Easy orange marmalade

4 lbs oranges*
5.5 cups granulated sugar
5.5 cups brown sugar
juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Boil oranges, in enough water to allow them to float away from the bottom in pan, for two hours.
2. Remove from the water, wipe off, and allow to cool until they can be safely handled.
3. Cut each orange in half, remove seeds, and squeeze the juice into a saucepan. (This is simply to keep the juice from squirting all over your cutting board! If the flesh is still firm, you can just chop it.)
4. Finely slice the rind and roughly chop the pulp.
5. Add orange solids, sugars, lemon juice and vanilla to the orange juice.
6. Bring to a boil.
7. Run about half the mixture through a blender at this point if you want fewer peel shreds, and return to the saucepan.
8. Bring back to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
9. The jam is ready to can. Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

* I've tried this recipe with grapefruit and orange, and I suspect that lime would work equally well. To cut the bitterness of the grapefruit, I added a teaspoon of baking soda with the sugar. Another way to decrease the bitterness is to separate the membranes from the citrus fruit before chopping, tie them in cheesecloth (for the pectin) and remove the pouch from the marmalade before canning. I'm looking forward to combining orange and lime for a combo marmalade.

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.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup oil
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 cup sugar
7 tbsp cocoa powder
3 eggs
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
5 ripe bananas (well mashed)
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, beat together the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until well blended.
4. Add the coffee powder and the well mashed bananas.
5. Add the flour mixture in thirds, beating only until well blended after each addition. Don't over-beat!
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Pour the batter into a VERY WELL GREASED 9" x 5" loaf tin.*
8. Bake on the middle rack of the oven. The 9" x 5" tin will take 70-80 minutes, a small tin 45-50 minutes. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven, cool bread in the pan(s) 5 minutes. Remove from the pan(s) and complete cooling on a wire rack.

* If the bananas are large, there may be some leftover batter, which can be baked in a small loaf tin.

If you have the patience, let the bread sit overnight for the flavor to develop! I got this recipe from my friend Dustin. He's a wonderful baker, and this is one of his best dishes.

Raspberry Whole Wheat Pancakes

2 cups whole wheat baking mix
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
Butter

1. Beat together the baking mix, milk and eggs.
2. Heat a skillet over medium heat.
3. Add a dab of butter to the center of the skillet. Pour1/4 cup of batter onto the skillet and immediately dot the pancake with 3-7 raspberries.
4. As soon as the pancake is firm, flip over and cook until light brown.
5. Repeat steps 4 and 5.

Makes 15 pancakes.

Serve these pancakes with maple syrup or raspberry syrup and butter. They're an excellent way to sneak fruit into a pancake-lover's diet.

Pear-and-applesauce

4 ripe pears*
2 medium apples**
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground nutmeg

1. Peel, core and cut the fruit into chunks.
2. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until mushy. This takes about 30 mins.
3. Process sauce to desired texture.***

* I use Bartlett pears.
** I prefer Granny Smith for their tartness. Gala apples are a good choice if you like a sweeter sauce.
*** Today, I just used the back of a spoon to break down any large pieces, making a very chunky sauce. Usually, I run into through my manual food processor, which leaves some small chunks. When the twins were new to solid foods, I used my blender to make a very smooth sauce.

The spices are my family's preference, but this pear-and-applesauce is equally delicious with no spices all, smaller quantities, or different flavours. We eat it straight, but it would be great on oatmeal, granola or pancakes.