Two Recipe Tests: All About Cranberries

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This morning I started the day with a fairly lengthy to-do list, and I'm making my way through it. I wanted to start out making the Cranberry-Pepper Jelly from a recipe I found on the Bon Appetit website.

This was so quick and simple to make. It isn't processed, so it will have to go into the refrigerator, but the nice kick and fruity cranberry flavor turned out to be just what I was hoping for. Pepper jellies of all flavors are good accompaniments to meat and they are also good spread on a cracker with cream cheese. We'll be having this as an appetizer on Thanksgiving. You can find the recipe right here if you want to try it yourself. I ended up with two pint jars. The recipe as written has quite a kick, which I happen to like. If you have a weak stomach, you might want to back off on the crushed red pepper by at least half.

With that finished, I decided to finish up the blocks for the Good Morning quilt. I had two sets left to do. Here is the 11th set:

And here is the 12th. There are only two of these since there are 35 blocks in the quilt.

Once I had those finished, I laid them out in order. Keep in mind that the blocks have a white sashing between them. Here is the quilt as pictured on the pattern:

And here are my blocks laid out in order.

It's tempting to sew them all together right now, but I'm going to put this aside and work on something else for a while. This is my November NewFO project. Don't forget that the linky party goes live this coming Saturday.

With that done, I started the Cranberry Orange Chutney I've been wanting to try. Recently I found a recipe for cranberry chutney somewhere (can't remember where), but it didn't have instructions about whether it was safe for canning. I love chutneys of all flavors, and I was thinking this would be nice for gift-giving. So, I contacted our Oregon State University Extension Service, which is a state-wide service. They have an "Ask an Expert" feature that worked great. I simply filled out their email form with my question about how to test a recipe to see if it can be canned safely. As it turns out, that is not as easy as it sounds. Also, it's quite expensive from what I could find out. So, they couldn't answer my question about the recipe I submitted, but they did send me this great tested recipe as an alternative. Good enough!

Today I made it, and oh man, is it ever good! It has that nice tart-sweet chutney flavor, and the fruity cranberry flavor really comes through. The recipe made nine half pints, and these will make great gifts for neighbors, friends, and really, anybody you want to surprise with a nice little inexpensive gift. Also, it will taste really good as an accompaniment to turkey. It is not intended to be your sweet cranberry sauce side dish. Rather, it would serve as a condiment, and it would be delicious on turkey sandwiches. Need I say more?

So you can find the recipe right here. Give it a try and see what you think. And my sincere thanks to Nellie Oehler at the OSU Extension Service for her helpful response to my "Ask an Expert" question. Don't you just love the internet? How did we live before the internet?

So I still have a few things on my to-do list for today. I need to fold all the stuff in my laundry basket...you know, socks and stuff...and I need to make up a grocery list for tomorrow. I'm happy to have enough food to take us through Thanksgiving, so I only need the stuff on my Thanksgiving menu.

On Wednesday, I'll link this post to:

I've been having fun today. How about you? Did you do anything fun on this pre-Thanksgiving Monday?