Anne McAlpine: December 5, 2019

This past week I received a lovely note from Kay Pepper of Matheson, Ontario which, as she noted, is in beautiful northern Ontario. Kay is a regular subscriber to The Haldimand Press and she let me know about an act of kindness that was returned to her. She baked a loaf of bread for a secretary at the station where she gets her gas. This week when she returned to get gas the boss came out and pumped it for her, thanking her for sharing her bread. Kay also sent us a great cranberry recipe to serve with that Christmas turkey. She says that you should make it one or two days before you need it. Use the whole orange or half an orange if the skin is thick. Thanks Kay, for sharing this excellent recipe and the act of kindness with us.

I have previously given our readers both the spiced nuts and Nuts and Bolts recipes, but I had a couple of requests to share them here again. I make both every year for my family and for a couple of friends. Just simply make up a bag of each and put into a Christmas container for a great gift. When I make the spiced nuts, I line the baking sheet with parchment paper and give it a light spray as it makes clean up very easy. The Nuts and Bolts recipe makes 31 cups and it is best when made at least a couple of weeks ahead of when you want it. These cheesecake bites are really easy to make and are a great thing to serve over the holidays. I recently made some for Mattice Construction who supported our Cypres fundraiser by purchasing my baking once a month for a year. I used the mini wonton wrappers as the base because, although the recipe suggests using crescent roll pastry, I prefer the wonton wraps. If you use the wonton wraps, lay a piece of foil over the top before baking, as the edges brown up quickly and you want to be sure the filling is baked well. I topped mine with cherry pie filling as that is what they requested.