Stuffing Muffins

I always throw the ends of bread loaves into the freezer.  Sometimes they turn into stuffing, sometimes bread pudding.  I got a new roommate recently, and it's been getting hard to close the freezer door.  I had almost 2 loaves worth of bread in there, so I figured it was about time to do something with it.  I didn't manage to use all of it, but I did manage to use of some of it!

Ingredients

garlic cloves

fresh ginger root

1/4 yellow onion

2 slices of bacon

2 small carrots

big handful of cranberries

1 egg

veggie stock

c 3/4 loaf of dried bread

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.

Chop the garlic, ginger, and onion and saute in some olive oil.  Chop the bacon and add it when the onion starts to brown.  Grate the carrot and put it in a big bowl.  Chop the cranberries and add them to the bowl. Add the garlic/ginger/onion/bacon mixture.  Beat the egg and add it.  Add c 1/2 c of veggie stock.  Mix well.  Break the bread into roughly 1 inch pieces and add it.  Stir well until all of the bread is moist.  Add more veggie stock if needed.  Grease a muffin tin.  Shape the stuffing mixture into 12 balls and put them in the muffin tin.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  

Cranberry-Beef Stew

2 lb pot roast

(coat with wheat flour, cinnamon, and cocoa powder)

5 carrots

(chopped)

1/2 onion, 4 cloves garlic, big chunk of ginger

(chopped and sauteed)

1/2 c cranberries

1/2 c pumpkin, 1/2 c beef broth, 1 c cranberry juice

(blended)

5 large mushrooms, chopped

Place the coated pot roast in the bottom of a crockpot.  Put the sauteed stuff on top.  Dump the carrots on top, then the cranberries.  Pour the liquids over the contents of the pot, then scatter the mushrooms on top.  If you have a bunch of extra flour/cinnamon/cocoa coating like I did, sprinkle some on top.

 Cook on low for 7.5 hours. 

(My pot roast was pretty thin.  If yours is thicker it may take more time.)

When the meat is cooked through, remove it from the pot.  Shred the meat, discard the fat.

Return the shredded meat to the pot and stir well.

I ate mine with some barley.  Delicious.

Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread Pudding

Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread Pudding

10 slices dried bread

1 egg

1/4 c heavy cream

1/4 c milk

1/2 c pumpkin

1 tbs cinnamon

1 tbs cocoa powder

1/4 c cranberries

Mix together everything but the bread and cranberries.  

Break the bread into small pieces and mix them into the other ingredients.  Once the bread has soaked up the gooey goodness, press it into a greased 9x9 pan, or into cupcake wrappers.  Press the cranberries into the top.  

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

I think I will eat these for breakfast this week with some scrambled eggs and fried potatoes...just thinking about it is making me hungry. 

Inspiration for this came from this recipe at Our Lady of Second Helpings.

I saw her post and it sounded good.  I did not refer back to her post when I actually made mine...I just made up my own recipe as I went along.  Cause that's where all the fun is.

Cran-Apple Chicken

Behold: the Deliciousness

Mash 2 tbsp butter with garlic powder, sage, thyme, and cinnamon.  Rub the flavored butter all over some chicken legs, then place them in a baking dish.

Peel & chop a Fuji Apple.  Rinse 1 c of frozen cranberries.  Scatter the apple pieces and cranberries over the chicken.  Pour some apple cider over the chicken until the dish is about half-way full of cider. 

Bake at 425 for 50 minutes.  Cover with foil for the last 20 min or so, when the apples start to dry out.  

Eat the deliciousness.

yum!

 leftovers for the weekend

Cranberry-Mustard Dressing

INGREDIENTS

3/4 c fresh or frozen cranberries

two small chunks of fresh ginger

rice vinegar

mustard

olive oil

DIRECTIONS

rinse the cranberries

grate the ginger

put them in a food processor along with:

a large squirt of mustard 

some rice vinegar

a whole bunch of olive oil

blend it up

pour it on some salad

yum

arugula, carrot, radish, zucchini

add pork

add salad dressing

add some tortilla chips for crunch

Cranberry Sauce

1/2 c water

1/2 c apple cider

12 oz fresh cranberries

heaping 1/4 c brown sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Put the water, cider, cranberries, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Stir occasionally.  (I used a non-stick saucepan, you may need to stir more consistently if yours is not non-stick).  Let boil for a few minutes, then add the cocoa powder and stir it in well.  Cranberries are officially done when they have "burst."  I cooked mine until I liked the thickness of the mixture.  I taste-tested it with some bread this evening, but my real plan for this sauce is to use it as a pancake topping.  I'll have to wait til morning for that. I'll probably add some pictures of that in the morning after breakfast.  And of course I'll let you know how it tasted on top of a chocolate-chip pancake.  Side note: I am super-excited to make my pancake with apple cider tomorrow!  I've been missing cider pancakes since...cider disappeared from grocery stores at the end of the last cider season.  

As for this evening's taste-test, the sauce is pretty tart.  I know I didn't add nearly enough sugar, but being the sugar-hater that I am, I was willing to risk tart.  Much better than sickeningly sweet.  It's a lot easier to add sugar than take it out!  I'll see how it tastes on the pancake tomorrow, and I may decide to add a bit more sugar, who knows?

I had fun taking pictures of the water while I was rinsing off the berries.  My camera actually managed some cool pictures.  Usually it drives me crazy by not focusing on what I want it to.  These pictures aren't perfect, but they're pretty stellar for my little point & shoot!

Breakfast is Served:

this

 plus this

equals this

Pretty tasty.  I would say that this experiment is a success.  I almost like cranberries now.  I think I forgot to mention earlier that I don't really like cranberries.  But you may have noticed by now that I like to find ways to change my mind about foods I don't like. Tis the season for cranberries, so I'm sure there will be more cranberry-filled things appearing here in the near future.