Now, I am not the worlds biggest turkey fan.  But, a nicely prepared slice of bird can act as a great transportation device for one of my favorite Christmas condiments – cranberries.

I can remember many a Christmas with the obligatory ‘cranberries in a can’ sauce that was the norm in the day.  However as I worked on my cooking skills, early on I found out how easy it is to make my own cranberries.  Now, the recipe on the bag of berries is alright, but the folks over at Cooks Country / Cooks Illustrated / America’s Test Kitchen have a couple of great recipes.  The ‘regular’ sauce is a bit nicer than the bag recipe, but my favorite is their Apricot-Ginger Cranberry Sauce.

It has a sweetness from the apricot that balances the tart cranberries, and a little hint of cayenne that gives it just a perfect amount of spice to compliment the ginger.  This mix of flavours is really nice, and it complements the turkey very, very well.

I made a big batch of each tonight, and portioned out into some containers.  They will be off to the kids, and to friends of ours at the coast with a healthy portion retained for our Christmas table.

I can’t share the recipes here unfortunately as they are copyrighted. I do encourage anyone interested in cooking or food to look at an subscription to the Cooks Country / Cooks Illustrated websites.  Then you have access to an amazing selection of recipes, all highly tested and very well explained.

Give homemade cranberries a try for you Christmas table.  Once you have, you will never open another can again!

Enjoy!!