Cranberry Sauce -- Nothing this good should come from a can

One of our staple items for holiday dinners now is Cranberry Sauce, and I don't mean the solid block that makes a squelching noise when you pour it out of a can. I mean good, tasty, whole berry cranberry sauce. Made with actual cranberries.

It's really easy to make, and I can almost guarantee that once you make it from scratch, you will never buy the stuff in a can again. Now, don't get me wrong...we have all used the can, and in a pinch, it's ok to substitute. But give this recipe a shot. It's one of those recipes that will make everyone think you put in a lot more effort than you really did.

Here's how simple it is. The recipe is even on the bag if you get Ocean Spray Cranberries. That's the only brand my stores in the middle of nowhere carriy anyway, so I just roll with what I've got.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 12-ounce package Ocean Spray® Fresh Cranberries

Directions:
Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil; add cranberries, return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time. Makes 2 1/4 cups.

And that's it. Pretty much if you can boil water, you can make this recipe. We have leftovers of course, and I think I'll try this recipe for oatmeal cranberry bars.

Time to end the blog hiatus and 'thyme' to make some soup

I have been neglecting my blog. I sort of have a halfway real excuse, but not really. I hurt one of my knees in March, and the other in  August. I've been doing lots of physical therapy and then I had surgery and now I'm doing physical therapy again. I am making huge progress but I still have a ways to go.

I've just been so tired.

And I've been struggling with the idea of not actually being invincible.

And did I mention I've been tired? This healing business is tough work. My energy is sapped some days. Not exactly ideal conditions for the creative juices to be flowing, but I think I am over feeling sorry for myself. It's time to reset and regroup. Sometimes things happen that knock you off your course for a bit, and it can be tough to get it back on track. I guess what I am trying to say in a really long roundabout way is that I may have been off my game but I am ready to get off the bench.

So today we are making chicken and rice soup. I feel a cold coming on and it is frigid outside and rainy. Soup is just the thing today. My trusty sous chef John jumped right in to help, and he chopped the celery and carrots. I chopped the onion and chicken. I cooked the chicken a little in a skillet first, because I really wanted it to have good flavor. I used a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Just before I took it off the heat, I added dried rosemary, mostly because we were out of thyme. But rosemary goes great with poultry too. We sweated the veggies in some butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. We added low-sodium chicken stock (you won't miss the salt, trust me) and it is happily bubbling away on low heat. We're going to let it cook for a little while before we check for seasoning. We're not going to eat until I get home from cantata practice and Jeff is home from the theatre, so we're going to cook the rice but add it to the soup later. We also got some Pillsbury crescent rolls just because they're good.

We don't have a recipe for this one, but here's what we used: one bag of baby carrots (cut into halves or thirds) one bunch of celery diced to match the carrots in size, half a large onion (diced), three chicken breasts and three boxes of stock. I won't know until later if this turns out ok, but I can say that it smells amazing in out kitchen right now.

I'm glad I am writing again and I hope you are too.