Honestly, I didn’t measure anything very carefully, but just tasted it and added things until I liked the flavor. But, it turned out so well, I at least wanted to have a record for next year of what I put in. I think this kind of thing is best made tasting as you go anyway, since what it needs will depend on the flavor and sweetness of your cranberries.

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Cranberry Sauce

This is a rough outline of a recipe. These are the ingredients I use, but the amounts will need to be tweaked, depending on your taste and the tartness of the cranberries. I think I ended up with more spices than this, but this is a place to start – it’s easier to add more than to take some away!

Makes about a pint

3/4 of a bag of cranberries (3-4 cups)
1/4 c of brown sugar, plus more to taste
zest of one orange
1 T grated ginger
1/4 t cloves
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t allspice
1/4 t fresh grated nutmeg

Combine cranberries, brown sugar, and a couple tablespoons of water. Cook over medium heat. Once it starts bubbling and the cranberries break down, turn down to a simmer and add the orange zest and spices. Simmer until the cranberries are cooked down and falling apart, tasting to adjust the sugar and spices.

Well, once again I’m far behind … The September Daring Bakers Challenge was supposed to be posted a week and a half ago. I made it on time, but with going out of town for the Biochemistry Retreat last week, I wasn’t able to get it posted on time, but here it is now.

Thanks to Shellyfish for hosting this challenge — Lavash Crackers. This challenge was a lot of fun, and while I’ve enjoyed all the sweets lately, I was really ready for a challenge not topped with buttercream. I’d been wanting to make crackers for awhile, so of course this was the perfect excuse to try it out. We could make this recipe either gluten free or not, and since I didn’t want to buy xanthan gum, I decided to stick with the conventional version. I topped mine with an assortment of seeds and spices, including poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, rosemary, sea salt, cumin seeds, and fennel seeds. I made one batch with stripes of different flavors and one batch with everything mixed together, which I liked better. All of them would’ve worked better if I had pushed them into the dough a little bit, as everything tended to kind of fall off when you bit into the cracker. Overall, I really enjoyed the crackers though, and would definitely make them again. They turned out deliciously crispy and crunchy, and were a great dipping vehicle.

I did also try a sweet version covered with cinnamon sugar. I think these would’ve been good, too, except that they were thicker than the other batch, and so they came out chewy instead of crunchy.

As part of this challenge, we were also supposed to make either a vegan or gluten-free dip to go along. (This was the first “alternative” Daring Bakers challenge.) Unfortunately I forgot about that part when I decided to make a caramelized onion dip. I’m pretty sure it’s gluten free, but definitely not vegan since it contained sour cream. I guess this obeys the letter of the challenge, though probably not the spirit, since I made a gluten-free dip to go with non-gluten free crackers. I’ll try to read more carefully next time. At any rate, I’ll put the recipe for the dip up sometime in the next few days, because it turned out really well.

And don’t forget to check out the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll to see how everyone else fared. You may have to scroll back a few posts since I’m so late, but it’ll be worth it!

If you want the recipe for the crackers, check out Shellyfish’s post.

So anyway, I promise that pimento cheese is much tastier than it might look in the above photo. If you’re not a Southerner, you may not have heard of this spread, which is extremely easy to make, and is a pretty yummy snack. Since we’ve been exercising more, we’ve found the need to keep more quick and easy snacks or meals on hand, so I made a batch last week. We like to use it to fill celery sticks (so you can tell yourself you’re balancing out the healthiness of mixing cheese with mayo), or spread it on sandwiches. If you’re going to put it on a sandwich, I think it’s much, much better if you toast the sandwich (in a toaster oven, already filled with the spread, so the cheese gets gooey and melty), but there are those in my family that disagree and think it’s better without toasting. Either way, you should give it a try, as it takes all of 10 minutes to whip up a batch.

Pimento Cheese

small jar of pimento peppers
1 lb. medium cheddar cheese (Apparently my grandmother always used blocks of American cheese, but I think I probably prefer the sharper taste of cheddar)
sugar
mayonnaise

Chop pimenotos (I use my food processor). Sprinkle with sugar, a couple tablespoons or so. Add very finely grated cheese. (I use my food processor to grate the cheese onto the pimentos, and then, since I don’t have a fine enough chopping blade, I stick the regular blade back in there and chop it up more finely.) Transfer to a bowl, and mix in some mayonnaise, just enough to hold everything together. (This was probably a few tablespoons or so of mayo, I’m not exactly sure). Spread on crackers, celery sticks, or make into sandwiches.