[Sca-cooks] OT&OOP-Cranberries

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Nov 25, 2008, at 5:28 PM, chawkswrth at aol.com wrote:

> OK-my memory was just jogged....
>
> I have somehow landed about a pound of fresh Cranberries. It was one  
> of those "That looks interesting" SNATCH buys.
> I have no idea what I was thinking.
> I have no earthly idea what to do with them!
> I have searched all of the cookbooks I have, only to find variations  
> of cranberry sauce. Surely there is more to?this good-for-you fruit? 
> then that....
>
> I would welcome an idea or three....

Yes, there's lots more, but at the risk of displaying my minimalist  
tendencies, don't discount the cranberry sauce concept simply because  
it seems mundane; the real, homemade McCoy can be a gem in an  
unexpected setting. I've essentially been compelled for years to make  
real cranberry sauce, and even now, when someone else makes it (as  
someone on my side of the family probably will, since we're spending  
the holiday with a chosen, adoptive family this year), the unfortunate  
cook is interrogated in accusing tones, to make sure they did X the  
way Phil does it.

Whether this is a compliment or simply offensive, I can't quite say,  
but it's odd to see one's off-the-cuff, thrown-together dish (my lady  
wife needed home-made cranberry sauce for a photo shoot, and a recipe  
for it, sometime around 1989) become a potential, the-without-whom- 
none, holiday dealbreaker.

Cranberries. Roughly-equal-mass-sugar. Tiny pinch of salt. Simmer  
until berries burst. Fresh orange zest. Booze, preferably Grand  
Marnier, Curacao, or Triple Sec.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter