Cranberry Sauce (revisited)

This is another one that can be made ahead of time to reduce stress on Thanksgiving day. An even better way to reduce stress is to ask your husband to do it! Thanks babe! :)

We used the same recipe as we did last year, except we made a bigger batch. Too big in fact (we bought the Costco size bag of cranberries). Anyone want some frozen cranberry sauce or have any ideas of what we should do with all the leftovers? If you do, PLEASE let us know!

Ingredients:
- Cranberries
- Orange juice
- Sugar
- Lemon zest
- Ginger

Directions:
- Rinse the cranberries and then pour them into a large pot.
- Add enough orange juice to cover barely cover the cranberries (they won't look covered because cranberries float)
- Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat to maintain a simmer.
- Add LOTS of sugar to taste.
- Add some lemon zest and grated ginger to taste.
- Simmer until all the cranberries of popped and the sauce has thickened.
- Let the sauce cool and then place it in the fridge to set.

A Simple Spinach Salad

I've got another quick recipe from our Thanksgiving feast. Spinach salad!

Thanksgiving is filled with so many heavy dishes that I thought I'd offer something on the lighter side in case anyone was interested.

Just wash and spin-dry some spinach and sprinkle it with dried cranberries, walnuts, crumbled bacon, and if you'd like cheese. I totally forgot to put the cheese in (oops!) but normally I like blue cheese though goat or feta would probably be great too.

I made a simple balsamic vinaigrette that I put on the side so that the salad wouldn't get soggy.

So easy and you can make it way ahead of time too!

Cranberry sauce

What's Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce? I grew up with canned cranberry and never saw the point of cranberry sauce because I wasn't a fan of the canned stuff but felt it was necessary for traditional reasons. Last year, we made our own cranberry sauce for the first time and am now a big supporter of cranberry sauce for the taste, not just tradition. Plus it's super easy!

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of cranberries
• orange juice (about 2 cups)
• sugar to taste
• grated lemon/orange zest (optional)
• grated ginger (optional)

Method:
- Pour the cranberries and orange juice into a pot. Make sure there is enough liquid to cover the cranberries (if the cranberries didn't float).
- Bring everything to a boil. The cranberries will start popping. Bring it down to a simmer and add sugar to taste (you'll need a lot). You can also add the ginger and zest if you want at this point.
- Simmer until the cranberries have all popped and the sauce has thickened. Let it cool and put it into the fridge for it to set and thicken even more.
- Serve with your roasted turkey or smear it on the bread of that turkey sandwich the next day!