Cranberry Sauce Recipe

I know, there are millions of cranberry sauce recipes out there. This is my family's - we've tweaked it from the recipe on an old Martha Stewart video we checked out at the public library ages ago. This video is definitely old school - one of the recipes is for a turkey wrapped in puff pastry, and another recipe calls for a gallon of clarified butter (I exaggerate only slightly.) The original recipe called for whole fruit diced into 1/4" cubes - but this made the sauce a little bitter.

Kim Family Cranberry Sauce
serves 10 to 12

2 ½ cups sugar

½ cups water

Zest and juice of one orange and one lime

1 cup raisins (I like golden. This is optional.)

2 3-inch cinnamon sticks

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out. (This is definitely not optional. Throw the whole thing in.)

3 12-ounce bags of fresh cranberries


Put the sugar and water in a pan and caramelize until golden brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 10 minutes. Let cool, and refrigerate until ready to use.


My favorite way to eat this....

Today in the mail...

...I got the most awesome package! From Jenn of I Got Two Shoes. This was part of Blogging by Mail 3 hosted over at my little kitchen. Check it out - there are lots of interesting packages flying around all over the world.

As for mine...I was very excited when I saw the mailing label. My parcel came all the way from South Korea! And look at all the fun stuff inside:


Mmm...I'll never be tired of instant noodles. This cup is very considerate in letting me know in very large letters that I am only consuming 130 kcal.

Oooh...now I can make rice balls. There's even a packet of "health rice" to make them with - and a packet of rice flavoring. Which flavor? Cheese!


Yum...chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, chocolate-dipped cracker sticks, and several flavors of chocolate. I love when korean food packages have english writing on them. Here's what the packages say:
"Jeju Orange Chocolate is made with world-level prodution technollogy and the most up-to-date German and Italian machines using 100% natrual jeju tangerine grown in the blessed island, jeju. jeju chocolate contains all the ingredients of natural tangential, including Vitamin-C & Fiber, which gives it a taste unique from others chocolate and is also healthy." Nice. Healthy chocolate.
"Green tea chocolate has the freshness of the first flush leaf with sweet. It is a neo-concept chocolate that spreads the freshness with not too sweet in your mouth."
"Jeju Cactus Chocolate is made with cactus powder through vacuum lyophilization of Jeju Cactus. It adds nutritive substance to deep and tender chocolate taste."
Even though this chocolate is healthy, Jenn has included a box of "smart herb tea" (I hope it helps me through my qualifying exams) and some T-smile gum so that I don't get cavities. :)

Thank you so much Jenn for your very generous package! My parents will be in Korea this year for Christmas, and my brother and I won't be able to go with them. We'll definitely make some rice balls and eat some health chocolate so we can feel like we're with them this year...

My kitchen...

As part of this round of Blogging by Mail, we've been asked to include a photograph of our kitchen. I don't have any prints, so I thought I'd post them up here...



Do you see that dead basil plant on the corner of the table? Shame on me. I'm a bad plant mommy. See our spice cabinet? When I first opened it I knew that I would love living here...
And just for kicks, here's a peek inside our fridge...

Well, only the top shelf, which is my shelf. As you can see, I heart Trader Joe's.

We may need a bigger freezer...

Not even a chocolate thing from Arizmendi...

...can lift me out of this gray cloud today. You know you're in trouble when a chocolate-filled brioche can't cheer you up. Yowza.

In other non-food news, how in the world has this existed for a whole week without me knowing???

Nickel Creek covering Britney Spears' "Toxic"

Another food rut...

Well, I guess not so much of a rut as a black hole? School/work has been crazy and will continue to be crazy until the middle of November, so that means late late nights. And weekends. Which means I have no energy whatsoever to get home and cook something. Hell, last night it took all the energy I had to stick a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Yes, kettle corn was my dinner last night.
If I don't get a PhD, I fully blame Netflix. Why can't I attack my research with the same focus that somehow appears when a new DVD appears in the mail? TV shows on DVD will be the death of me. First I tackled all of Sex and the City. Then it was West Wing. I just finished Arrested Development, Six Feet Under, and Sports Night. Now it's the entire first season of Scrubs. Gah. Usually I grumble when companies are mean and only put three or four episodes on one disc. But the first disc I got for Scrubs had eight episodes on it. Eight! It's a wonder I was able to restrain myself from watching all eight in one sitting. Because I would.
Ooh, I did have a yummy meal last Friday - a high school friend was in town so a whole bunch of us ate dinner at Home. I may have to attempt to recreate their banana bread pudding and pumpkin cheesecake at home.
Whew. Back to the microtome. Gotta slice up some slides before I take my rats to their MRI.