Cranberry Revelation

Before my grandmother passed away, I had a very fun visit, sitting in her kitchen and going through her recipes.  She told me to take what I wanted from her collection in recipe boxes.  I thought it was odd at first because wouldn’t she need them to cook?  But the realized with a smiling heart that they were all memorized in her head.

I found copes of family favorites.  I was so excited!  It was fascinating to see them actually printed on magazine clippings or written out in her own penmanship on index cards.  I was able to collect many and create a scrapbook of recipes and family photographs dating from when before she and my grandfather were married up until she met her great-grandchildren.

I made one original scrapbook with traditional methods of cutting and gluing pictures and paper.  Then had copies made at a local printing store.

One recipe I found was for “Brandied Cranberry Sauce.”  Yum, because I  enjoyed cranberry sauce with my grandmother’s turkey during the holidays.  It was always served in a lovely glass bowl on the table.  (I luckily have the bowl now too).  The cranberry sauce was never the gelatinous blob from a can.

Because of the memory and the taste, I of course added this to the recipe scrapbook.  I had several copies of the scrapbook made and distributed them to my parents and aunts and uncles as well.  After reading her copy, my grandmother remarked that she never made brandied

cranberry sauce.

I was stunned.

I reminded her that I found it in her recipe box, and the card was in her own handwriting.  We shared a laugh over this confusion.   I decided that this recipe was going to become a family favorite and so I make it every time with my turkey.  I think the chuckling story behind it adds another dose of flavor.

Brandied Cranberry Sauce

Makes 1 and 3/4 cups

• 1 1/2 cups cranberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2-3 tsp blackberry brandy or brandy

Combine cranberries, sugar, juice and cloves.  Bring to boiling.  Then simmer, uncovered, until cranberries pop and mixture thickens.  Remove from heat, stir in brandy.  Cool.