Saturday was a beautiful, cold, gray, windy, winter day.

I’m not complaining, the air above the frozen pond was white. (Can it be so cold that fog freezes?) The trees on the hill were  black and created a startling contrast to the white field. The alpacas were cozy inside their upscale fleece. Rosie, working on her version of a canine snow angel, was frequently distracted by the scent of creatures tunneling beneath the icy crust of snow. On the other hand, I wanted pie. Not a frozen pie from the market, not a pumpkin pie made from a tin of pumpkin, not an apple pie, I wanted a pie  that would leave pink streaks on the plate. I was missing summer pies.

What to do — I opened the freezer and found a bag of cranberries and remembered that I had once made a cranberry pie but I couldn’t remember how. I had to be adventurous, think creatively and get started. I had an unbaked pie crust in the freezer and I began by rinsing the cranberries and thinking of pies past. I knew that the birds would be pleased with the pie if I wasn’t. Luckily –

It look good enough to slice.

One bite

After the next

Sorry birdies — maybe next time.

Here’s how I made it.

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In November, I decided to try my hand at creating a recipe that featured Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry for a contest. I have never thought of myself as a competitive cook but decide to give it a whirl.

I signed up, got a coupon in the mail that I redeemed for one package of Puff Pastry. I opted for sheets rather than for the shells primarily because I had absolutely no idea what I was going to make.

The pastry waited patiently in the freezer for about ten days until lightening struck and I was inspired by the food in my fridge and a recent visit to Sicily. I had fresh cranberries and fresh ricotta cheese – hmmm, how about Cranberry Cannoli Puffs, a simple dessert made with a minimum number of ingredients.

I submitted the recipe and I thought that the contest rules required that I not tell a soul what I had made until the contest was over.  I got an email last week that said that I was free to share my entry so –  Here’s how I did it:

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Persimmons have been eaten for a long time, the Greeks called the persimmon the ‘fruit of the gods’ but I had never used them in my kitchen.

The orange Fuji persimmons at the market were the inspiration I needed to make a non-chocolate cake. In the past, the unpalatable astringency of unripe persimmons had kept me away from them.

But, the combination of a pot-luck dinner party, the memory of Nancy’s amazing persimmon cake and having both a food blog and newspaper columns that need posts, I decided to practice what I preach – “Be brave, take a chance, experiment and tell me about your success!”

I created a persimmon cake filled with apricot mousse and topped with whipped cream and it was a success! – Here’s how I did it: … read more

Cranberry Sauce, whether straight from the can or an innovative version, is a welcome side dish but these versatile berries can also be the basis for dessert.

Consider cranberry mousse, a three-ingredient wonder and if cranberry mousse doesn’t tickle your palette, how about cranberry gelato? Here’s how ( x 2). … read more

My third experiment was inspired by the success of the spicy cranberry sauce.

I wanted to create an even more complex sauce with better color and texture. Roasting rather than boiling the cranberries would intensify the color and flavor of the finished sauce. After some tweaking I created a savory sauce with a spicy note. Here’s how I did it. … read more

This post is the first in a series of four. Check back tomorrow for part two.

The first time I saw cranberry sauce I had no idea what the red, wiggly disc wedged between mashed potatoes and a slice of turkey could be. With a mother from England and a father from Eastern Europe, beets were the only red food I knew and they were soaked in vinegar and didn’t wiggle. This mystery food was cold, sweet and looked like Jell-O. Never having seen a cranberry, I assumed that jellied cranberry started as a powder that was mixed with water and cooled until it was a brightly colored, quivering mass.

I discovered cranberry sauce with whole berries a few years before I saw bags of fresh cranberries at the market. When I used the recipe on the bag, the resulting sauce made with uncooked berries and oranges had more interesting flavor and texture than the canned version. This sauce was a step in the right direction but I wanted more – more variety, more interesting flavors.

My next experiment with cranberry sauce was inspired by a jar of Cumberland sauce. I wanted to mimic the spicy hit of this sauce seasoned with ginger and mustard but I had an impossible deadline: guests were arriving in ten minute. Limited in time and by the contents of the pantry, I managed to create a spicy, crowd-pleasing sauce with three ingredients in less than five minutes. Here’s how I did it. … read more