Week 46 of the 52s...Pass The Cranberries, Please

Last Thanksgiving, my mother came for the weekend.  We had a great time--except for Black Friday which she loves and I...don't.  But that's not the story here.

Just as we were sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner, Mom puts a small cloth-covered bowl on the table, the mouthwatering smell of her yeast rolls mixing with the other delicious scents. She looks around, then says, "Where's the cranberry sauce?"  Oh crap.  I forgot to get cranberry sauce.  Between pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce, nothing except the turkey relates more to Thanksgiving.  Buggers!

I dig around in my cupboards, thinking surely I must have a can stashed somewhere, but the only thing I can find is a jar of cranberry chutney.  It will be more savory than sweet.  I don't know what it tastes like, in fact, I don't even know where the jar came from, but at least the sell by date is still good.

Okay then, time to wing it.

That mysterious chutney was the best cranberry sauce ever.  Mom and I were practically eating it out of the jar with a spoon.  It was just as wonderful spread over bread for turkey sandwiches the next day.  Needless to say, we finished it off before she left.

And then I spent the next few months trying to find more.  It's nowhere in any store in my little town, so I figure I must have bought it the last time I visited my sister.  She lives in a real city, with lots of great stores and I always stock up on things when I'm there.  I call her, send her on numerous trips.  No chutney.

So, not to be stymied in my quest, I decide to make the chutney myself.  I find a great recipe then head to the store for the cranberries.  After searching fruitlessly (sorry, couldn't resist), I finally corner the produce manager.  He looks at me like I'm nuts.  The hols are over, Valentine's Day is looming.  Cranberries?  Seasonal, unavailable, cranberries?  I don't believe it.  I call my sister, she'll send me some.  Wrong.  Her only advice is to buy several bags next November and keep them handy in the freezer.

Time marches on.  Spring.  Summer.  Fall.

Monday, wandering through produce for veggies, I see an enormous display of CRANBERRIES!  I grab four bags.  Now, if I can just remember what I did with that recipe...





This afternoon, the chutney experiment starts with a gorgeous bowl of color...











I love the multitude of reds, sparkling and deep, vibrant and soft.  Rubies, waiting to be transformed...











I get out my medium cook pot and mix the ingredients.  The heavenly aroma of cinnamon and apples, ginger, cloves and allspice fill the house, though the coolest thing was the snap-crackle-pop of the berries.  For about ten minutes--once the mixture began to boil--it sounded like popcorn in a skillet...










The sauce is thick and dark with small bits of berry and apple; the flavor is tart with just a hint of sweetness and spice.  Really good, in other words...












I started with four cups of cranberries.  When everything was said and done, I got exactly three cups in these perfect little jars...

This was a great thing to do for the 52s this week, especially because it worked--my track record for successful recipes is running about 50/50 for the year at this point.  Now I have a really good cranberry chutney recipe, and though I won't have Mom's rolls this year, I'll still have plenty of deliciousness for turkey sandwiches...