Got chips?

It was mid-summer when I started dreaming up this cranberry concoction. While my family and I were contemplating whether the elevated temperatures really warranted turning on the air conditioner, I was also starting to fantasize about how I could take some traditional Thanksgiving tastes – like cranberry sauce – and give them a new life.

And this? This ain’t your grandmother’s cranberry sauce. Oh no, it’s totally different.

This Cranberry Salsa is made from ripe cranberries that I bought roadside on Cape Cod. It’s sweet and spicy, a perfect contrast to salty tortilla chips. It should also be amazing on a turkey sandwich … you know, the day after Thanksgiving. It’s something that you take one bite of and instantly want more. And perhaps the best part? It takes no time to make.

To make it hot, I used a habenero pepper, which gave it a hearty bite. If you like really hot, include the pepper seeds in the salsa. For a milder salsa, use a milder pepper like a jalapeno.

This might not be the sauce you thought you wanted for Thanksgiving. But it’s amazing — use it as an appetizer or alongside the turkey. The leftovers will be ideal for turkey and cheese quesadillas, nachos, alongside omelets …

But, that’s if you have any leftover to eat. It’s just so amazing.

For the recipe, head over to SheKnows where I wrote about three alternatives to cranberry sauce, including this one.

Until last week, I had never carved a pumpkin myself. There was this one time in high school where I insisted on having a carved pumpkin … but aside from a tiny knife jab or two, I didn’t do the actual carving. But on Halloween, I carved two pumpkins and my husband carved another two. I can’t tell you how excited I was to see them lined up and lit on our front steps … heck, I may or may not be still lighting them since I love them so.

Pumpkins are fun. They are also very tasty (and nutritious! Don’t forget nutritious!). Just look at all the pumpkin recipes I have written about lately. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Pumpkin Cupcakes, Pumpkin Coconut Muffins … yum.

But the flesh of the pumpkin isn’t the only wonderful, edible, tasty part … the seeds are also amazing — especially when they are roasted. Between the kids and I, we polished off a whole batch of these in just days. Honestly, a few pumpkins are on my farmers’ market list for this weekend. I am hoping to puree and freeze the flesh and roast more seeds.

Chances are, the seeds won’t last long.

As far as snacks go, this is one that I can feel good about serving to the kids. According to World’s Healthiest Foods, they have a good amount of protein, iron and even anti-inflammatory benefits. For men, they may even help with prostate health.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
8 servings/2 cups

2 cups raw, whole pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Rinse the pumpkin seeds, removing as much of the pumpkin flesh debris as you can. Lay the seeds out on paper towel to get the excess water off. It’s okay if you don’t get it all.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread the pumpkin seeds out and drizzle with butter. Use a spatula to mix well around the sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix again.

Bake for 40-55 minutes until the seeds are lightly browned. Stir every 5-10 minutes after 40 minutes for even browning.

Popcorn. That’s what this is about. Popcorn … and movies.

See, Shawn was a little disappointed to pop over here and find that the photo in my last post was a map and there was nothing about family or food. Can’t please everyone, right? … Nonetheless, this is decidedly about family and food.

When it comes to family, creating memories is something that just happens. Memories happen when you are least expecting it – an impromptu trip to the playground, a game of tag, a baking session … There are also memories that are born from traditions. And creating traditions is a little more challenging. You need repetition and it has to be something that everyone looks forward to.

That’s what movie night is in my house. It’s a new habit we are getting into that I want to be a tradition.

It all starts with popcorn. Will absolutely loves popcorn … then again, so does Paige. So we pop some fresh popcorn (not to be confused with the other popular popcorn around here – Smartfood). Often, I will melt some fresh butter, pour it over and sprinkle with sea salt. But sometimes I want the popcorn to be a little different, a little more special. In those cases, I go for more flavor – like the Cheesy Garlic or Chocolate popcorn below.

Once the popcorn is ready, we start the movie. Obviously, it has to be kid friendly … This week, that meant Jessica Rabbit strolling across our screen as we watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The kids were enamored with the whole story … and Will’s expression when we found out that the bad guy was a toon was priceless. He was just in shock … and maybe a little taken aback. “Mommy, I don’t like that guy!”

I love these quiet, inexpensive family experiences. It’s low-key. We can huddle under blankets or retreat to ends of the couches. We can curl up on the floor, or even bring dinner into the living room. The usual decorum that dictates where and when we eat is set aside in favor of relaxation and togetherness. What can I say? It’s just perfect.

While I do my best to focus on the present, I always have it in my mind how the present can impact the future – Will and Paige’s future. When my kids grow up, I want them to remember the fun times we spent as a family during their childhood. And I want that to be something that they look forward to coming home to when they are away at college. I think it’s a mom thing …

What are your family traditions?

Cheesy Garlic Popcorn
serves 4-6

6 cups popped popcorn (it should be just popped and still very hot)
2 tbsp grated Romano cheese (get it from the cheese case at your supermarket — it will be incredibly fresher than the kind in the can)
1 tsp garlic salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a large resealable bag. Shake vigorously. Pour into a bowl and devour.

Chocolate Popcorn
serves 4-6

6 cups popped popcorn (it should be just popped and still very hot)
2 tbsp hot chocolate mix (the better the mix, the better the popcorn — make sure its sweetened)

Combine ingredients in a large resealable bag. Shake vigorously. Pour into a bowl and devour.

Garlic. When I say the word, two things come to mind: First, my grandmother who back in the 80s caught wind of the health benefits and took it to heart. And second, the fact that people either love garlic (me!) or hate it (Shawn!). While I am not a fan of raw garlic (is anyone?), I do absolutely love it cooked — in sauces, on pasta, with veggies and especially roasted. Roasted garlic takes on a slightly sweet but still bold tone. It makes a great, low-cal spread for sandwiches or can add something special to sauces (like a yummy roasted garlic alfredo).

The flavor of the roasted garlic is the star of this recipe. The other components are delicious, but the garlic is what makes it shine. But let me be perfectly honest: this recipe has a lot of steps. It’s more than I would normally advise. But when something is good, it’s worth it and this is divine. First, you make the roasted garlic (click on the link below for directions), then you make the artichoke hearts, then you assemble and bake a bit. Fussy? A bit. But totally worth it.

This is the kind of dish you’d want to serve before dinner at a dinner party with your close friends. Or, you could use smaller pieces of bread (perhaps a slim ciabatta loaf instead?) for a great game day appetizer. And yes, I do think that game day is a day for real food, not junk.

Roasted Garlic and Artichoke Bread
serves 6 as an appetizer

1 package (box) frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper
Italian bread
1 head garlic, roasted (directions)
grated Asiago cheese

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a medium-sized oven safe casserole dish with cooking spray. Add the artichoke hearts. Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and then pour evenly over the artichoke hearts.

Cover the dish and slide into the oven. Cook for 30 minutes — no peeking!

Remove from oven, uncover and stir and let cool. Raise the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

Slice the Italian bread into 1/2 inch slices (I used about half of a loaf). Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and slide into the oven. Bake for five minutes and then remove.

Spread each slice of bread with the roasted garlic. Then, divide the artichoke mixture evenly between the slices (solids only). Top each with a pinch of asiago. Slide into oven and bake for another five minutes.

When the first big snow storm hit New England last week, I smiled a bit and took Will outside to play while I shoveled. Of course, I am not supposed to be lifting heavy things, but someone had to do it and my husband was working. Less than 48 hours later when we got slammed with winter weather again, I groaned. More snow? Already? Oh no. And then it sleeted and iced over and we couldn’t quite remove it. Now, days later, there is a sheer sheet of ice covering my extra-long, extra-wide driveway. And no matter how much salting and attempted shoveling, I cannot seem to banish it. What a pain, and it’s only December! This is why I want to uproot our family and escape to New York . . .

So, what do you do when you can’t play outside or go out anywhere or even get the mail (since the mailbox is at the end of the supersized driveway)? You cook. A lot. And do your best to keep the house clean while everyone gets crazy cabin fever. One of the things I have been cooking is asparagus.

Now, David Lebovitz might take me to task for playing with asparagus in December when it’s clearly out of season, but if I only ate New England’s seasonal vegetables (see, using the FULL word, David!) then it would be a depressing winter of too many tubers, I dare say. (Psst! Click here to read David’s really amusing posts on five words he thinks should be eliminated from the food vocabulary. I would add the insipid E.V.O.O. – ugh, just say the whole thing! – and foam anything to the list as well. Foam is cute, and cute isn’t always a good thing.) Sometimes, it is okay to give in and buy a vegetable from far off.

I love asparagus. As a child, I would only eat the tips because the ends were too stringy for me. As an adult, I realize that’s because my grandmother didn’t properly snap them off — if you snap the asparagus ends off then it will naturally break above the too stringy portion. And, if you soak the asparagus, like this recipe suggests, then you will easily remove any trapped dirt. Just be sure to extract the asparagus from the water carefully so as not to reattach any of the dirt.

These simple recipes make some really delicious asparagus recipes. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Roasted Asparagus
serves 4-6

1 lbs asparagus
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Snap the ends off of the asparagus. Place in a large bowl of water and soak for 30 minutes. Remove and pat dry.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Spread asparagus in a single layer on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cook in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven.

Serving Method #1: Just Roasted

Transfer asparagus to a serving platter and serve warm. If desired, garnish with a bit of lemon zest and sprnkle with lemon juice just prior to serving.

Serving Method #2: Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

Let asparagus cool to room temperature. Then wrap each piece with a half slice of prosciutto. (You will use 1 piece of prosciutto for every two spears of asparagus and delis will cut to order — as in you can request 13 extra thin slices, or whatever, as need be.) Serve as an appetizer.

Serving Method #3: Asparagus and Swiss Omelet

Have leftover roasted asparagus? Make an omelet and stuff it with three spears of asparagus and one slice of Swiss cheese. It’s delicious. Seriously. You have to try it.

My poor family. They are always my guinea pigs when I experiment with recipes. Some, like this one, turn out great and end up on the blog. Others, like a tragic butternut squash casserole I made for Thanksgiving nearly four years ago plague me. They won’t let me forget the poorly conceived, over sweet dish that made my brother swear off butternut squash forever. But fortunately that was one of my first experiments, not one of my latest. (And besides, nothing tops my mother’s homemade pumpkin pie with the sinues . . . ew. It looked like pecan pie. And of course, the friend I had sleeping over that night had never had pumpkin pie before . . . hell, she probably hasn’t since.) Anyway, the butternut squash incident came up (for the umpteenth time) the other night at dinner while everyone was trying the peppers. Why can’t they just let it go???

On to these stuffed delights. This is a pretty fast and low-fat, low-carb appetizer that’s great for parties. I picked up these mini sweet peppers in bulk at Costco last week and scoured the internet for a worthy recipe. There seemed to be only two really out there: one that was stuffed with goat cheese and garlic and one that was stuffed with a rice-y mixture. The rice didn’t appeal to me and I didn’t have any goat cheese or garlic (gasp!) on hand, but what I did have was feta. The resulting mixture (see below) drew raves and tasted great. And being that it’s an easy make-ahead finger food that is actually better cold, it’s perfect for when you have guests coming (think: day ahead).

Anyway, I thought the colorful peppers and sundried tomatoes would make it a great candidate for Sweetnicks’ ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays. Check her site later for a roundup of other like-minded, antioxidant-rich recipes.

Stuffed Mini Sweet Peppers
yields 30

30 mini sweet peppers
7 oz feta cheese
1/4 cup fresh basil (packed down)
1/4 cup fresh rosemary (packed down)
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes (the dried ones, not the ones packed in oil)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with aluminium foil.

Slice the peppers from stem to tip on one side, leaving the stem intact. Carefully remove the seeds (there aren’t too many).

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the feta, basil, rosemary and sundried tomatoes. Pulse until evenly chopped (the mixture should be very fine).

Use a small spoon to divide the feta mixture among the peppers. Place completed peppers on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until peppers are just starting to soften. Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot or cold.

This particular hor d’ourve was born after much testing and sampling. I tried a variety of cheeses and sauces. I tried fresh spinach and sundried tomatoes. I even made my husband sample them. Ultimately, the gorgonzola was too strong and the fresh mozzarella was too bland. The spinach didn’t add anything and while the sundried tomato was delicious, it wasn’t something that everyone would eat (and that was one of my objectives).

The beef is just barely seared in this recipe, leaving it very tender. The pesto is filled with wonderful spinach, a very antioxidant-rich vegetable, making this a perfect recipe for Sweetnicks ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays. Check her site late tonight for a roundup of other like minded recipes.

On a side note, it’s okay to make the pesto with less or no nuts, which I was forced to do on Thanksgiving due to an ingredient mishap (I accidentally used them in something else). Special thanks to the lady who helped me recover from the shock of missing an ingredient at midnight on Thanksgiving.

Blue Filet Bites
yields 30

1/4 lb filet mignon
salt and pepper
1 recipe pesto sans garlic, or pesto of your choice
2 pkgs. Fillo shells
crumbled blue cheese

Place the filet between sheets of plastic wrap and pound until between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch thick. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper on both sides.

Heat a cast iron griddle or pan over medium heat until hot. Place filet on the grill and sear (about 1 minute on each side until just browned on the outside but still very rare in the center). Remove from grill and cut into small pieces.

Arrange Fillo shells on a tray and divide pesto evenly among them. Top with filet and blue cheese. Serve immediately.

So this was my seafood appetizer for Thanksgiving. I played around with a variety of ideas that would have used lobster or smoked salmon or seared tuna, but ended up going with this. It turned out to be a wow from my family, so it will definitely be made again.