Cranberry Apple Pie

I had a bit of pie dough in the freezer leftover from Thanksgiving, a bag of apples from the CSA, and another bag of fresh cranberries - I can't resist buying fresh cranberries when they are available - so I thought it'd be a good idea to combine all into a pie. I used this recipe from Joy the Baker which I followed exactly, except for the fact that I used salted pepitas instead of pistachios in the crumble, which I think came out great. This is probably one of the best pies I ever made, it is delicious and came out perfectly. I have eaten slices for breakfast these past two mornings (!). So, so yum.

Granola Bars

Still coming off a gluttonous Thanksgiving, I went the healthy route with Dorie Greenspan's Granola Energy Bars for my treat this week which, I think, will now be on regular rotation on my baking schedule. I used chopped pecans, slivered almonds, salted pepitas, cranberries, chopped dried apricots, chocolate chips and coconut as my flavorings. Very yum and very healthy since they are made with no sugar. The brown rice syrup that she recommends to use was found at Whole Foods and was mildly sweet; perfect for these bars. I cut mine kind of big and got 15 bars out of the batch. Will definitely be making these again.

Thanksgiving edition: Pecan Pie, French Lace Cookies, Carrot Cake with Ginger Marscapone Frosting, & Cranberry Cocktails

There is no photo evidence of my Thanksgiving creations but I have to say, all three things came out PERFECTLY. My favorite were the french lace cookies which were so simple and so delicious and kept pretty well for about a week. All my T-Day recipes - dinner and dessert - came from Ina Garten's "Foolproof" cookbook, and everything was delish. Check out the book to find these desserts. My versions came out just as picture-perfect as Ina's. No joke!

Edited to add: not a dessert, but also made this cranberry cocktail by David Leibovitz to enjoy during the day while our turkey was cooking. I am normally not a cocktail person but these were excellent, not sweet at all but with a perfectly smooth cranberry flavor. Yum!