Cranberry Bruschetta

Cranberry Sauce is the last of our Thanksgiving leftovers. Aside from topping leftover turkey sandwiches or riding shotgun to sliced turkey on Thanksgiving day. It's great on toast or muffins on post-holiday mornings. It's basically jam afterall. I decided to elevate the humble toast with jam to these easy and deliciously sweet Cranberry Bruschetta. 
Inspired by an old Pampered Chef recipe for Strawberry Bruschetta, I dug up my scalloped bread tube and baked up a loaf of this beautiful bread that was toasted crisp with butter and cinnamon sugar. I slathered it with a sweetened creamy mascarpone cheese generously flavored with lemon zest and then  topped with cinnamon cranberry sauce, more lemon zest, and finely minced rosemary. Perfect for a light breakfast or dessert!  Enjoy!

Cranberry Bruschetta

Makes ~20

french baguette, sliced*
butter
3 T cinnamon sugar
1 cup Mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
zest of 1 lemon and 1 T lemon juice
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 cup leftover homemade cranberry sauce 
1/4 t cinnamon
1/2 t fresh rosemary, finely minced (garnish)
lemon zest (garnish)


Butter baguette slices and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Place bread slices on cookie sheet and broil until toasted ~ 4minutes. Set aside to cool. 

*Note: I used my Pampered Chef Scalloped Bread Tube and 1 tube refrigerated pizza dough, baked 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees to bake up the scalloped bread slices pictured. 


Mix Mascarpone cheese, sifted powdered sugar and lemon zest and juice in a small bowl. Spread cinnamon toasts generously with mascarpone cheese spread.  Top cheese with 3-4 sliced almonds. 
Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon to left over cranberry sauce and top cheese toasts with about 1 tsp cranberry sauce. Garnish with more lemon zest and finely minced rosemary. 

Other recipes to try:

Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Cake

Blackberry Oatmeal Bars

Zucchini Bruschetta

Meyer Lemon Jam

It's Meyer lemon season! Meyer lemon is a hybrid of a regular lemon that's crossed with Mandarin oranges. Small and round with thin skins, they are perfect for cooking because they are not as sour and they have a ton of juice compared to regular lemons. Here in California, I can find them in the grocery stores six months out of the year but Meyer Lemons are at their peak in the winter. I'm also fortunate that my mom has a Meyer lemon tree in her backyard so I get these little lovelies every year and lots of them beginning in late summer. How do I take advantage of these jewels before they go bad? I make jam. Don't worry, there's no canning or sterilizing needed. This is an easy freezer jam.  You may be asking yourself, so what if it's easy... What can I make with Lemon Jam? 

This jam is terrific on fish, seafood, chicken and vegetables, or simply dilute some with ice water to make a sweet lemonade or add to iced tea. Add to vodka for a refreshing lemon drop martini or tequila for a lemon Margarita. Add to a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a luscious lemon sauce. Add to cakes, scones or frostings to add a punch of lemony goodness to baked goods. Seep for a week in the fridge with vodka for a cool Limoncello for your next diner party. The possibilities are endless. In particular, I'll share my recipe for Scallops with Lemon Jam next, so keep an eye out for it. 
 
Next time you see some at the store, pick up a bag of Meyer lemons and make this freezer jam to use throughout the year. 
Note: If you can't find Meyer lemons, don't sweat it, substitute with regular lemons, but cut some of the pith out of the lemons so it doesn't get too bitter. Enjoy!

Meyer Lemon Jam

(slightly adapted recipe from Mario Batali)

4-5 Meyer lemons, seeded
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Cut Meyer lemons into quarters and remove seeds. Not to worry if you don't get all of the seeds because Meyer lemons have a ton of seeds (10+ per lemon), but try to get most of them. Place lemon quarters, rind and all, into a food processor and puree. Add sugar and salt and blend until smooth. Place in pint size freezer bags and freeze. Or store in a clean mason jar up to 1 week in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Other recipes to try:

Sweet Pepper Jam

Quick Pickled Onions

Nana's Salsa

Lemon Butter Cookies

It's been forever since I've made cookies, but this time of year it's hard to get into the spirit of Christmas without baking some sort of yummy treat. And the day I made these, I went into an all-out baking extravaganza and made some Blackberry Oatmeal Bars and a Pumpkin Crumb Cake too! It was awesome as I listened to Christmas music and baked my heart out. I didn't foresee the future of all this sweetness. I wasn't making them for gifts...it's too early. I was happily making them for me. 
So... guess what's happening now? The things I don't normally eat, ie: dessert, has become it's own food group. I have been eating cake and cookies for breakfast everyday! I even have dessert after my salad at lunch. And at night while watching TV...Jeez...the cookies call out to me and I don't ignore them. I pause my binge watching of Scandal on Netflix and go get cookies! These in particular...Buttery and not too sweet!

Lemon Butter Cookies 

Makes ~30 cookies
Slightly adapted recipe by Simply Whisked


1 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 1/2- 3 cups all purpose flour
sugar crystals or powdered sugar topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer until fluffy. Beat in the egg. Add lemon juice and zest. Gradually add flour until incorporated. (note: I added a total of 3 cups flour so that the dough could be rolled into balls. It was a bit sticky with only 2 1/2 cups flour.) Using a 1 inch cookie scoop, roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. 

Use the back of a fork to imprint the cookies and sprinkle with sugar crystals before baking. If using powdered sugar, dust cookies after baking. 

Bake for 15 minutes until set but not brown.  Cool on a wire rack and serve! Store in an airtight container.

Other Christmas cookie recipes to try:                             

Red Velvet Brownies

Gingerbread Biscotti

Cinnamon Cheesecake Cookies

Lemon Brownies

Lemon Brownies

Just last week, I was making Spicy Asian Meatball Soup and complaining about how cold it was here is Southern California, and then fast forward to today...Surprise! It was 80 degrees here today, and it's forcasted to be the same throughout the weekend. Yay! All this feel good warm weather has me thinking about Spring and Summer and has inspired me to make something to celebrate how incredibly beautiful it was here today in sunny, warm Southern California!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not gloating, I'm just thankful for the repreive of our version of a really cold winter and for this brief reminder of warm days to come.
I found this recipe for Lemon Brownies on Pinterest from a blog called, BeckyCharms, original recipe from Rita May's Recipes. I had planned to make them when the weather warmed up, maybe in Spring for Easter brunch or in Summer for a picnic or potluck...but who needs to wait? That time was today! These brownies were a breeze to make and were so lemony, buttery and densely rich...mmm...they were just pure decadence. I hope you're inspired to make these yummy little bites even in the dead of winter or keep them in mind as you look forward to Spring. 

Here's the step by step, full recipe at bottom of blog.

Assemble the ingredients:

Preheat oven to 350°F. I used a 6x6 inch baking dish and sprayed with cooking spray: set aside. Zest and juice two lemons; set aside. (I failed to take a picture of this step, I had to run to pick up my son from school and just plain forgot.)

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined.

Pour egg and lemon mixture into the flour mixture and beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy and pour into baking dish. (Sorry, my mixing bowl photo was out of focus so I jumped us right to oven ready baking dish.)

Bake 23-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean. I cooked mine exactly 23 minutes.(See my toothpick holes?) Cool completely.

Now, it's time to make the glaze. Sift powdered sugar, add lemon zest and juice, and whisk together.

Spread 1/2 the glaze over the brownies with a rubber spatula. Let glaze set. Spread the remaining glaze over the bars, and let it set.

Cut and serve.

Lemon Brownies
(recipe from BeckyCharms, original recipe from Rita May's Recipes)

• 3/4 c all-purpose flour
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 2 T lemon zest
• 2 t lemon juice

  Tart Lemon Glaze

• 1 rounded cup powdered sugar
• 4 T lemon juice
• 8 t lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with butter/cooking spray and set aside.

Zest and juice two lemons; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined. Pour into the flour mixture and beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Pour into baking dish and bake for 23-25 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before glazing. Do not overbake, or the bars will be dry.

When brownies are cooled completely, make the glaze...sift the powdered sugar, add lemon zest and juice, and whisk together all three ingredients. Spread 1/2 the glaze over the brownies with a rubber spatula. Let glaze set. Spread the remaining glaze over the bars, and let it set. This glaze does not harden like most. Cut into bars, and serve!