Pilgrims' Cranberry Corn Cookie

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I want to be a Pilgrim.  We celebrate today because the fearless Pilgrims adventured across the ocean in search of freedom.  Sometimes, I’d like to leave this land and cross the Atlantic and start anew.  Don’t we all?  I don’t want to be a whiner, but the past year and half has often been filled with straight up sadness.  Strapping on some buckle shoes and a bonnet and making a pilgrimage to a new territory sounds oh so appealing.  (Okay maybe not the colonial outfit but the trip would be nice.)  However, if I did up and leave my Dad and Mom here, I’d feel a deep, painful knot inside.  So I guess my desire to be a Pilgrim just leads me back to the purpose of this holiday – to give thanks for what we have. Thanksgiving has always been a tradition at our house where the whole family, plus a few dear friends, gathers throughout our dining and living room.  Nana flies in from Chicago each year and it just wouldn’t be the same without her standing over the sink all day elbow deep in a 20-pound turkey, pulling gizzards and livers and other turkey organ bits out and seriously making me consider my choice as an omnivore.  My mother and I will have a perpetual, feisty debate about who sits at what table, where, or if we can squeeze everyone around the dining room. And my father would spend the day making stuffing and a cranberry chutney sauce, then he’d turn the gross slimy turkey liver into this delicious chopped liver paté  – which as a toddler I devoured – and at noon he’d run to El Pollo Loco to pick up 12 containers of mashed potatoes and one of their mac ‘n cheese that he loved to snack on for lunch even before the big feast.  But this year, he’ll probably lie on his bed or on the couch if he makes it downstairs.  I’ll try and encourage him to help me make real mashed potatoes, and maybe he’ll last a few minutes.  But then he’ll retreat back to the couch and I’ll put the Macy’s parade on for him to watch, at which point he’ll probably wander into the kitchen a few times, happily teary-eyed due to an emotional reaction to whatever musical number just played.  The life of the severely brain-injured is one of lethargy, confusion, depression, and extreme emotion.  I’m sure the smells coming from the kitchen and my Mom, Nana, and I buzzing around will trigger the Thanksgiving-day feeling in my Dad – but I can’t expect him to hop off the couch and make chopped liver.  My wish is that he would.  Maybe not this year, but I have to keep hoping.  It’s hard to see the silver lining in the face of such sadness – but I have to be thankful for him here to love and cherish and cling to those happy, and real moments, no matter how sporadic.  And I’m deeply thankful, every minute of my life, for the most incredible father I had for 25 years – the best dad in the world.  I will never stop giving back to him. 

Whew, okay drying my eyes.  Back to the Pilgrims.  Just as we are only as good as the people who influenced us in our lives, our Pilgrim ancestors were only successful because of the help of the Native Americans of our land!  When the winter chilled their colonial bones, the Native Americans taught the settlers how to harvest corn and preserve it through those cold, East coast winter months.  They also introduced them to the ever-present cranberry which was constantly incorporated into Native American cuisine long before the pilgrims landed.   It is this reason that both the cranberry and corn are a part of our Thanksgiving table today.  So I tip my bonnet to the Native Americans and I’m whipping up a Pilgrim Cranberry Corn Cookie to honor this holiday.  And if it’s good – a new tradition will sit aside our pumpkin pies at the dessert table. Enjoy! 

(that photo is of Daddy and Nana, carving the bird, Thanksgiving 2004)

 

Preheat oven 375°

 

INGREDIENTS

1 package of Instant Corn Muffin Mix

¾ cups whole-wheat flour

1 stick unsalted room temperature butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup milk (I used 2%)

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 cup + 1 tbls dried cranberries

((you see the bag of Nestle lurking in the back there?  I thought adding white chocolate chips would be nice!  it still might be - but the cookies are sweet and perfectly crisp and the chips might just be overkill.  I give you full chip-freedom.))

1st)  Whisk together corn muffin mix + wheat flour.  (The mix equals 1 1/2 cups).  And set aside.  (I did not include the usuals in this step: baking soda, baking powder, and salt because the corn mix already has it in there!  love it.  I give thanks to time-saving tips.)

2nd)  Beat the butter and the sugar together...

3rd)  ...until it's nice and fluffy like Jenny after a bath.

4th)  aw.  And then add your egg and beat well.  

5th)  Measure out your milk and drop the vanilla in there.

5th)  Now add it sloooooowly to the egg/butter/sugar mix otherwise it'll splatter all over the place.

6th)  Beat it reeeal fast once the milk is blended just to blend it even more cause the butter gets a little lumpy when competing with it's dear dairy cousin. 

 7th)  Now slowly add in the flour/corn mix mixture.

8th)  Once blended drop in your cranberries

9th)  Mix it together well and then drop onto your lightly greased baking sheet.

10th)  Bake for about twelve minutes, or until golden brown and edges are crisp.

11th)  Yeah they spread out.  Maybe that's why they're originally destined to be muffins. But they came out deliciously thin and crisp!

12th)  So the next batch I did I baked on a cookie sheet that was about 1 inch deep.  That helped keep them in cookie form!!!

 Daddy said, "They're GREEAT!"  (Tony the Tiger said that once too but I swear my Dad was being thoroughly genuine... even though he looks a little... skeptic.) 

These will be a lovely addition to your Thanksgiving table.