Dangerously easy baked apple dumplings

2 small apples (Macintosh works well)
1 package crescent rolls
4 tbsp butter
6 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 pinches nutmeg
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and butter an 8x8 baking dish.
2. Peel and core the apples.
3. Open up the crescent rolls into four rectangles. Pinch the seams together with wet fingers to seal. Pinch two sets of rectangles together. You should end up with two pastry squares, each made from four triangles, as in the diagram.
4. Place a cored apple in the center of each pastry square.
5. Fill each hollow core with 1 tbsp butter, 2 tsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg. Don't worry if anything spills onto the pastry.
6. Sprinkle 1 tsp brown sugar on the pastry at the base of each apple.
7. Pull the pastry corners up and seal the apple in.
8. Place the dumplings in the prepared dish. Add the butter, apple juice, vanilla, and remaining 2 tsp sugar to the dish.
9. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

This recipe is portioned for two, simply because my little ones don't care for cooked fruit. It scales easily though, and makes for a huge portion! You should probably halve the servings. I invented this on Thanksgiving, when I was craving pie, but couldn't rationalize baking a full-size for just me while my husband was overseas.

Cranberry sauce

12 oz cranberries
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
1 cardamom pod
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1. Wash the cranberries and discard any spoiled ones.
2. Tie the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in a cheesecloth pouch. This makes it much easier to fish them out of the sauce!
3. Bring spices, orange juice and sugar to a boil. The longer you simmer, the stronger the spice flavour will be, so use your own judgment.
4. Add cranberries and boil until they pop, which takes about 10 minutes.
5. Discard the spices.
6. Allow to cool one hour, and serve. The sauce will thicken.

This is a fantastic recipe for holiday canning, and makes a unique, affordable Christmas gift. Process for 15 minutes if you're using the hot water method. Note that this recipe leaves you with a pretty strong cinnamon flavour, so you could use half a stick if you'd like a more balanced spice flavour.