Stuffing and Cranberries

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday, so I'm using this week leading up to Thursday to prepare things, a little bit every day, and enjoying myself. Yesterday was for stuffing and today is for cranberry sauce.

My family is picky about stuffing, but what we really like is fried stuffing for leftovers. To do that, you need the right consistency - not too wet, not too dry, but just right so it can be sliced from the casserole dish and fried to a delicious crispiness on the outside while still moist inside. After lots of experimentation over the years, I make stuffing bread with all the seasonings incorporated into the loaf, cut it into cubes, and let them dry out for several days.

Then on Wednesday, I'll add eggs, butter, and stock to the dried bread cubes, and stuffing will be ready for Thursday (but really for frying on Friday and Saturday).

Today is the day for cranberries. My mother always made cranberry-orange relish, in fact, her recipe was so famous that Ocean Spray put it on the back of the cranberry bag. :-) It's really just cranberries and oranges ground together in the food processor, but I also add a teaspoon or so of orange oil.  Then it just sits in the refrigerator so the flavors can meld.

This year I found another cranberry recipe that sounded good so I'm giving it a try. Cook cranberries with orange juice and brown and white sugars until the cranberries pop, then add 1/4 cup Grand Marnier and cool.

I'll open a can of cranberry sauce because Justin likes it, but maybe the Grand Marnier will convince him to change his mind. Now I'm going to go scrub the cranberries off he stove, burners, and counters!