Yes, I know, every day this week has had a Happy Hour recipe, but hey, it's Christmas!

This is the Mistletoe and Holly, a cocktail that not only has an appropriate holiday name but also has a great red and white color scheme going on. Sort of looks like Santa's suit. It's from the book Hot Drinks, from Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss.

Who here eats cranberries or drinks cranberry juice on a regular basis? It's really popular here in New England and one of the basic fruits/juices. Beyond cranberry sauce at holidays dinners I mean. According to Wikipedia, cranberries are a major crop in Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and parts of Canada.

Our friend Jade over at Cooking For 2 has a great recipe for Cranberry Cake. Like all of the recipes at her blog, it's very easy to follow. Full recipe after the jump (but visit her site too for a lot of great things to make).

It just occurred to me that I've never had a pie that has more than one fruit in it. I've had dozens (if not a hundred) apple pies over the years, blueberry pie, cherry pie (not a big fan), and pies filled with other foods such as custard and pecan. But I've never had a pie that combined two fruits before.

But I plan on making this one, courtesy of Martha Stewart, the Autumn Harvest Pie. It has three fruits in it: apples, pears, and cranberries. The cranberries worry me a little bit. I'm thinking they might overwhelm the flavors of the apples and the pears, but I'm going to give this a shot. Full recipe after the jump.

My brother was the cook in one of the restaurants I worked in several years ago, and he made a really great chicken salad that had grapes in it. I have to remember to get the recipe from him one of these days.

In the meantime, the Kitchen Monkey has a recipe I have to try, for Grilled Chicken Salad with Sage, Almonds, and Cranberries. There are many ways to make chicken salad (and I'm sure you'll tell us how you make yours in the comments below!), and this one looks like it's worth making today. There's still a couple of hours before lunch! Full recipe after the jump.

Did you know that states have "official" foods. Yup, and Massachusetts is no exception. The foods include Boston Cream Pie, cranberries, baked beans, chocolate chip cookies, and corn muffins (corn muffins?).

Gridskipper takes that list of foods and tells us what restaurants in Boston serve the best ones. For example, though Boston Cream Pie was invented at the Omni Parker House Hotel (also home of the Parker House Rolls), you can get the best one at The Oak Room at the Copley Plaza Hotel. For beans, head on over to the Blue Ribbon BBQ. They're not traditional baked beans, but they're great (and I can vouch for this place - best BBQ I've ever had. If they were closer to my house I'd probably eat there twice a week).

[thanks to Jade Walker]

Although it is still cold in many parts of the country, temperatures here in Southern California shot up to almost summer-like highs over the past few days. The sudden heat has cause me - and many others - to turn away from hot soup and "comfort food" cookbooks and turn back to salads and other cool, light fare. This salad is idea for moving from winter into spring, although you could make it all year round, because it incorporates fresh oranges, dried cranberries and salty-sweet candied nuts, all of which are frequently used in late fall and winter dishes and desserts. These sweet salad components are on a bed of mixed baby greens and diced avocado. I dressed the whole salad with a heavily vinegar-based dressing (a citrus flavored vinegar mixed with a bit of oil, salt and pepper) to enhance the brightness of all of the components.

Is it too late to make another batch of Christmas cookies this year? Dessert First's Cranberry-Cherry Icebox Ribbons are just gorgeous. The recipe originally came from The All-American Cookie Book, which is a great source for recipes for all occasions and at all levels of difficulty, from dropped cookies, like chocolate chip, to more elaborately shaped ones. These cookies fall in between the two extremes, although they are certain to impress with their looks, as well as with their flavor. The cookies have layers of shortbread-like butter cookie dough sandwiching layers of dried cranberry and cherry preserves. The thing that makes them much easier than they look is that the cookies are icebox cookies, meaning that the dough is assembled and frozen, then the individual cookies are sliced off of a larger log when you are ready to bake. No shaping is necessary and the resulting cookies are still picture-perfect. Different fillings can be substituted for the cranberry/cherry combination, so look for your favorite seasonal jams to complement the cookie.

The first time I caught a glimpse of a recipe like this one was in a magazine a couple of years ago. At least, it was the first time that this flavor combination made an impression on me. At that time, Plugra, the higher-fat European style butter, was really becoming a trend in baking and I was slightly more inclined to try recipes that specifically called for it to see if there was a significant difference between it and regular butter. A few batches of cookies later and I wasn't completely sold on the butter, but I was sold on the cookie recipe. That first recipe only had orange and cranberry set into a light and buttery cookie and, compared to the usual holiday array of nut and spice-laden cookies, it was a revelation: bright, buttery and sweet. Over time, I lost track of that original recipe, switched to ordinarily butter (although it is fine to use one like Plugra, if you like) and added some dark chocolate chips to the cookies so that there would be something in them to satisfy every cookie-lover.

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Although cranberries have long been a favorite part of the holiday meal, it seems like craisins have finally come into their own. The sweet, dried cranberries are popular year round, although 80% of sales are still around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Craisins, made by Ocean Spray, are probably the single biggest brand of dried cranberries and account for most of the sales. Their sales have doubled in just the past two years, prompting Ocean Spray to plan the opening of a new factory for processing them. The berries are first dried and, unlike some other brands of dried cranberries, they have the juice removed and it is later injected back into them, creating a slightly sweeter final product that helped the catch on with fans of sweeter raisins and other dried fruits. Craisins go well in salads, baked good and with main dishes, in sauces or on their own, and company executives say that the sales are split evenly between retail consumers and manufacturers of cereals, baked goods and other products. They also attribute their continued popularity to the fact that consumers are constantly seeking out snacks that are at least as portable, but healthier than some of their less good-for-you favorites.

Even experienced cooks can use and extra hand around the holidays, and unless you have a personal chef already standing by to coach you through your problems, you might need to call in some help. Literally. Several organizations set up hotlines for food advice, so whether you need help with your turkey of help with dessert, you'll have someone to turn to.

• Butterball- 1-800-BUTTERBALL; Nov. 1 to Dec. 31; 8am-8pm - This is the place for all turkey-related questions, staffed with specialists who have completed 'Butterball University.'
• Crisco - 1-877-367-7438; Through Dec. 31; 8am-8pm - They have advice for any and all pie-related questions, such as how to get a more tender crust or prevent the crust from shrinking away from the sides of the pan.
• Ocean Spray - 1-800-662-3263; Year-round; Mon.-Fri., 9am-4pm - Limited to cranberry questions, but great for last-minute tips or questions about specific products.
• USDA - 1-888-674-6854; Year-round; 10am-4pm - If food safety is a worry, whether you need advice on food sensitivities or just have a question about food-borne illnesses, call this line.