With the holidays quickly approaching I've been in the mood to cook and to try baking again. I've been feeling pretty down lately - jobs, local layoffs, the economy, Richmond - but have decided that cooking might cheer me up. Sooo...tonight, I plan to start with some bread (how could bread not make one cheery on a cold day?). It's the hubby's birthday and I'm looking to make
Apple-Cheddar Beer Bread. The bread will accompany a spicy
Posole, recipe courtesy of Kristen.
This weekend I also want to make good use of some of the lovely gifts of red pepper and quince jelly recently given to me by Anne, Kristen and Leslie. While my all-time favorite way to eat red pepper jelly is with crackers and cream cheese, I was looking around online for other less fattening and innovative uses. Cooking Light recently posted a recipe for
Red Pepper Vinagrette to top a spinach salad with Gorgonzola and Pistachios. Yum. Their November holiday issue also contains a
Fire and Spice Ham recipe that looks fabulous.
Recipes using
quince jelly are more difficult to find. I could always just throw some Manchego on a plate, rub the top with quince jelly and chow down; however I wanted to come up with something a little more involved. After a pretty exhaustive search on recipe sites, I came across a recipe for
Braised Pork Shoulder that calls for fresh quince (which is almost impossible to find if you don't have a quince bush) and red currant jelly. I'm wondering if quince jelly would be a good substitute.
Either way, it's going to be a good cooking weekend :)
