Friday Foodie Fix – Cranberries

This week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Cranberries.  These little round red berries are packed full of antioxidants.  They are great added to salads, scones, breakfast cereals, salsa, muffins, and of course in a sauce with your Thanksgiving turkey.  Cranberries are grown in northern swampy areas from New England to the Midwest.  They are available fresh October to December but you can get them frozen all year round.

cranberries

If you buy fresh cranberries and have extra, place them on a cookie sheet and pop that into the freezer for 2-3 hours until frozen.  Then place the cranberries into freezer bags.  Make sure they freeze thoroughly before putting them into the bag so they won’t stick together.

There are my unconventional ways to cook with cranberries.   The most interesting way I have eaten cranberries was in buffalo sausage from Cibola FarmsBuffalo Cranberry & Wine Sausage with Pork was paired well with pasta and was a big hit at my house.

What was the most interesting thing you have eaten with cranberries?  What are your favorite ways to use cranberries?  I hope you will share your recipes here with Mr. Linky or leave them in the comments section.  Please make sure they are your original recipes.  After you share yours, check out what others have shared and please share the link back to this blog post.  To find out all of the rules for sharing visit our Friday Foodie Fix page.

Next week’s Secret Ingredient is ……….squash!

16 Responses to Friday Foodie Fix – Cranberries

  1. glutenfreeforgood November 6, 2009 at 6:29 am #

    Squash? I was just thinking of making some kabocha squash soup. And maybe mix a little acorn squash into it. My CSA delivery was full of squash this past week (although I'm not complaining). Hopefully I'll be organized enough to remember that you're doing this next week! I've been out of town too much lately and am playing catch-up.

    Whoa — buffalo, cranberry and wine sausage with pork does sound interesting!

    Hope all is well and that you're enjoying some nice fall weather. It's beautiful here in Colorado right now (after 2 and 1/2 feet of snow last week).

    Melissa

    • Diane November 12, 2009 at 6:52 am #

      Melissa- Don't know how you handle all of that snow. I don't think I would go out of the house until spring. I hope you will share lots of squash recipes. This is a new food for me so I'm looking of different ways to make it so I can find one that I actually like. As for the sausage, it comes with all of that good stuff in it from an organic local farm. It's really delicious!

  2. Phoebe November 6, 2009 at 6:37 am #

    Cranberries has some of the highest antioxidents in any fruit so eating them raw is a great way to preserve all the goodness in them.

    This recipe is from George Mateljan @ http://whfoods.org. George has been around for a while and has a cookbook which is also packed with recipes and nutritional information along with great tips on how to enhance different foods value. The name of it is "The World's Healthiest Foods".

    I made this the other day and it is wonderful, I use it like a relish with soups, beans or chicken. Can't wait to try it with the Thanksgiving turkey.

    Cranberry Relish

    16 oz fresh raw cranberries (I used frozen)

    medium pear diced

    medium apple diced

    1/4 cup honey

    1 tsp. horseradish

    1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

    Blend cranberries and then mix all ingredients together in a bowl and eat as a relish.

    I blended it all together rather than keeping the apple and pear chunky – I like it best that way and I added a tad more horseradish for my personal taste.

    Hope you like it!

    • Diane November 12, 2009 at 6:53 am #

      Phoebe- Thank you for sharing. This does sound good. Thank George for a great idea.

  3. Alisa - Frugal Foodi November 6, 2009 at 7:20 am #

    Oh I wish I had something gluten-free to share for this one; maybe later!

    • Diane November 12, 2009 at 6:53 am #

      Alisa- Join in anytime!

  4. gfe--gluten free eas November 7, 2009 at 7:34 am #

    All I've got for this one is my standby Great Salad recipe that uses Craisins/dried cranberries. I've been surprised many times by cranberries in wonderful restaurant meals before. That Buffalo Sausage dish sounds amazing!

    Shirley

    • Diane November 12, 2009 at 6:57 am #

      Shirley- That was one good looking salad. I've got to grab some of the Craisins sometime. I hope they don't add sugar to them. For some reason that happens with a lot of dried fruits. Although, with cranberries being tart that might not be too bad.

  5. Jenn/CinnamonQuill November 8, 2009 at 2:17 pm #

    I love cranberry jam! 🙂 And I was thinking of adding some fresh cranberries (chopped) to chocolate chip cookies. Hmm…!

    • Diane November 12, 2009 at 6:58 am #

      Jenn- I love the idea of the cranberries in the chocolate chip cookies. That would be a great treat for Thanksgiving.

  6. Iris November 11, 2009 at 7:52 pm #

    I'm planning something with acorn squash. See you on Friday!

    • Diane November 12, 2009 at 7:05 am #

      Iris- Great, I can't wait. I hope we get a lot of ideas. I'm trying to like squash so I need lots of options. See you Friday!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. A Little Crunch of Cabbage | gfe--gluten free easily - November 7, 2009

    […] as she is! This post is also linked to my BlogHer Food ‘09 travel buddy Diane’s Friday Foodie Fix—Cranberries at her blog, The W.H.O.L.E. Gang. Check their  blogs and […]

  2. Menu Plan Monday – November 9 — Gluten Free-Dairy Free Recipes | The W.H.O.L.E. Gang - November 8, 2009

    […] Don’t forget this week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Squash! I hope you will all share your recipes with us. Check out last week’s great recipes shared for Cranberries. […]

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    […] Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Cranberries, Cinnamon, Chocolate, Corn, Green Beans, Mushrooms,  Pecans, Pork, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Spinach, […]