You Can't Eat Raw Cranberries, Silly!!!

Every week I buy tons of fruit.  I drink it in my smoothies, and we also eat fresh fruit every day.  I'll get whatever fruit's on sale that looks yummy.  A couple weeks ago while shopping, my then-6-year-old asked me why I never buy cranberries.  I told her that you can't eat them raw, they're not very good.  She insisted that she likes them.  I looked at the price: $2.99, and decided to buy the cranberries.  We tried them the next morning, and of course, they're very sour and not yummy at all.

But now I had a whole bag of fresh cranberries, and noone willing to eat them.  Not ready to let them go to waste, and not exactly craving cranberry sauce, I looked at this bag of cranberries, turning it over in my hand.  VOILA!!!  There it was, right on the back: a recipe for Cranberry Nut Bread.

I already had all the ingredients!!!  (Luckily for me, I have two orange trees in my back yard, with ripe oranges on them!)  I cooked it right then and there!

CRANBERRY NUT BREAD

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 egg well-beaten
1 and 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped nuts - I used walnuts and pecans

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan - I like to cut parchment or wax paper to line the bottom (and maybe even the sides) of the pan, and grease the parchment too.  That makes the bread come out of the pan easier.  Sometimes I'll even sprinkle a little flour into the greased pan.

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl.  Stir in orange juice, oil, orange peel, and egg.  Mix until well-blended.  Stir in cranberries and nuts.  Spread evenly in loaf pan.  Bake for 55 minutes until a toothpick (or bamboo skewer) inserted into the center comes out clean.  I had to bake it a few extra minutes till the skewer came out clean.  Cool on a rack and then take it out of the pan.  Slice and eat!!!

For extra yumminess, serve with Cream Cheese Topping.

CREAM CHEESE TOPPING

1 8-oz. package of Cream Cheese
2 tablespoons of Sugar

Mix the cream cheese and sugar together until it's smooth and spreadable.  A fork works well for this.  Spread it on top of anything to make that food better!