Monday, November 24, 2008

Cranberries

Today's Wonder of the World is... The Cranberry!

Flickr photo by photo fiddler
What an amazing fruit--so tart and tasty--and pretty too.
I love their pinkish-reddish-yellowish outsides, and on the inside?
Wagon wheels!

Flickr photo by Papa Mikey
Whoops! Those are wagon wheels!
No, I meant these luscious ones.

Photo from MedGadget
There, that's better.

Did you know that the French word for cranberry is canneberge? We'd find them at the market around Christmas time.

Cranberries are so interesting, partly because of the way we harvest them.
Well, maybe I shouldn't say we. I've never personally harvested a single cranberry. But others have. Like those funny guys in hip waders on television. And these guys.

Flickr photo by norjam8
No, my own personal relationship with cranberries has mostly been at the Thanksgiving table. Tables like this!

Flickr photo by tracilyn
Excuse me while I fall out of my office chair and laugh myself silly!
Is it just me, or does the sight of a just un-canned cranberry jelly cylinder CRACK YOU UP?!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha.
I LOVE the sound it makes. SHLOOOOOP!

Now before my mother reads this and runs all the way to Greer, South Carolina to bop me over the head, let me say that I never grew up eating cylinders of cranberry jelly.
No, my husband got me hooked on it.
My mother was the Kentucky State President of Future Homemakers of America. (Yes it is incredible that somehow she gave birth to me, a person who still refuses to learn how to properly make up a bed.)
At Thanksgiving my Mother does not open up a can of cranberry sauce and lets it go SHLOOOOP onto a dish. No, she makes a mean cranberry relish.
Like this one.

Flickr photo by benjamin.lim
Here's a recipe that looks similar to hers.

Flickr photo by Eudaemonius
Try it! It may not look as interesting as a Cylinder O'Cranberry, but let me tell you, it's DELICIOUS!
Yum. I can't wait!

I was having cranberry relish day dreams yesterday and had to rush out and buy this.

Yum. That bag is dangerous.
As soon as I started it, I had to make a batch of these.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti! The recipe is here, and boy howdy it's good!
I bet they'd be great with a cup of coffee after the big meal, not that my batch will last that long.

Of course, if I still missed the Cylinder O' Cranberry, I could always buy one of these to set on our Thanksgiving table.

Photo by EternalSunshine.etsy.com
You can find it on Etsy, of course! Right here!
And look! You can even display it with a can!

Photo by EternalSunshine.etsy.com
If you need me, I'll be down here on the floor, laughing my head off.
Ha ha ha ho ho ho.

Have a wonder-full Monday, y'all!
Love, Becky

16 comments:

David Ebright said...

Shloooopy cranberries? Fugghettaboudit! Deb buys the cranberries & makes her own as well. (Sigh.... this year's Thanksgiving will be spent in a restaurant - just the 2 of us - away from home.) Staying on the cranberry theme, Deb drinks 1/3 cranberry juice mixed with 2/3 club soda - instead of soda or diet soda. Tastes pretty good but it's way too healthy for me.

Suzie said...

That canberry is great. I love it

LW said...

I love can cranberries.
I don’t do relish, just the can…
Ssshhh my kids thinks that is the only way cranberries come,
in cans to eat and in bags to decorate with..

Louise

Rosemary said...

I love cranberry muffins and bread!!
I also think the color of cranberries is great!
Have a great day Rebecca!
Rosemary

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

I've never really eaten cranberry sauce!! But, Thanksgiving is at my house this year...yikes....so I think it's mandatory that I try it!

Adrienne said...

I am cranberry crazy! I have the hardest time deciding which cranberry dish to make for Thanksgiving. I always have to have the jelly cylinder too, though!

Unknown said...

My mom used to take the canned cranberry sauce out of the can every year with that shllloooooooop! LOL! She prided herself on being able to do that. If it broke or cracked on the way out she would get a new one. Then we'd have to eat the rest of it later, ewwwwww! Thanks for the shloop down memory lane! :)

Angela K. Nickerson said...

I have a recipe for a cranberry pudding that is phenomenal. I love cranberries in all forms, but that pudding... I just might have to post it! It is worth sharing. :)

Kat said...

Did you know that the cranberry is Wisconsin's official state fruit? It is native to Wisconsin. And we produce more cranberries than any other state. Wisconsin produces something like 90% of the nation's cranberries? Cool, huh?
;)

Anonymous said...

I'M HUNGRY.

Linda Summerfield said...

It is so quick and easy to make cranberry sauce, and I love it with a wee bit of orange peel.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Felicity said...

I love cranberries. In Sweden they eat lingon berries in much the same way and you would them, too! (Re-reading that it sort of sounds like I know this because I lived there or something. I wish, but, no. I visited once and have lovely friends here who share their stash of lingon berry jam and pickled herring.)

Also, I'm a big fan of the cranberry pill. (No joke.)

Susan said...

That crocheted cranberry jelly is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I love canned cranberry jelly. My hubby turned me on to it as well. He even showed me how to put a hole in the other end of the can so it plops out. Actually, I'm afraid of real live cranberries, I have never even touched one. I know, I'm weird. Anyway, have a great Thanksgiving!

lotusgirl said...

I do a cranberry strawberry banana jello salad with sour cream sugar topping for Thanksgiving. I'm not a just plain cranberry sauce kinda gal. That's all I had as a kid and hated it and thought that I hated cranberries. I actually like it but not in the unadulterated form.

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Just to let y'all know, within three hours of taking that biscotti picture, my sixteen year old son snuck in the kitchen and ate every single one of those cookies. Next time I'll have to hide them.

CC said...

I love cranberries. Esp. in pumpkin bread. :) And cranberry glop in a can is GROSS.

I used to drive by a cranberry blog in New England and is was SO cool to watch every fall time.