Holiday

The addition of pear is very welcome for me in this cranberry sauce recipe. My family has been throwing homemade applesauce in our cranberry sauce for years, but never has a pear been met with the ruby red jewels of winter.

Pear this cranberry sauce with some great friends and family and have yourself a merry little Thanksgiving, and Christmas too!

This year I am thankful for food choices. We make choices with every dollar we spend on food.  Whether conscience or not, each dollar spent makes a decision in the future of our food. I am grateful to now live in a place where farmers markets are abundant and supporting them makes me feel a part of a growing community of people who refuse to have decisions made for them.   

CRANBERRY PEAR SAUCE (enough for a Thanksgiving side dish)

• 3 cups fresh cranberries
• 2 bosc pears - peeled, cored, and cubed
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 3/4 cup turbindo sugar – or more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a medium sized saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat until cranberries pop, and it looks like....well sauce (about 20 minutes)!

Cool at room temperature and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Until I get a mini-farm and raise Araucana Chickens (Easter Egg Chickens)I am dependant on dying my own Easter Eggs.  This year I wanted to dye them with found things from my kitchen.  I refused to be dependant on what was offered me from the mega-chains.

Here are my top five reasons to dye them yourself - sans boxed kits

1. INCREDIBLY EASY - You might be surprised just how easy it is.  You simply boil your desired food stuffs in water; in my case I created three color sensations.  Here is how I achieved my colors:

• Brown - Coffee, very strong coffee
• Yellow - 3 tablespoons curry powder, carrot peels
• Blue - red cabbage

2. REPURPOSING SCRAPS - The carrot peels, and cabbage were first used for dye before heading to a worm feast.  Cutting down on waste.

3. EXPERIMENTATION - Your kids are sure to have a blast thinking of combos to dye their eggs with.

4. APPEARANCE - The eggs turned out great!  They were not psychedelic, tie dyed, or glittery, but were practically perfect in every way. 

5. CONVENIENCE - You know you are bound to forget the egg dye kit at the store, and instead of making another trip, you should just give in and make them at home. 

The instructions and pointers I used were from What's Cooking America.  I did not try the rubber band trick, but I'm sure they would have been adorable too.

Please note that the 'grass' the eggs are resting on is colorful magazine adds, shredded.  The 'grass' doesn't cost a thing and after use can be recycled.  

Happy Easter!

Let me start by saying that I am not vegan.  However, I do have friends that are and I was challenged to develop some vegan recipes.  Instead of devloping them I decided to create a meal borrowing from others to create what I would like to have if I were vegan.  Now, I haven't tried a single one of these recipes but they all sounded divine and who cares if they are vegan...they just sound and look awesome!

Happy Thanksgiving however you choose to celebrate!

For starters:

• Spicy Lentil & Roasted Butternut Squash Soup from Mousoou Spice

Main course:

• Gourmet Magazine's Mushroom and Farro Pie . There are a few modifications needed to complete the vegan transformation.  Sub olive oil for butter, soy ricotta for whole-milk ricotta.  Instead of brushing the crust with egg, just use water to seal.  Then brush olive oil on the top instead. of egg wash.

Side dishes:

• Artichoke-Potato Gratin from Vegalicious.org
• World's Best Green Bean Casserole from A Veggie Venture
• A Different Kind of Salad from Dana Treat
• Cranberry Walnut Bread from Elana's Pantry.  Yes, there are eggs in this recipe.  I couldn't help it.  It looked too good.  OK, this one isn't vegan. 

Dessert:

• Gingered Cranberry and Kumquat Relish from Bon Appetit
• Pecan Pumpkin Crumble from Kitchen Klique. For this one you will need to substitute the evaporated milk.

Cocktail:

• Pumpkin Divine from Cocktail Times