Cranberry Bars

Bars are faster than cookies, and I like that you can cut them in various sizes. These are from a cookbook I picked up for $1 at the Seattle Public Library, Favorite Recipes from Quilters. The book is from 1992; lots of recipes call for margarine or shortening. But a good recipe is a good recipe. These were good. I anticipate having lots of other berries in Chestertown from Micah's garden. These are a little simpler than the crumble recipe. Contributor is Irma H. Schoen.

Note there is no baking powder - this makes a dense bar.

I learned that a 9" x 13" pan is equivalent to a quarter sheet pan, meaning you can bake these in the Breville.

1 stick softened butter (if it's winter and the butter doesn't soften, grate it ahead and let it sit)
1.5 c sugar (if you use a different berry, you could cut back on sugar)
1.5 flour (half whole-wheat works fine)
2 eggs
1 c. chopped nuts - best if done by hand
1.5 c whole cranberries (a half bag)

salt, cinnamon to taste

Grease a quarter sheet pan well.

Cream the butter and sugar.

Add the flours, eggs, salt and cinnamon and mix. It's very stiff. You can use a wooden utensil and then your hands.

Add the cranberries and chopped nuts.

Spread out in the pan, wetting hands to fill in all the spaces.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Don't overbake or they're hard to cut.

Cool and cut. Recipe says 8x8. 

Jane Brody's Cranberry Apple Crisp

This has always been a favorite recipe of mine, and Abba doesn't touch the stuff.  It is a one bowl recipe, you don't need to peel the apples, it is beautiful and very nutritious.  What more could you want?  In Abba's case, "chocolate".  It is vegan, a nice benefit.*

Found this online - it has a double amount
of the oatmeal crumble topping.  You can
also add extra sugar to the basic recipe.

Try to buy a few bags of cranberries when they are in season and just throw them in the freezer.  It is fun to have them for Passover, if they are there that long.

3 cups cranberries (1 12-ounce bag)
2 large apples, unpeeled, cored and chopped thin
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup flour, divided
¾ cup rolled oats (regular or quick)
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Grease a 2 quart shallow baking dish well.

In a large bowl, combine the cranberries, apples, sugar, cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon of flour. 

Transfer the mixture into the greased  baking dish. 

In the same bowl (no need to wash it), combine the remaining flour, brown sugar, oats, and nuts. 

Stir in the melted butter or margarine and mix the ingredients well (the mixture should be crumbly). Sprinkle the oat mixture over the fruit mixture. 

Bake the crisp in a preheated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes or until the crisp is lightly browned. 

*for a gluten free version, I omitted the flour and used ground oats.  It was much runnier but still tastes great.

Gazpacho

New technique, 2025: Put the chopped vegetables in the pitcher with some of the V8 and use the immersion blender. It needs extra blending time - it's not as powerful. Saves cleaning up the bigger food processor, and it's a pain to pour from the food processor to the pitcher, so eliminates that step, too.

Gazpacho is basically chopped Israeli-type salad in tomato juice, with some hot sauce and vinegar. Some recipes also call for oil, but I don't usually put it in. You can always add it to each portion. Some recipes call for tomato paste, but my favorite thickener is a ripe avocado, so that also requires advance planning. Or you could put in a dollop of guacamole.

Gazpacho is very forgiving. If you have some vegetables around, like it's tomato season, just put in more tomatoes. Or cucumbers. Below is a suggested list.

The main challenges of making gazpacho are:

1) Thinking ahead. A ripe avocado really adds nice smooth texture.

2) Chill the ingredients, even the pitcher, if you're making it the same day.

3) Lots of chopping.

1 bottle of tomato juice - at least one quart (32 oz)

1 onion

1 cucumber

1 pepper

1 or 2 tomatoes

1 ripe avocado

some carrots

celery (or other vegetables, cilantro is awesome!)

1/4 cup red-wine vinegar

dash of Tabasco or other hot sauce

Chop the softer vegetables in small chunks. Put them in the food processor.

You will need to do this in two batches.

For the cucumbers, peel and slice in half the long way. Halve each of the halves, and then with the point of the knife, slice/scoop out the seeds.

Add some of the tomato juice and process until smooth but with some vegetable flecks/chunks still visible.

Carrots need to be chopped finer or processed longer.

Add the first batch to your pitcher (or tureen if you have one).

Repeat a second time till all your vegetables are chunked and processed. Add to the pitcher and stir. Add the remaining tomato juice, vinegar, Tabasco and any spices you like. Tomato juice is quite salty, so no need for more salt. You could add fresh oregano, dill, parsley - whatever you have around.

Put in the ladle and stir it up.

Chill.

For serving, chopped herbs are nice on top, or a little guacamole. Croutons are a classic garnish.

This amount serves around 8.