Cornbread

What you need:

• 3/4 cup corn meal
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup light olive oil
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat flour)
• 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
• 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

What you do:

In a large bowl, mix together corn meal and milk and let sit for at least 5 minutes, 15-20 minutes is ideal. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish. Add honey, egg, and olive oil to corn meal mixture and then pour dry mixture into wet, 1/3 at a time until mixed. Pour into baking dish and bake about 25-30 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Turkey Bacon Stew

What you need:

• 2 cans of condensed cream of (celery) soup [you can substitute any kind you wish]
• 1 soup can filled with chicken broth
• 1 soup can of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried minced garlic - or fresh
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/2 a small onion, diced large
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 2 small potatoes, diced
• 1 cup [or more] chopped cooked turkey
• 2 slices bacon, cut in half

What you do:

Whisk together soup, broth and milk in a large sauce pot. Add spices, potatoes and turkey and bring to a low boil over medium heat, reduce to medium-low and cover. In a pan, cook the bacon until there is about 2 Tablespoons of rendered fat in the bottom. Remove bacon, place on a paper towel on a plate and refrigerate. In the fat, saute the remaining vegetables until onion and celery are translucent. Add to stew and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, or until potatoes are soft. When ready to serve, microwave the bacon for a minute or two until crispy and chop. Sprinkle over bowl of soup. Serve with warm biscuits [we put leftover cranberry sauce on ours which complemented the turkey in the stew]. If not as thick as you'd prefer, mix one heaping Tablespoon cornstarch into 1 Tablespoon of cold water and mix into stew.

For a lighter version, omit bacon and substitute 2 Tablespoons of olive oil for bacon fat. Choose Healthy Request or low-fat version condensed soup.

Cranberry Cheesecake Pie

I'm on a roll with posting recipes that are not my own but I have to tell you right now, if you like cheesecake and you like cranberries, then this is the dessert for you!

What you need:

• 1 - 9 inch pie crust
• 2 -8oz bricks of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 4 teaspoons flour
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 12 ounces fresh cranberries, divided
• 3 eggs

What you do:

In a blender, puree 6 ounces of berries, sugar, flour and sour cream. Add in a brick of cream cheese, 1/2 at a time until both bricks are well combined and berries are thoroughly blended throughout. Add in eggs and vanilla and blend to combine. Pour into unbaked pie crust and dot the top with remaining berries. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes, then turn off oven but leave pie for another hour. Refrigerate when hour is up.

You can thank Diane of Created by Diane for this lovely concoction. http://createdbydiane.blogspot.com/2010/11/cranberry-cheesecake-pie.html

Cranberry Pomegranate Sauce

I'm not lucky enough to have come up with this idea on my own. One of my favorite cooks did: Ree Drummond - The Pioneer Woman.

What you need:

• 1 bag of fresh cranberries
• 1 16 ounce bottle of 100% pomegranate juice
• 3/4 cup sugar

What to do:

Combine ingredients in a sauce pot and heat on medium until boiling. Cook for about 20 minutes until sauce is thickened, stirring often to prevent burning. Remove from heat and chill. Will thicken further as it cools.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/11/cranberry-pomegranate-sauce/

Sugar Cookies

What you need:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

What you do:

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy and light. Gradually stir in (by hand) the dry mixture into the wet, 1/3 at a time until well mixed. Form a ball from the dough by hand and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Split dough in half and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut in preferred shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 4-6 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before placing cookies on a cooling rack to cool completely. Frost and enjoy!

Makes about 30 cookies.

Enchilada Casserole

What you need:

• 24 corn tortillas
• 1 large can enchilada sauce
• 1 small can enchilada sauce
• 1 can refried beans
• 1 can of chopped green chiles (mild)
• 1lb ground turkey/meat (I used 1/2 and added 1/2 can extra of black beans)
• large bag of shredded cheese

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish. Brown meat and pour 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce into meat and stir in beans and drained green chiles. Mix well. Pour small can of enchilada sauce in a shallow dish with sides (a pie plate works great). Dip both sides of 6 tortillas in sauce and layer on bottom of greased dish. Spread 1/3 of bean mixture onto tortilla layer, then sprinkle with cheese. Repeat twice and top with a last layer of dipped tortillas. Pour remaining large can of sauce on top and sprinkle with cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 mins. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned.

Apple Cranberry Muffins

What you need:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup fat-free milk
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped, peeled tart apple
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

What you do:

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Combine the egg, milk, oil and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the apple and dried cranberries. Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray or use paper liners; fill two-thirds full with batter. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

What you need:

• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 Tablespoons white granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

What you do:

Preheat oven to 325. Combine pumpkin puree and cream cheese. Add in egg, sugar and spices. Set aside. Whisk together cocoa powder and melted butter until smooth. Pour in sugar, stir. Add in eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in flour, salt and vanilla - do NOT over mix. Stir only until flour is no longer visible. In a greased 8x8 baking dish, pour 1/2 to 3/4 of the brownie batter into the dish and spread out. Drop cream cheese pumpkin mixture by spoonful over the top of the brownie batter as evenly as possible. Pour and spread remaining brownie batter on top. Using a butter knife, cut through batter to swirl the pumpkin cheesecake. Bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick comes out with crumbs, but not wet with batter.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Okay, I don't make my own meatballs. It's kind of one of those things that eludes me, like pie crust made from scratch; both fell apart on me and ended up looking mangled and ugly. I leave it up to the professionals for now.

What you need:

• 1/2 bag of frozen meatballs [I prefer the turkey meatballs, homestyle], defrosted - I cheat and use the microwave.
• 1 can pineapple chunks, juice reserved
• 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce [cut this back if you're afraid of a little burn in your sauce, it makes it kind of spicy]
• 1 cup ketchup
• various sundry seasonings: I use a couple shakes of garlic salt, coarse sea salt and ground black pepper - no real measurements really.
• 1 cup of chopped red and green bell pepper [I chop it large so it matches the pineapple chunk size]

What you do:

In a large sauce pot, heat the pineapple juice until warm. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl [it does neat things!] and pour into warmed juice. Whisk, without stopping, until lumps are gone and entire concoction thickens. Once it's gooey, pour in ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and whisk together until mixed. Season with garlic salt, sea salt and black pepper. Dump in pineapple, pepper chunks and meatballs. Heat over medium low to low heat until peppers are tender. Serve over rice or egg noodles.

*Note: I easily change this to sweet and sour chicken by adding cooked chunks of chicken to the sauce instead of meatballs. Great over fried rice!