The two other recipes

TulipGirl posted in the comments:

Ooooh! Could you post the other two recipes, too?

I was vegetarian for several years. The thing that got me to eat meat again was craving a leftover turkey sandwich with mayo, lettuce and cranberry sauce.

Sigh. I was afraid someone would ask. The sad truth of the matter is that there really aren't any recipes for these two cranberry sauces. Even as I write this, I feel guilty, since I am always frustrated when my mother says the same thing to me. Perhaps someday I will post about my frustrated attempts to get recipes out of her. In the meantime, I will try to do my best to explain, sort of, how I make the two cranberry sauces in question.

Sauce #1: Cranberries with apples.

1. Go to See Canyon, a local micro-climate area that produces some of the most delicious apples that I've ever tasted. Buy Granny Smith apples, or something else that is crisp, tart, and cooks well. Also buy some of their delicious fresh cider.
2. Peel two or three apples, core, and cut into 8ths. Or you can use the fancy coring, peeling, slicing gizmo, which will produce smaller slices. It all depends on how big you want the apple slices/wedges to be.
3. In a saucepan, dissolve less than a cup of sugar (depending on how sweet you want the sauce to be) in a mixture of water and apple cider, with some cinnamon in it for good measure. (Sometimes I also add a little bit of clove and other spices.) Let the sugar dissolve, and then add the bag of cranberries and the apples. Adjust the amount of liquid if necessary. (This has never been necessary, but I thought I'd mention the possibility.)
4. After the cranberries have popped merrily and the sauce has thickened suitably, it's done!

Sauce #2: Cranberries with mandarin oranges, clementines, tangerines, or whatever similar fruit strikes your fancy

1. Peel and separate into wedges the citrus in question. Actually it is best to get a child to do this step while you rummage through the fridge and wine cupboard for ideas/inspiration. This sauce can be made with orange muscat (be sure to reduce the amount of sugar; one cup would result in a sauce that is way too sweet) or red wine or white wine or...
2. Open a can of mandarin oranges. Combine one cup of a mixture of wine, syrup from canned mandarins and---if you feel like it---water, with a reduced amount of sugar in a saucepan. (Note the very precise measurements here. Sorry. I'll confess that this dish varies each year. Sometimes I skip the canned mandarins, especially if I'm using more orange muscat.)
3. Open the fridge. Rummage around until you find the shredded ginger root you had the foresight to soak in a small jar of brandy, just for times like this. Get some out with a fork and toss it into the saucepan, along with the bag of cranberries and the canned mandarines.
4. When the cranberries begin merrily popping, add the fresh mandarins/clementines so that they will cook slightly. When the sauce is ready, it's...well, ready!