This week, the question posed by Romance Writers Weekly is:What is the one dish or treat you can't do without during the holiday season? If you make it yourself, share the recipe.
I love to cook--I especially love to bake. But what I bake for Christmas depends on who's going to be around to eat it. My husband loves biscotti but doesn't like gingerbread. My daughter isn't a big biscotti fan, but loves gingerbread--the spicier the better. My son will only eat pie. My grandson will only eat pumpkin pie. And my DIL hates pie altogether, will tolerate cookies, but really loves sticky toffee pudding. My sister doesn't eat carbs AT ALL. They don't make it easy.
The ONE THING that I make sure I make every year just for myself, is cranberry sauce. But if you think I'm here to weigh in on the the canned VS home cooked cranberry sauce debate, you'd be wrong. I don't like either of them.
MY perfect cranberry sauce (actually, it's more like a salsa or a relish, I suppose) is raw. It's fresh and crisp and delicious, not to mention extremely easy to make. I just throw a bag of cranberries in the blender along with one (preferably seedless) orange (peel and all). I personally prefer blood oranges whenever possible, but a mandarin or two will do just fine in a pinch.
Grind them up together--not too fine, you don't want a paste--add sugar to taste (I like mine on the tart side) and that's it.
Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy--as my grandson's learned to say. Thanks pre-school.
If you want to get fancy, which I usually do because it's CHRISTMAS, FFS, break open a pomegranate and add in as many arils as seems reasonable. I'll leave the actual amount up to you because, unless it's baking, I do not measure when I cook. In case you hadn't noticed. I rely totally on taste...because elsewise, what's the point?
Anyway, to me, cranberry relish is the perfect all-the-time/anytime holiday dish. It's a side dish. It's a dessert. It layers well in sandwiches. I've eaten it by the bowlful for breakfast, or as an afternoon snack. It's great over ice cream or mixed into yogurt. And if you add a spoonful to a glass of champagne it makes a drink that my niece has dubbed it the "party in a glass" because of the way the effervescence makes the pink, confetti-like cranberries dance around.
It's also extremely healthy. And what more could you ask for in a holiday treat?
And Remember, There's
ONLY ONE WEEK TO GO:
Heather is having the worst Christmas ever! Or, at least, the worst Christmas since she was forced to become a vampire. Her sire's distracted, her nestmates have forgotten her, weirdos have taken over the lair. The only bright spot in her life right now is Drew--who didn't even used to like her! She knows he's fond of her now, but that's not good enough. She wants more. She wants everything. She wants him. And she's not giving up.
Drew Geiger gave up on love a long time ago. Such tender emotions have no place in a vampire's heart. But, somehow, the girl he once described as a "feral kitten" has got her claws in him, and she's not letting go. That would be fine, if only someone didn't want her dead--and if her sire didn't recall that it was Drew who once suggested that maybe she'd be better off that way.
Available for pre-order now: https://books2read.com/u/m0En1l
And read an excerpt here: http://rhymeswithforeplay.blogspot.com/2022/11/shall-we-dance.html
More Hot Holiday Reads!
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