The Food Post That Almost Wasn’t

Despite all evidence to the contrary, I did not fall off the planet and into a black hole.

And despite the fact that I really hate when I hear myself say “I’ve been busy” in response to a question about what I’ve been doing or how I am, the truth is that we really have been busy the last several days.

Mostly, we’ve been busy baking. This is not remarkable, really. Lots of people bake. I, however, do not bake. I’ve always found it a bit tedious. But my daughter loves to bake. And so we bake.

In the last week, we have produced the following:

• Oatmeal white chocolate blueberry cookies for a family Hanukkah gathering
• Marshmallow and chocolate dreidels for same Hanukkah gathering
• Banana cranberry nut quick bread
• The beginnings of a fruitcake (Yes, fruitcake. I know. Just stay with me.)

The cookies are a family favorite. We found them on the back of an Ocean Spray Craisins package several years ago and have made them several times to rave reviews. The original recipe calls for dried cranberries, not blueberries. But Zilla wanted something blue for the Hanukkah party. So the Fab Hub got us dried blueberries. They were awesome and a hit at the party.

You can get the recipe here at Ocean Spray’s website. Modifications? Coming right up! Aside from swapping in blueberries for the cranberries, we also substituted whole wheat flour. They tasted just as good as the original version and ended up just a little bit healthier with the whole wheat and all the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of the blueberries. I love this cookie because it is sweet, but not overly so – great if you’re not much of a sugar-head.

The marshmallow dreidels were the Fab Hub’s idea and he even helped put them together. This is big. The Fab Hub does not cook often, so when he does, it’s worth noting. I grabbed these when I was caught in the vortex of time loss that is Pinterest. They are from Martha Stewart and you can grab the recipe here.

They were not really difficult at all – the concept was fairly simple. Stick a chocolate kiss on a marshmallow, shove a pretzel stick in the other end, cover in chocolate and you’re pretty much done. But the overall process was a bit tedious. Don’t let that deter you from trying them, though – those who indulged said they were fabulous and couldn’t stop talking about how cute and delicious they were. I abstained – I do not like marshmallow. Fab Hub did the piping of the Hebrew letters. Kidzilla was delighted because not only did she get to enjoy eating one, but dreidels are one of her favorite things about this holiday. She’s got a wicked spin for a little person – how’s that for fine motor skills?

Sadly, we were pressed for time and literally finished these goodies, packed them up, and hit the road for the party.

I can, however, offer some decent photos of the other items on my list.

Check out the lovely color of the cranberries in the batter for my banana cranberry nut bread: 

And the finished product: 

I had some old bananas and some old cranberries sitting in the kitchen threatening to be waste because sometimes Zilla and I get a little over-zealous on our produce shopping excursions. Since I absolutely hate to waste food, I needed a solution. For this, I turned to my old friend the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook – you know, the red and white plaid one that everybody has? Yup, that’s the one. I followed the simple banana bread recipe and just tossed in the walnuts and cranberries.

They may be just the slightest bit overdone on the bottom, but the unfortunate soldier who lost his bottom tasted fantastic – just what I was hoping for! I did them in muffin version because we never finish a whole bread fast enough and this way we have little easy-to-grab ones frozen for whenever.

Here’s my evil secret about those muffins: I wanted to bake them. On purpose. (Gasp!) I had a pretty stressful day at work and all I could think about was how relaxing it would be to bake. How bizarre.

Finally, The Fruitcake.

In truth, I am not a fan of fruitcake. Zilla saw a display of all the cleverly arranged and tastily colorful ingredients a few weeks ago and asked about them. She decided we should make some.  All I could think was, “Fruitcake, Zilla? Really? Eeeewww.” But Fab Hub and I always try to remember that she is entitled to form her own opinions without the input of other people and so I agreed that we should try fruitcake.

The question, though, was what to do with said fruitcake after it was made? I certainly had no intention of consuming it. Fab Hub threw in a few jokes about it because, well, it’s what you do where fruitcake is concerned. But since Fab Hub grew up in a Jewish home and had exactly zero experience with Christmas fruitcake, he really had no basis for such an opinion and decided to actually be intrigued. Still seeking a way out of making fruitcake an idea for how to get rid of it share it, I told my Mom of Zilla’s interest in the traditional Christmas butt-of-jokes baking plans. Turns out Mom loves fruitcake. After forty-two years, how did I not know my own mother likes fruitcake?  Problem solved.

And so now, in my refrigerator, sits this bowl of festivity:

Bonus points for the additional seasonal appropriateness of the red bowl, please. Thank you very much.

After several days of searching and comparing recipes, I found one that looked like it would turn out the way Mom said she likes it. I dug it up (where else) on Pinterest. More on that find later after we see how the fruitcake turns out. I think that will warrant a post no matter what the result! In the meantime, my fruitcake mix sits happily marinating. Although I have not yet begun to assemble it, I have indeed already made a modification – those happy little buggers are swimming in amaretto rather than brandy because why not?

Well, now that this has taken the better part of an evening and a morning to post due to a random power outage right in the middle of writing and about a week of refusing to post about food (that’s another story for another post), I must wrap up here and be about the rest of the day.

Come back again to see how the fruitcake turns out!