shooting the sauce on Wednesday, I think I'll zest some more orange and maybe even thinly strip off some rind to give some more texture and color to it.


For sauce No. 2, I went rummaging online and found a recipe for a pineapple relish that sounded good, and one for an apricot relish, and so I combined them, threw in a little grapefruit juice for an acid and some habaneros for heat and pomegranates for texture and color and, voila!, a pretty zesty little combo.

Pineapple-apricot-pomegranate relish
2 cups chopped fresh pineapple
1 cup chopped dried apricots
2 T grapefruit juice (you could easily use lime or orange instead)
1/2 cup sugar

Simmer over medium heat until apricots are softened and mixture is bubbly. Take off the heat and add:
1/2 cup fiinely diced shallots
2 habaneros, sliced cross-wise
1 cup pomegranate seeds

Stir until blended. Serve warm or cold.

When I was tasting I avoided actually chomping on a habanero since I'm kinda wimpy in the heat department, but the overall flavor of the sauce had been warmed through by the peppers and it had a nice fire to it--nothing radical, just tasty and glow-y! This relish would also work well with "other" white meats... not just Mr. Turkey. You could even pretend it's a salsa and serve with chips, or, dare I say it, a cheesey quesadilla!