Cranberry Shortbread

First, let me say that I am stunned by the amount of time that has gone by since I last posted.  I am still stalking following the other blogs, but just haven’t found the time to sit and blog.

I would like to say that it is because I am so busy running up mountains, or creating new things in my kitchen, but I think it is mostly from the stress of closing a business, finding a job (my husband, not me), and having family in for a wedding and Thanksgiving.
 

Anyway, I am here now, and will get on to what this post is about: Cranberry Filled Shortbread Bars!  I got a recipe from a friend and just had to try it.  It sounded so good and perfect for the holidays.  My kids loved it, and even my non-dessert eating husband thought it was good.

For the filling:
8 ounces (2 1/4 cups) fresh cranberries
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 Tbsp water

Shortbread:
2 cups all-purpose flour (I am an unbleached only kind of gal)
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and place the wire oven rack in the center of the oven.  Butter (or spray) a 9x9 inch pan.

Cranberry Filling:  In a medium saucepan, place all the filling ingredients.  Then, over medium-high heat, cook the ingredients until boiling.  Continue to boil the filling until it becomes thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes (mine took  a little longer – think altitude and humidity play a part).  Remove from heat and let cool while you make the shortbread.

Shortbread: In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch and salt.
Use an electric mixer and cream the butter until smooth (about 1 minute).  Add the sugar and beat until smooth (another 2 minutes).  Beat in the vanilla extract.  Gently stir in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon just until incorporated.

Evenly press two-thirds of the shortbread into the bottom of the pan.  Then evenly spread the cranberry filling over the shortbread base, leaving a 1/4” border.
With the remaining dough, using your fingers, crumble it over the top of the cranberry filling.  Then lightly press the dough into the filling.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top.  Remove from oven, place on a wire rack, and while still hot, cut into 16 squares.  Allow to cool completely in pan.

Next time, I will double the recipe and use a bigger pan.  I will probably add some finely chopped almonds to the topping or maybe almond flavoring instead of vanilla.  I only had dark brown sugar on hand, and it worked just fine too.

Things I'll Never Buy Again

The sun has been shining and the Roma tomatoes were on sale.  Perfect combination for making homemade sun dried tomatoes.  I decided to do mine in slices.  I laid them all out on the cookie sheets and drizzled them with a little olive oil and sprinkled with a bit of salt.  I covered them with a layer of cheesecloth to keep any bugs or birds away, and then let the sun do the rest.

Since James started eating them like chips, I either had to start whacking his hand with a wooden spoon, or make some more.  Of course, as soon as I had them all cut and on the sheets, the weather took a turn for fall.  With temps in the high 60's the tomatoes weren't drying so fast.  

Into the oven they went.  I set it for my lowest setting (in my oven's case - 170 degrees) and just checked in every now and then.

The other thing I won't buy - salad dressings.  They really are so easy to make, and since I make enough to last just a few meals, I don't have to worry about all the preservatives that I can't pronounce.  We start with balsamic or red wine vinegar, add some garlic, shallots, lemon juice and salt.  If you let it sit for a bit before you add your extra-virgin olive oil, the acid in the vinegar and lemon break down the pungency of the garlic.  You can do it to your own taste but a good start is 1:2.  I put it all in a small Mason jar and when it is time for salad, I just give it a couple good shakes.

I can't believe we never did this before.  I tell you - I won't go back to the processed stuff!

(Homemade sauce will be another day!)

Healthy! Fun! Life!

With the temperatures dropping out of the upper 90s, I was able to give in to my need to bake!   And bake I did.  Once I finished, I realized that my baking actually represented the title of this blog.

First, I made whole wheat bread.  I even dug out the grain mill to grind my own flour.  It has been so long since I have made bread, that I made one mistake and the loaves weren’t as beautiful as normal – but still yummy. 

So, there is the “healthy” part.

The next part was just "fun"!  My kids love cinnamon rolls and usually they are only on a special occasion table – a must for Easter and Christmas mornings! 


And here is the Italian bread I made.


What does bread have to do with “life”?  In the Bible, Jesus says “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6:35).    So bread is referred to as a part of our spiritual life.  And in Exodus, when Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt.  They are tired and hungry, and God provides a kind of bread (manna) to sustain them.

For us, this bread represents life as a family.  A time to gather together and connect; to build relationships that will last a lifetime; to eat a meal that not only nourishes our bodies, but our souls as well.

And maybe, just maybe, that is why I am renewed by baking for my friends or family.

A Mood Boost

I don't like the treadmill - I think we all know this - but today I decided to go ahead and spend some time on it.  A friend of mine suggested a tv show to help the time go by, but it's in the basement, and there isn't a tv down there.

Instead, I chose some music.  Normally, I would pick something pretty rocking, but today, I turned to a different sort of play list.  I typed in "Jeremy Camp" into my streaming radio, and let the phone do the rest.  I ended up spending 40 minutes on the treadmill, and since it is slipping from the move, I have to have it at a bit of an incline (and bummer!  no running), until James can tighten it up for me.

It turned into such a wonderful time.  I focused more on the music, then on the workout, and then focused more on my Savior then on the music.  It was a wonderful, refreshing time, and I was able to go back to the family and help them with their needs with a better attitude and outlook.

Which Do I Prefer?

I got this great idea to download the demo of Zumba onto our XBox.  I convinced my oldest son that he should do it with me.  I did the first 4 minute workout, then he did it, then I did the second 4 minutes and he followed.  So, after combined workouts of 16 whole minutes we could barely do any more.  Mostly because it was hard!  And because we were laughing at each other way too much! 

 I felt like such a wimp!  8 minutes with a 4 minute break?  Pathetic!

So, in order to combat my super wimp status I got on the treadmill for 20 minutes.  Not that exciting, but honestly, walking without going anywhere isn't all that dynamic to me.  I did get some much needed quiet time however and that was good.

But I wasn't quite done.  Since we still haven't gotten the Bowflex set up in the basement, I decided to just grab some free weights and do some arm work outs.  It was great that one of my sons (the 12 year old) came down to join me.  He has an issue with push ups, so we worked on those for a bit together and I showed him some arm exercises he could do as well.

I would have to say that there are two kinds of exercise that I enjoy the most.  Outdoors, it would have to be bike riding.  I have ridden a bike since I was little (didn't most of us?), and even though it was sometimes the only way to get to someplace I wanted to go, the love of being out on the open road is something that I really enjoy.

Inside though?  Really only one thing.  Weight lifting!  I love it.  I love the sense of accomplishment when I get through another rep or add more weights to the reps I am already doing. 

Darn!  Now I really want that machine set up! 

Fresh Air is Good For the Heart and Soul

Today, we took the family up to Mount Evans.  The drive was a bit nerve-wracking at times (not a guard rail anywhere), but the sights were breathtaking.  And it was so good to spend the day outside with the family.

Lunch at Summit Lake

She was a bit cold!

Chilly at the top - only 48 degrees

 

A Little Sweet Goes A Long Way

The kids received some gift cards a while back for Dairy Queen.  Since my two oldest are out today, I decided to go ahead and take the 4 to DQ.  They've been asking for so long, and today, they won!

I am not a big proponent for cheats, because it is too easy to stop completely, but I do acknowledge that I want something 'special' every now and then.   So, the boys got their Blizzards and the littles got a kid sized cone.  While sitting in the restaurant, I decided that I would get a drink.  So I got the frozen cappuccino (a Moolatte).  And shortly afterwards, I was sorry I did.  I just can't do all that sweet anymore.  And I got the small!!  I don't know how people get those large drinks!  My boys, 10 and 12, got the medium blizzards and they both had some to bring home for the freezer.  (I bet it hangs out there for a couple of days.)  And the littles?  Nope - they couldn't finish theirs either.

Now, the good news is that it is one of the few places left where a small feels like plenty.  If you want a little treat, then get a 'little' treat.  Not the family size.  And then listen to your body.  If it starts talking to you (like mine), then maybe next time you want to take a friend to share something with you.  You won't eat too much, and hopefully the time with your friend will be plenty of treat by itself! 

Not All Pizzas Are Bad

We have done some pretty big pizza feeds at our house.  The most recent being 26 people, and that was only my brother's family, my sister's family, and mine!  Yes, we are Italian.  No, we are not Catholic.  :)

We did some crazy pizzas that day.  In fact, we did 11 pizzas and focaccias for all of us.  Not gonna lie, not all them were low fat, low carb or low anything for that matter.  But all yummy!  We had enough pizza that leftovers on the back deck at 11pm with just my brother's family was as delightful as the company.

My family loves pizza (back to that Italian thing, I guess), but I don't always like all the calories that American pizza carries.  So, the other night I made 2 pizzas for our family.  (The two big kids were camping with friends, so 2 was enough)  One was pepperoni.  The pepperoni was good, but we figured that by stepping up to a nicer pepperoni we would be getting all the flavor with less pepperoni, but save ourselves some calories.  I didn't go crazy with the sauce or cheese either.

The other was more traditional.  Olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, basil and Parmesan cheese.

Both were on a thin crusts.  By doing that, I can control the crunch on the crust and not just have thick bread.  If I want bread, I'll make bread.  But pizza deserves to have its flavors stand on their own.  If you make a thick crust, you have to add more toppings in order to taste something besides bread.

So, have some pizza (unless you have gluten issues), just don't supersize me.

 

Where Does the Time Go?

At least some of it is in the kitchen!

I just looked at my last post.  August 1?  Really?  I guess we have just been enjoying the last bits of summer at the pool with the kids!

Now that things will be settling in to a routine, I hope to be more consistent.

But, until then, here is some food we whipped up last weekend when we realized that our company was actually coming!  It looks complicated (thank you again, Nick Stellino for making it not so!), but it really is not.  And the ingredients are exactly how we like them - few and fresh!

Mangiare!

How can you go wrong with garlic, onions and mushrooms??

Hunter's Chicken (courtesy of Nick Stellino)

A Word About Calories

So, we got on the scale this morning, and I was down 4 pounds and James was down 5.  Okay, not bad.  We both feel like this was real weight loss since it was a week, and since we took a break over the weekend. 

But we were surprised it wasn't a few more.  "Hmmm...maybe we didn't get enough calories", James suggested.  Really?  We felt fine.  I never felt hungry.  Except for that one day of fogginess I really thought everything was cool.

I decided to figure it out anyway.  Heck, with all the calorie counting websites out there, it should be fast, and then we would know - you know, just in case we were getting "too many".  It was easy enough since we stuck to 2 basic juices two times a day each (4 juices total) and a salad for dinner. 

We know how these things work.  Too many calories in, you gain weight.  Too few calories in, and your body holds on to everything thinking you are in a time of famine.  I couldn't believe the results.  And, I am very embarrassed to admit this next part.   Not only were we on the light side of the calorie count, we were incredibly low!  Most days, we were only getting 750 calories!  On the two days we added avocado, we got more, but not substantially.


Now, I was impressed with the weight loss we had.  Any weight loss with that few calories seemed like a huge success.  But I was more surprised at how I felt all week.  Like I said, I never felt hungry.  I had energy and wasn't falling asleep on the couch at night.  My skin was clearer, and had a much healthier look to it.  And all these things are true for James too.  


So, we stopped and re-evaluated what we were doing. We made some shifts, and new plans.  I look forward to what this week has in store for us.