WOO HOO!

That's it.  Woohoo.   What's with the woohoo?  Well I'll tell ya.  I am done with gift buying/making.  Here I am on a Saturday and thinking "Hmm I have nothing I have to do, or nothing I have to buy".  My last task before Christmas is getting the groceries for our Christmas festivities.  This is nice.  Let me just bask in the moment..........

Okay, enough basking.

This has been a week filled with plenty of baking, and sewing.  Santa's workshop was in overdrive because I had a fear I wouldn't be done in time.  So imagine my surprise when I got done early.  Funny though.  It sure doesn't feel like Christmas is around the corner.  Today's high is due to be 70 degrees.  We've had these temps before in December (Like when I was a child) so welcome to Georgia.  Next weekend will be more Christmas like.  Then we will have lows in the low low thirties and highs in the upper 40's and low 50's.  But for today I am resisting the urge to go work in the garden.  I did however order my seeds and they have shipped!  See this is what happens when I have my Christmas stuff in order.  I start thinking of the new year and spring planting.


I will share an new recipe I discovered this week.  I made my moms pumpkin bread recipe, however, I decided after I had all the dry ingredients together that I only needed one loaf and so I stored half of the dry ingredients for later.  I also tried my hand at making cranberry juice.  It was pretty good, but I had these left over cranberries I wanted to find a use for.

 *** on a side note:  Just buy your cranberry juice when it is on sale B1G1F at Publix.  It's similar in price.

So first of all, if you want to try your hand at making Cranberry juice, simply put equal amounts of water to cranberries; i.e 1 quart of cranberries, 1 quart of water.  Slowly simmer the cranberries until soft then pour into a clean cloth and let drain over night.  I ended up having to add about 1/2 cup sugar for each quart of juice I ended up with.


So armed with the spent cranberries from 2 quarts of juice, I formulated a plan/recipe.  Here tis:

Cranberry Orange Quick Bread

1 cup plus 2 TBS flour
1.1/4 cups sugar
3/4 ts salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
2 TBS oil
1 Egg
1-2 TBS grated orange peel
1 1/2 cups spent cranberries (you can probably soften dried cranberries to add)

Mix together dry ingredients then add the milk, oil, egg, and orange peel.  Mix well then stir in the cranberries.  You can add nuts also, but I didn't.  Pour all into a loaf pan and bake 325 degree for an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This bread is soooo good if I do say so myself.  I made it yesterday morning for breakfast and it was gone by nightfall.

Well, I know this is no barn burner, but you did get a recipe of sorts out of it.  I hope this post find you well and your Christmas plans are moving along.  Just remember why we celebrate this season.  Don't let the stress of the holiday take your focus on the greatest gift we ever received; Jesus