thanksgiving cranberry sauce!
aah so perhaps i am procrastinating writing a paper, but what better a way to do it than to write a bit. it's been a looong time, and i have lots of photos and food to write about, but tonight it's all about cranberries.

my sister julianna and i had a plan when we were younger. we were going to use a tiny bit of lake baikal (what an amazing lake!) in siberia to start a cranberry bog that could compete with ocean spray's cranonopoly. times have changed a bit since then (i don't think either of us is going into the cranberry industry) but we have retained our love for these odd little orbs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranberry). this thanksgiving, my housemate ivy and i made cranberry sauce the way my mum does, and ivy so enthusiastically approved, that i thought i would post the recipe here (along with our picture of a miniature lake baikal aka the kitchen sink.)

ingredients: 2pkg. fresh cranberries, washed and sorted (we were very lucky and had local maine berries!), juice of 4 (+/-) oranges, zest of two of the oranges, 4 and a bit cups of apple cider (again we were spoiled - tasty organic maine cider!), and optional 1 tablespoon honey.

bring liquids to a boil, add cranberries, and stir constantly until they pop. (it's an amazing sound, bursting cranberries...). keep stirring until much more mushed. add orange zest and let it cool. i think it is plenty sweet with just the sugar from the apples and orange juice, but if you want it to be sweeter, add the tiny bit of honey. i imagine if you wanted you could strain out the cranberry skins and other little bits, but i like it as it is. the brilliant thing about making cranberry sauce this way is that you don't need to add sugar, and yet it is absolutely delicious and beautiful! thanks mum. :-)