Recipes & Food Styling

Happy National Cranberry Relish Day!

My mom Jeanne adored cranberries so much that one of her nieces even lovingly called her “Aunt Cranberry!” She bought a dehydrator so she could dehydrate cranberries & cranberry leaves to make cranberry wreaths, bags of pot pourri, little peplum sachet pillows & more. The walls of her dining room were decorated with watercolor paintings of cranberries and her two beloved wooden cranberry scoops that were actually used to harvest cranberries in Wisconsin. One of her cranberry scoops is pictured here. She made cranberry goat milk soap with real cranberries & designed beautiful custom cranberry labels for them. She rarely missed the Cranberry Festival in Warrens, Wisconsin. When I traveled frequently to Europe, the Caribbean & South America I learned that cranberries are a North American treasure. You couldn’t get a vodka & cranberry at a pub in London; they had never heard of cranberry juice. That’s all changed since then thanks to outreach by Ocean Spray & more. So it’s wonderful that America has a National day dedicated to cranberries & Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without them!

Cranberry Relish

One 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries

1 3/4 Cups sugar

1 Cup water

1 Honey Crisp Apple, peeled and chopped in small pieces

2 Oranges, grated and zested

2 Lemons, grated and zested

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

3 Star Anise

1 Cinnamon Stick

1 Teaspoon tarragon, chopped- for color garnish

Cook all ingredients in saucepan on medium heat for about 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Remove star anise and cinnamon stick. Sprinkle slivers of orange peel and chiffonade tarragon on top.