Cozy Comfort

From top to bottom:

• Vegetable pot pie based on Didi Emmons' recipe in Vegetarian Planet

• Roasted acorn squash stuffed with buckwheat lentil pilaf, made up on the spot

• A lingering bit of summer in couscous salad with chickpeas, roasted bell peppers, parsley, lemon zest, and lemon garlic mustard dressing - a full meal disguised as a side dish contribution for a pig roast party

• Cranberry orange quick bread adapted from the festive cranberry loaf recipe in Farm Journal's Complete Home Baking Book

Cranberry Orange Quick Bread

2 C + 1 Tbs flour

1 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 C butter, cut into 4 pieces

1 egg, beaten

3/4 C orange juice

1 Tbs orange zest, grated or minced fine

1 C chopped fresh cranberries

1/4 C chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 loaf pan. (The recipe calls for also lining the pan with waxed paper. I used a long, skinny piece of parchment paper to line the bottom and the 2 short sides, leaving a couple inches of excess paper above the lip of the pan. The excess served as handles to lift the baked loaf out of the pan.)

Sift or mix 2 C flour, sugar, powder, salt, and soda in a large bowl. Cut in butter until crumbs form. In a separate bowl, combine egg, orange juice, and zest. Pour into flour mixture and stir until just incorporated. Combine cranberries, pecans, and 1 Tbs flour. Stir into batter.

Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan. Bake for approximately 1 hour. Remove from oven when a cake tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.