Gettin’ saucy at Thanksgiving

It’s almost Thanksgiving, and you may very well have your big meal menu already set and planned. If not, stay tuned for about 150 more words. I assume you’re one of those people who uses canned cranberry sauce at the table and, therefore, are a horrible person with no taste or soul. We’ll give you that the cylindrical burgundy-colored gel is delightfully retro, but it has zero flavor.

Try the following instead: Toss one 12-ounce bag of cranberries, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup orange juice (or pinot noir, if you’re the boozy type), 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger into a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes. Take off heat and cool. Mix in 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts and 1 cup of raisins. Taste and feel free to add other spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves or a few good grinds of black pepper.

Serve to hungry guests, lay back and soak up the accolades for kicking a bit more ass in the kitchen this year.