thanksgiving redux

So.
So, so, so....so-so.  The aforementioned cranapana bread has come and gone.  I actually made it about a week ago.  Not Monday night like the post suggested.  But now I have MORE over ripe bananas.  So something else will have to come of that.  But that is TBD at the mo'.  But the night that I posted about the cranapana bread I actually did make something else.  It was partially awesome and partially ho-hum.  Slow cooked turkey breast roast, home made cranberry sauce, and roasted asparagus.  The asparagus was the simplest thing of all and the most awesome.  The cranberry sauce was fairly pleasing, but maybe a little too sweet.  The turkey was....turkey.  Soon to be turned into buffalo chicken (turkey) soup.  It was bad turkey, but I've certainly had better.

Roasted Asparagus
-1 bunch asparagus
-EVOO
-salt
-pepper

Oven at 450 (yes, really that high).  Remove woody ends from asparagus.  Lay out on baking sheet, drizzle with EVOO sprinkle with salt and pepper.  In this case I used some of the roommate's fancy myer lemon EVOO and worcestershire pepper.  Stick in the oven for no more than 10 minutes.  This will be awesome.

Cranberry Sauce
-1 pound fresh cranberries
-1 3/4 cup sugar
-2/3 cup water
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp nutmeg
-1/4 tsp allspice
-zest and juice of 1 orange

Bring water, sugar, and cranberries to a boil.  After reaching boil reduce heat and add cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and zest/juice of the orange.  Reduce for about 15 minutes.  Actually is better after allowing to cool.

Turkey
-Turkey breast roast
-1 cup dry white wine
-1 stick butter
-1/2 yellow onion
-salt, pepper, garlic powder

-Place turkey in slow cooker with wine, butter, onion, and seasonings.  Place on low for six hours.


-More cooking adventures to take place tonight and updates on other things in my life to follow.

Cranapana Bread

So, a multitude of things are happening simultaneously in my life.  One of my roommates was hospitalized for gallstones and had surgery.  So there's been that to take care of, or at least check in on and do what can be done for.  Also, my car.  My father has very recently promised to help me obtain a car.  Of course roughly three days after this my muffler falls off.  AWESOME!  And the car he is procuring is, of course, a station wagon.  The car of all of my nightmares.  Sigh.  Not only that, but this car needs something to be replaced before I can have it.  And that something is expensive according to my mechanic.  So the guy selling the car happens to work at a vocational school and brought the car there to be fixed for the cost of parts.  Cheaper = yay!  However, it will take up to two weeks to obtain this thing.  Oy.
Anyway, to the food!
The cranapana bread did indeed get made and my feelings on it are mixed.  I feel like it doesn't have enough of anything.  It's apple-y but not apple-y enough.  It only has one banana so it's not banana-y enough.  The cranberries are a nice addition, but I would want more.  And I felt like it wasn't quite sweet enough.  Maybe more sugar?  I'm not sure.  It was kind of hilarious because I started mixing it all together and felt like it still looked really dry.  Oh that's right, I forgot the milk.

Cranapana Bread
2 1/2 cups self rising flour*
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons veg oil
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup chopped cranberries
1 apple peeled, cored, chopped
1 banana, mashed

Start with your dry (flour and sugar) and slowly add in the the wet.  I mixed this by hand because I know quick breads can get tough if over mixed.  Bake in a 9x5 loaf pan at 350 for 70 minutes.  Voila.  You too can have mixed feelings about this bread.  Maybe you'll like it, but for me, it just needed more of something else.

*Note: using self rising flour is important for quick breads, otherwise they won't get fluffy and consequently won't cook all the way through and will get over cooked on the outside.  Basically, a big mess.  If you don't have or keep self rising flour around (I don't), you can substitute all purpose flour with the addition of 1 1/4 tablespoon of baking powder for every cup of flour (this will make it fluffy and cook - yay!).

I happen to use metal baking pans for breads simply because I've had VERY poor results with glass ones.  But, it works for some people (case in point, right after I made this bread, my roommate made regular banana bread in a glass pan and it came out fine).