Cranberry Craze

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I absolutely adore cranberries. I love the tart flavor and crimson color that they bring to whatever dish they're added to. Lots of cranberry love happening here!

So, in the spirit of Fall and all things cranberries, I set out to develop a new cranberry sauce recipe. I usually always make the one on Everyday Dish (click on the link to get the recipe), but change is good too. This new sauce has crushed pineapple in it, which lends a great texture and lightens up the cranberry flavor just a bit. I also added ground cinnamon, which goes really well with the pineapple and cranberry flavors. So, without further adieu, I present you with my newest cranberry sauce...

Julie's Spiced Cranberry Pineapple Sauce
1 1/4 cups sugar (add another tablespoon of sugar if you like it a touch sweeter and a little less tart)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
2 8-oz cans crushed pineapple (in juice), undrained
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, orange juice and water, stirring well. Bring mixture to a simmer, stirring as needed to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, pineapple (and juice) and cinnamon, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat slightly, and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 5 to 7 minutes, or until cranberries have popped and sauce has thickened up.

This makes a lot of cranberry sauce, but will keep well in the refrigerator, and can probably even be frozen. Try it on a seitan sandwich or stirred into plain soy yogurt or heck, it's even delicious mixed with shredded carrots and eaten as a salad.

So, what's your favorite way to eat cranberries?

Cranberry Parfaits

Since we have gallons of cranberry sauce in our fridge, I've had to get creative. My favorite so far are cranberry parfaits, a delicious combination of creamy rice pudding and cranberry sauce. So, so good! Cook up a batch of rice pudding and layer the cooled pudding in glasses with cranberry sauce. Wow! I used the Red Wine Cranberry Sauce recipe on Everydaydish and the Creamy Vegan Rice Pudding from this blog. You've got to give this dessert a try.

I've also got a couple other ideas for "the sauce" if you're in need. It's delish with soy yogurt and granola for breakfast, stirred into oatmeal, blended into a smoothie, shaken with chilled vodka and a twist of lemon or lime, tossed with shredded carrots and served as a salad (this idea was courtesy of Trader Joe's), spread on ginger cookies (my daughter's contribution), stirred into a salad dressing or vinaigrette, on a Tofurkey sandwich, dolloped on top of pancakes or waffles or as an ice cream topping. Oh, I also forgot to add that it freezes well too, so there's always that option.

Although I had every intention of photographing our Thanksgiving meal, it didn't happen. Everyone started digging in as I was putting the food on the table. My family is certainly not shy about eating. Fortunately, I was able to snap a couple pics of some of the dishes while we were cooking. Everything was delicious and worth the three days that I spent in the kitchen. Now I want to eat nothing but soups and salads for the next month.

Mashed yams with sautéed apples, bourbon maple syrup and crushed ginger cookies (before baking), that my brother and I made. This is definitely one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes.


Vegan pumpkin pies (Bryanna's recipe). One was baked in a gingerbread cookie crust (the pie on the left), which completely stuck to the pan. I guess I didn't grease it well enough. The other pumpkin pie was baked in a traditional oil crust. They were both very good.


I needed a dessert for the night before Thanksgiving, since everyone was arriving at dinnertime. So thanks to Deirdre Jean for her suggestion, I made the Lower-Fat Chocolate Bundt Cake from Veganomicon. Deidre said it needed a topping, so I glazed it with chocolate ganache. The cake was fabulous, moist and devoured in no time. Since we had a mixed bag of eaters (mostly omnis at our vegan Thanksgiving), I was hoping that chocolate would seal the deal. It definitely did. We also had Bryanna's amazing award winning chili, but that was eaten before I could get a picture.


Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'll start posting some yummy soups and stews. It's definitely in the air now, at least around our house.

I hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday!

Julie