( chris’ cranberry creation-- an autumn recipe )

kindly a courtesy of gillian slater

ingredients—

1 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries, cleaned

1 cup of water

1 cup of sugar

1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

grated zest and juice of 1 orange

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup chopped pecans

 

cook the cranberries, sugar, and water in a saucepan over low to medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the skins pop open. add the apple parts, zests, and juices, and cook for 15 to 20 more minutes. remove from the heat, and add the nuts. adding the nuts last will prevent them from becoming too soft. let cool, and serve chilled.

this is most suitably served with vanilla ice cream. i personally use it on my turkey as a replacement for gravy. i’ve always been weird that way (the good kind of weird, according to editing fingertips !)

i first made this with my mother (chris of this recipe’s making) during my sophomore year in college. a novice in the kitchen, i wanted to undertake this recipe at the hands of her careful guidance. the first thing we did was chase dad out of his domain, the kitchen. this was girl-time. she had made this a year before when i immediately fell in love with the recipe. though back then, i could hardly be bothered to concentrate because i decided that i wanted to make this for my then-boyfriend who i was over the moon with at the time. mom kept telling me to focus so my cranberry creation wouldn’t burn and turn into super sour baby mush. in the end, the cranberry medley of palate affection became so very worth the nagging.