Cranberry & Orange Relish

This cranberry relish is a perfect side dish for any holiday meal. I have been using this recipe for a couple of years and it has been a huge hit with my family. It is especially good on those left-over turkey sandwiches! Yum!

You will need:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
12 ounces cranberries
1 pinch cinnamon, ground
2 tablespoons orange zest
1/2 cup orange segments

1. Rinse cranberries with cold water. In a medium saucepan add sugar, orange juice, and water. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

2. Bring to a boil and add cranberries, cinnamon and orange zest. Return to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low. Cook until cranberries start to burst, about ten minutes.

3. Remove from heat and add orange segments.

4. Let cool to room temperature. Pour sauce into a serving bowl and chill in the refrigerator. Serve chilled.

Southern Pecan Pie

Not just Pecan Pie, but SOUTHERN Pecan Pie. A family recipe I make for my boys every Thanksgiving and Christmas. We all know there's no cooking like grandma's cooking, but I try to use family recipes as much as I can as a reminder of home. No matter what state we live in, thanks to our dear families and deep traditions we at least have some good southern recipes to fill our bellies. We may now call Wyoming home, but Kentucky is forever in our hearts. Happy Thanksgiving!

What you need:
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
Dash of salt
3 eggs well beaten
1 cup pecan halves
1 tsp vanilla
1 unbaked pie shell

Cream together the butter, brown sugar and salt. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Pour mixture into the pie shell and bake in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 30 minutes longer.

OXO Good Cookie Spatula

I recently signed up to participate in a Blogger Cookie Swap in conjunction with Cookies for Kids Cancer and to my surprise this week I received a OXO Good Cookie Spatula! I encourage all of my readers to checkout their page http://www.oxogoodcookies.com/cookie_spatula, and purchase one of these adorable cookie spatulas.  50% of the profits from the Spatula benefits Cookies for Kids' Cancer! And don't forget to register your upcoming bake sales at www.cookiesforkidscancer.org and mention OXO because they will match funds up to $100,000.

Happy Baking!

Candy Bar Popcorn

Four kids equals a ton of Halloween candy, so for dessert tonight I decided to put some of that candy to use and created some candy bar popcorn! We have such a variety of candy I mixed it up a bit and used milky way, snickers and twix. It should go great with an after dinner movie, if I can keep my hands out of it long enough to set! Yummo!

What you'll need:
1 bag of microwave popcorn
8-10 pieces of miniature candy bars
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used white chocolate)
Kosher salt to taste

Heat the peanut butter, honey, sugar and vanilla on the stove until smooth. Pour the mixture over the popped popcorn in a bowl and mix carefully with a spoon. Chop up the candy bars and add to the popcorn mixture. Pour the mixture out onto a wax paper lined pan. Lightly sprinkle with salt. Melt the chocolate chips and drizzle over the mixture. Let sit until the chocolate hardens and then enjoy!