Turkey

Today for Thanksgiving I'm going to post the only thing I feel comfortable making for the holidays - home-made cranberry sauce.

Since I make it, it must be simple. The hardest part in my opinion is peeling the fruit (no smart ass, you don’t have to peel the cranberries).

Fruit? Why the hell is there fruit in cranberry sauce? I don’t know, but it really fills out the flavor.

When you pour in all the ingredients it really doesn’t look like cranberry sauce. Fresh cranberries are hard, and not all that attractive. But be patient. As you come back to it to occasionally stir, you start to see the berries breakdown and if you’re lucky you should be able to hear them burst. They look and sound like lazy, red popcorn kernels.

This is about when the great smell will begin to fill the house.

One note, if you make this recipe, you get tons of cranberry sauce, and I don’t know about your family and friends but none of mine love cranberry sauce enough to eat the 12 servings this recipe is supposed to make. So you can half the recipe, but that leaves you with half an orange, apple and pear. In previous years I would pour it over a block of cream cheese and serve it at a holiday party as a spread. Mmmmmm. But this year I’m going to try to make brownies with cranberry swirls.

If that goes well, check back for that recipe.


John’s Cranberry Sauce

1 cup water
1 cup white sugar

1 (12 ounce) package of fresh cranberries
1 orange, peeled and pureed
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 pear, peeled, cored and diced

½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions
1. In a medium sauce pan, BOIL water and sugar until the sugar DISOLVES
2. Reduce the heat to SIMMER.
3. STIR in all ingredients
4. COVER and simmer for 30 minutes, STIRRING occasionally, until the cranberries BURST.
5. Remove from heat and let COOL to room temperature.