Cranberries and Artichokes

I made it back to LA as well Tuesday night after my flight was delayed several hours due to some extreme storms around Atlanta. I was greeted yesterday and today with bright blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. I'm already spoiled with this SoCal weather. Yesterday I played tennis in shorts and a t-shirt then went for a run on the beach. It was beautiful.

I thought today I would share a few recipes I've discovered and created. The first is Cranberry Sauce with Orange and Rosemary from Fine Cooking's "Make Ahead Holidays". Despite protests from my mom, I absolutely insisted that we have cranberries at Thanksgiving. I made half of this recipe, and Marc (Mike's dad) and I pretty much destroyed it during dinner. What little was left was spread over a round of baked Bree cheese and half a turkey sandwich. This is super easy, sweet and savory, and not too bitter. You better believe it will be making another appearance at Christmas.


Cranberry Sauce with Orange and Rosemary
24 oz fresh cranberries
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice
4 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest
In a large saucepan, bring the cranberries, sugar, orange juice, and rosemary to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 minute. (Some berries will have popped and some will be whole.) Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the zest. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Let the sauce cool to room temperature and then cover and refrigerate. Return to room temp before serving.
My notes: I let the sauce simmer about 3 minutes so that all the cranberries popped, making for more of a sauce instead of a chutney, and I didn't cover for 10 minutes to allow it to thicken slightly.  


My next dish I created last night. I had read an article in Real Simple magazine on the plane that gave lots of crostini (think "stuff on toast") combinations. One had artichokes in it, and ever since I read it I've wanted some 'chokes. Also, in Atlanta, I made a pasta salad that had sun-dried tomatoes in it, and I just couldn't get enough of them. So last night for what ended up being my dinner I made Meg's Artichoke and Sun-Dried Tomato Bruschetta. Some of my best meals are ones that I just make up without recipes. It includes a lot of tasting and adding things as I go (and that happen to be in my pantry.) Here's my best effort at recording what I made.

Meg's Artichoke and Sun-Dried Tomato Bruschetta
can of artichoke hearts (or you can use a jar or frozen ones), well drained
jar of sun-dried tomatoes, drained
olive oil
salt and pepper
red wine vinegar
basil
french bread, sliced and toasted
I used about a 3:1 ratio of artichokes to sun-dried tomatoes, which ended up being about half a can of artichokes and 3 or 4 medium-sized slices of tomatoes. Combine in food processor with some oil (enough to dribble around the food processor twice) and some vinegar (3 or 4 splashes).  Add a little salt and a few grinds of pepper. Pulse the blender until everything is well chopped up and incorporated, but don't go too far, since you want it to be a puree. Give it a taste. It will likely need more salt and pepper - add these until you
are satisfied with the seasonings. Give it a last pulse or two to re-stir the seasonings, then spoon out into a bowl. Add some chopped basil (fresh, if you have it. My little patio garden has some great tasting basil) and stir together, or use little leaves to garnish your creation. Top the toasted bread slices, sit on the couch with a good book and munch away. Clearly the serving size here is a little off - this was enough for a mini loaf of french bread and a rice cake. If you are feeding more than two people appetizers, you will want to make more. For variation, you can use chopped olives instead of tomatoes. Or ricotta cheese instead of the artichokes.