Hello, friends.  I’m glad today is already Wednesday.  Just gotta get through today and tomorrow, and then I have Friday off.  Tim and I are heading up to Sunday River with a bunch of friends for New Year’s weekend!

Last week I wrote a Holiday Shopping Guide for Food Fanatics.  In that post I included suggestions for homemade holiday food gifts.  I took my advice and baked cranberry nut breads for Tim’s parents as well as Tim’s sister and her boyfriend.  In lieu of Christmas presents to each other this year, the six of us are going away to Vermont for a culinary weekend in February.  But I didn’t want to show up on Christmas Eve empty-handed, so I thought a homemade food gift would be ideal.  I didn’t get a chance to taste them, so I’m hoping they came out good!

I think opting for recipes that call for cranberries is perfect for Christmastime.  They always come out so colorful and are a great festive choice!

Cranberry Nut Bread

Inspired by All Recipes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour —> You could probably make this healthier by substituting wheat flour, but I’m not sure if the amount would equate. 
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup chopped cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon orange zest —> Left this out!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
3. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
4. Add the cranberries and walnuts, and stir to coat with flour.
5. Mix together the egg, oil, orange juice, and orange zest.
6. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture, and stir until just blended.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
9. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack, and cool completely.

Lesson Learned #1:  Chopping walnuts is tedious and difficult!  Stupid little buggers were flying all over the place!

Lesson Learned #2:  I am TERRIBLE at tying bows?!

I wanted to write out the recipe and include on a little tag as part of the gifts, but I ran out of time!

Did you give any homemade food gifts for the holidays this year?