This recipe isn’t Whole 30. This recipe isn’t Paleo. This recipe is good, old-fashioned baking and it has cranberries. Win and win again. This week’s recipes are all courtesy of Christina Lane at Dessert For Two. You already know how much I love Dessert For Two. I have posted many of her recipes over the years. Christina Lane is my favorite blogger ever.
What you don’t know is if I had never come across Dessert For Two there would be no A Solitary Feast. It was never my intent to start a food/recipe blog when I started adapting recipes for one or two. My intent was to adapt some recipes for my friend, Steph, who was moving out on her own for the first time and I wanted to encourage Steph to cook.
When I gave her the recipes, Steph started telling me I should start a recipe blog. I kind of blew her off because 1. I didn’t really know what a blog was. 2, I didn’t really think anyone outside my circle of friends and, maybe, my mother would be interested in the recipes. The idea of recipe blogs intrigued me enough I wanted to check it out, though.
The very first blog I found was Christina Lane’s Dessert For Two. I love to bake as much as I love to cook so I tried her recipes right away. I fell in love. I have made dozens of her recipes over the years. As I watched Dessert For Two bloom and grow, I started thinking there might be some place on the internet for my dinner recipes. Three months later I posted my first recipe on A Solitary Feast.
Christina is not only my cooking and baking inspiration she also inspires me as a person. In a world that seems to take pleasure in tearing you down, Christina has taken time to build me up and encourage me to step outside of my comfort zone. In a world full of negative, she is a bright and shining positive.
Cranberry Bars
From Dessert For Two
6 TBS butter, cold and diced
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1//2 cups leftover cranberry sauce
1/2 tsp vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Leave enough parchment paper hanging over the sides to help remove the bars after baking. In a medium bowl, add the flour, sugar and salt. Add the diced butter to the flour. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour. You will know when the butter and flour are mixed well when it sticks together when you lightly squeeze it in your fist. Spread the flour/butter into the bottom of the prepared pan. Using your hands, press the crust mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan. You want to press relatively hard so the flour/ butter mixture sticks together to form the crust. Bake for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, stir the vanilla into the leftover cranberry sauce. When the crust is done baking, spread the cranberry sauce over the crust. Bake another 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Let cool in the pan before slicing.
A Cuppa And Conversation 