Cookbook Review

The kids still complain about the Thanksgiving where I put 1 bite of everything we were having in the blender, pureed it, and made them each take a taste. It really wasn't that bad because of the complimentary flavors of the holiday, but do they whine! Hey, I'm in the business of building memories here....I never said they'd all be good ones.

Cranberry-glazed Ham

Ingredients:
Ham
Cranberry sauce
Dijon mustard
Cinnamon
Allspice

There were a few substitutions or exclusions in this recipe. Actually, by the time I was done, the only ingredients left were cranberry sauce and the 2 spices. I loathe mustard, and not much chance of this vegetarian eating (or cooking!) a ham. But sweet potatoes are round and colored---practically the same thing. Otherwise the recipe was pretty basic. Blend the ingredients together and spread evenly over the "ham" several times during baking.

Review:
While I'm sure this dish was nothing like the original, the cranberry glaze on the sweet potatoes was interesting. I am looking forward to trying a dish of sliced sweet potatoes baked with a bit of brown sugar and some cranberry sauce. I think it will be quite good and will be a little bit of variety from the traditional preparations we've always used.

(The photography is dreadful for these two dishes as I didn't have the right camera. In person the dishes were more appetizing)



Cranberry Pear Cobbler

Ingredients:
Ripe pears
Cranberries
Sugar
Flour
Orange peel
Cinnamon

Topping:
Yellow cake mix
Buttermilk
Sugar
Brown sugar

I followed the recipe pretty closely for this one except I had no buttermilk and I'm sure that affected how the topping turned out. I also added more sugar to the filling right out of the starting gate since every other desert that involved cranberries has been way too tart. Pretty easy recipe; blend the filling together, dump into pan, and cover with blobs of the topping mix.

Review:
I really liked this dish; I'm not sure if I'll ever make it again just because how often do I get pears to use for cobbler, but it was very good. The pears and orange peel gave it a very delicate flavor and the cranberries saved it from being chokingly sweet (cranberries are good that way!) Caleb really liked it, so maybe I'll have to put in the shopping effort and make it again sometime.