10.05.2010

cranberry sauce canning thrills

Cranberries are one of my favourite foods. I know that I refer to a lot of things as my favourites, but I just love so many things that I can't help it! Firstly, the colour is incredible. Secondly, we live in a perfect climate for growing them, and there's a beautiful little spot called Cranberry Head not far at all from where I grew up, and I've always thought of it as the perfect setting for a book. A nice, tart cranberry sauce is my favourite way to eat them. No orange juice, no spices - just cranberries and a bit of sugar.
To can these, though, I did add a bit of lemon juice, just to make sure that no one would be botulized. It's imperceptible. It was by far the easiest canning that I've done so far (maybe because I'm starting to get the hang of it), and I'm definitely looking forward to eating it the most. I usually make fresh sauce for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and whenever we roast a chicken and I have cranberries on hand - this way, it's done already and won't require a stove element, and I'm hoping to have some with every chicken we eat until next October. (A friend of mine has a relative with a cranberry bog, and I'm hoping see her on the weekend, and get a truckload! Yipee!)

Things around here are continuing on busily and pleasantly; I have a few great cookbooks checked out of the library right now. Today I borrowed the Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook, which looks like a fun read, not to mention educational. Martha's Healthy Quick Cook was recommended on someone's blog, and it's good - I even ordered a used copy online after looking through it. I think I mentioned Gourmet Baby Food before; it is superb. Love Soup and Jamie at Home are the others, and I'd better get back to reading them before they're due. I just might have to try to hunt down copies of those last two -they're pretty fantastic as well.

Hope you're having a delicious week! And if you're getting ready for (Canadian) Thanksgiving this weekend, happy planning!

4 comments:

  1. Sounds delicious. I love the colour of your cranberry sauce, one of "my favourite things" is to see the beautiful colour of canning in the sunlight before I tuck it away in the coldroom.

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  2. Anonymous10/30/2010

    Delicious! I don't know why it never occurred to me to can my own cranberry sauce... I love the stuff!

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  3. Found your blog here in France looking for cranberry sauce recipes. We're getting ready to celebrate American (ex-pat) Thanksgiving. I have a great cookbook that I bought in Victoria,BC and it's my favorite canning book. It's called Well Preserved by Mary Anne Dragan. If you're new to canning you might want to check it out.

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  4. Thanks, marypat! I've heard of it, but haven't read it yet. I'm off to put a hold on it from the library!

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