Brielle's Avalon

A standard with turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s easy to open a can and slice what comes out, and some people even prefer that. Made from scratch, though, is it’s own yumminess, so give it a try. The nice thing is that you can adjust the flavour to your own taste. Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I forgot to make the cranberry sauce! So I’m making a 1/2 batch tonight. I’ll use the rest to string a holiday garland with popcorn, so I guess that’s a bonus for the end of the post.

Pour 1/2 bag of cranberries in a saucepan and rinse well.

Pull out any with soft or shriveled spots and set them aside with the used teabag for the compost.

Add enough juice to almost make the berries float. Orange is fairly standard but apples juice is good too and you can experiment depending on what juices you happen to like.

Add 1/4 c sugar. More if you like it sweeter, less if you like it more tart.

Turn the heat on to medium high. You’ll soon hear the berries popping.

In no time it’ll come to a rolling boil.

That’s when you want to turn it to medium heat and let it simmer down until it’s thick and red.

You can serve it hot, room temperature or cold. If you want to serve it cold you might want to make it the day before the feast and that’s just one less thing to worry about on the day of much cooking. If you forget til the last minute, don’t worry, it takes only a few minutes to whip this together and it tasted great hot. Serve with the usual holiday sides and the beverage of your choice.

Yes, that was a 1/2 Cornish Game Hen on the plate. This year I was tired and just wanted to spend the day with the critters in the garden so I made the proper proportion of bird to stuffing.

Now for the bonus: Garland time!

Get a needle and thread, put a knot in one end of the thread and thread the needle on the other. Pop some popcorn, Microwave or stove-top, whatever you have handy. Pour a glass of your favourite beverage (cocoa or eggnog are lovely this time of year) and start threading. I started with a cranberry.

Pull it to the end of the thread.

Skewer a piece of popcorn.

Pull it to the end next to the cranberry. Repeat in any pattern you like or just randomly. Yes, you can snack as you go. Stories happen naturally when doing this with friends and family. You might have to pop more popcorn.

As you go along don’t use any that are mushy or have soft spots. Put them in the pan for the compost.

When you want to end your garland the cranberries are sturdier. Take another stitch through the end.

Pull that stitch tight and take a stitch through that.

Pull that tight into a knot. Do it again if you like and snip off the extra thread.

Try not to spill too much blood making the garland. This can be a hazard if you’re not used to working with needles or if you use too much rum in the eggnog or schnapps in the cocoa.

Make it as long as you like, but an arm’s length, 2 to 3 feet long, is probably the maximum you want to tackle. Longer threads can get unwieldy. All ready for the tree or whatever you want to decorate. I have enough left to make a few more of these, but that’ll wait for another day. If there’s popcorn leftover the chickens will be glad to take care of that for you. When you’re done with the garlands after the holidays, set it out on a tree or bush for the wild birds to enjoy. Yet another bonus.

If you don’t have cranberries you can just use popcorn and if you don’t have popcorn you can just use cranberries. Or get creative and dry some fruit (apples are fun and dried slices of citrus have an interesting window-pane effect.