Cranberrry sauce – not just for turkey

On my way to Spain to finish up my Master’s degree, I fell prey to one of my great weaknesses: buying everything in sight at the airport.  When you travel alone internationally, you really don’t have many other choices.  You are required to show up hours early then wander around the terminals amidst happy displays of tourist gear and snacks, bars and miniature shopping centers.  So I’ve now started budgeting my time in the airport into my travel spending plans.  Know thyself.

This time around, I impulse bought the Gourmet Magazine Holiday Special.  I was in love with Gourmet Magazine, then they shut down.  So when I saw that familiar calligraphy on the stand while I bought my anti-ear-squeeze gum for the plane, I snatched it up without an ounce of remorse.  Totally worth it.  It’s a compendium of holiday favorites from years past, and since I came to the game late, a lot of the recipes are new to me, though not all.

One of the recipes was for a delicious eggnog and cranberry cheesecake, which I attempted as my first every cheesecake.  Visually, it was a disaster.  But the flavor came out so beautifully, it’s already queued up as my next attempt – I’ll post it then.  But what did come out beautifully was the cranberry jam component, which ended up doing double duty as our cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.  It was so good, I snatched up the cranberries when they went on sale to stick in the freezer for future batches.  I did jazz it up ever so slightly, but this is a soul-warmingly good balance of tart and sweet and perfect for any winter table, holiday feast or otherwise.

El Serranito

I have become one of those bloggers that I don’t entirely approve of – food bloggers who post pictures without a single recipe.  When I read multiple posts like that, I get resentful, as if they are flaunting their luck that I cannot share.  But really, that’s just jealousy.  When they tell me where I can find that food, it’s like having visual yellow pages and my heart warms with travel fantasies.

It’s worse when it’s a recipe of their own making and they  maliciously leave out an ingredient or step, like an ancient craftsman guarding a certain glaze or technique.  If you are going to have a public blog, why in the world are you not sharing the bounty of good food?  It just makes me tend back towards my old grudge against blogs – at best they are clever, informative, and entertaining.  At worst they are a socially acceptable form of public, emotional masturbation.  Yes, I understand this is hypocritical as I myself have a blog.  But I swear that if I have a recipe, I will hand it over. I want to share tasty bits, not use them as culinary ransom for company.

Stepping off soapbox.  In apology for recent posts about food you cannot eat, I offer something you can!  And it’s Spanish!  Double win!

El Serranito

Molly Ward, you saucy wench…

So, my brother is getting married next summer.  That’s cool, because I really like Alida, his fiancée – we make biscotti and Sculpi earrings together, and she’s in charge of the future design of this site.  And I don’t mind too much when Leo, my brother, calls us by the other’s name, because Alida does things like pick Molly Ward Gardens for a wedding venue.

Molly Ward Gardens Restaurant - The Yarn Barn

I first had a good feeling about this place (as an attendee and bridesmaid) when Alida texted me out of the blue with a picture of her lunch and a minute description of said lunch – and even though I had just feasted, I wished I was there to sneak bites off of her plate.  Eventually, when the parents were going to examine the place and maybe put down a deposit, I was a lucky, lucky girl, and got to go along.