Sunday, November 20, 2005

Thanksgiving heresy

Although I've written on some controversial topics in the past, readers should be forewarned that this will probably be my most troubling post ever.

One can find the most shocking things on blogs. Just this morning, I discovered --- and this is almost too disturbing to write on a forum that may include underage readers --- that some people don't like cranberry sauce. (There. I had to whisper it.)

It's a good thing these cranberry sauce despising people are not related to us. Well, they couldn't be, since we are all decent, upstanding people who appreciate the sanctity of the Thanksgiving feast. No doubt if they were in our family, we would have set them straight by now. Either that, or prayed fervently for their conversion from the evils of not eating cranberry sauce.

This year, I'm cooking the family feast again. My sister-in-law will come with The Cousins (as my children refer to them) and we may have a few other guests as well. There will be turkey, of course, and all sorts of side dishes and goodies...and three different cranberry sauces:
  1. The Apple-Cranberry Sauce
  2. The Mandarin Orange-Cranberry Sauce
  3. The odd but interesting Cranberry Salsa
Since I've been requested to post the recipe for the cranberry salsa, I will. First, a disclaimer: I've only made this once before and I doubt that I made it exactly like the recipe. I have this odd quirk that makes me modify recipes. Unfortunately, I don't always record or remember the modifications. But here are my notes, copied from a newspaper recipe about two years ago:
Boil ½ cup of water with ½ cup of sugar; add ½ package of fresh cranberries; simmer for 10 minutes without stirring. Put in bowl. Add approximately 1 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro, 1 chopped green onion, and finely chopped jalapena to taste. Sprinkle with cumin and fresh lime juice. Chill. Serve at room temperature.
I liked it, but not everyone shared my enthusiasm. Some people who ate it declared it "interesting". Most preferred the other cranberry sauces, but no one said that I shouldn't bother making it again.

6 comments:

  1. Have you ever tried Susan Stamberg's horseradish, onion, and cranberry sauce recipe? It sounds odd, but it is delicious.

    Happy Eating!

    Lois

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  2. Bwahahahaha...I posted at Amy's. I am one of those people-who-shant-be-named.

    There is a place for meat. A place for fruits and berries. A season, a time, a vast gulf separating them on the plate. Where they meet, I don't want to be.

    I like Cranberry juice.

    Now I am going to flounce away and dream of turkey sans goo.

    ;)

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  3. I like cranberry juice but not sauce.

    My dh likes cranberry sauce but only the jellied kind in the can that retains the cylinder shape once it's on the plate. "It's just not Thanksgiving without that can-shaped blob."

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  4. LOL Kirstin. I'm not a big cranberry person either, though I will try your salsa (for Christmas--Thanksgiving is in October ;)

    Still, cranberries still have a place in traditions here, mainly due to the odd turkey dish my mil has that you remove the head on to scoop out the cranberries. The somewhat surreal experience of scooping your food out of a decapitated turkey is one that our family would miss.

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  5. Well, now you've done it. Forget the argumants we used to have over Ezzo...I guess we now have a new disagreement. I do NOT like cranberries in any form...juice, sauce, NOTHING!

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  6. Way too late for this year, but you should try Madhur Jaffrey's Cranberry Chutney. It's a fabulous complex mix of tastes (and would give that cranberry salsa a run for it's money...) I originally heard it on an NPR show ("Seasonings") and have made it every year since. Recipe here.

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