Rooibos Cranberry Sauce

As I was finishing up my Thanksgiving cranberries and enjoying 

a cup of chai, I thought the chai flavors would work realy well with the

cranberries.  So I dunked a rooibos teabag in the bowl of hot cranberries

and left it in for about 10 minutes.  I was really pleased with the results.

I thought I'd make another batch by making the chai first and using

it as part of the liquid in the cranberries.  Here how it goes:

Ingredients:

12 oz. bag of cranberries

3/4 cup of strong chai rooibos*

3/4 cup of orange juice

One cup sugar

Pinch of salt

*Make chai rooibos using 3/4 cup of boiling water with

two teabags of chai rooibos.  I used Yogi brand.

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes until thickened.

Pour into a bowl and bring to room temperature.

Cover and refrigerate when cooled.

The spices in the chai are subtle but add a warm, almost

floral quality to the cranberries.

I love cranberries and will eat all I can for the rest of the year.

I always make extra and enjoy them on toast (or even on ice cream)

after all the Thanksgiving leftovers are all gone.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend

with their family and friends.  Let the holidays begin!

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm happy to have a few days' break to relax, to cook and share

time with friends and to be thankful for everything I have.

I might even get in another post.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Flowers are from my friend Shelley at Bow Street Flowers.)

Around the House, Kitchen Update

I don't know how I ever found the time to blog so steadily for three years.

It just doesn't seem to be happening lately.  My office is moving in about five

weeks and designing the new office, planning the move, building a new

corporate identity and building a new website has really taken up a lot of

time the past several months.  But here it is November so I've been

trying to get the house and kitchen ready for Thanksgiving guests.

In particular, I wanted to get the floating shelves stained before the holidays so when we

had a few warm days where I could have the windows open, I decided to get them finished.

Above was the before.

And here they are freshly stained to match the old bin drawers.

I'm happy with the color but I think I want to ding them up a litttle

bit and apply some dark wax that I'll leave in the dings.

My mom visited last week so we drove out to Hudson, NY to pick

up a few new things for the shelves.  If you haven't been to Hudson, NY,

it's really worth the trip.  The town is just packed from one end to the other

with great antique shops, art galleries, restaurants and cafes.

My mom also has great knack for arranging things.

I caught her a few times moving things around on the shelves.

I'm sure these will evolve but I'm really happy with how this looks right now.

I still have to paint the windows before I can call the kitchen done but the snow

outside tells me that I'll have a lot of time indoors coming up to get that done.

Hope to show you around Hudson, NY sometime soon.