Makes about 2 cups

Fresh and frozen cranberries work equally well. If you are using frozen, add one to two minutes to the cooking time.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
The standard back-of-the-bag recipe for cranberry sauce came out a little soupy. Cranberries contain a lot of water, and cutting down on the additional liquid yielded the ideal consistency. We found frozen cranberries worked equally as well as fresh, but we needed to increase the cooking time slightly. Leaving our Basic Cranberry Sauce on the stove for too long left us with a mushy red mash, so it was important to keep a close eye on the sauce as it cooked.

Makes about 1 cup

Fresh and frozen cranberries work equally well. If you are using frozen, add one to two minutes to the cooking time.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
With a little doctoring, we turned our recipe for Basic Cranberry Sauce into a versatile Cranberry Vinaigrette. The standard back-of-the-bag cranberry sauce recipe was a little soupy. Cranberries contain a lot of water, and cutting down on the additional liquid yields the ideal consistency. We found frozen cranberries worked equally well as fresh, but we needed to increase the cooking time slightly. Leaving the cranberry sauce for our Cranberry Vinaigrette Sauce on the stove for too long left us with a mushy red mash, so it was important to keep a close eye on it as it cooked.

Makes about 2 cups

Fresh and frozen cranberries work equally well. If you are using frozen, add one to two minutes to the cooking time. Be sure to use real maple syrup, not the maple-flavored stuff. See below for our tips for easy citrus segmenting.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
The standard back-of-the-bag recipe for Orange-Maple Cranberry Sauce was a little soupy. Cranberries contain a lot of water, and cutting down on the additional liquid yielded the ideal consistency. We found frozen cranberries worked equally well as fresh, but we needed to increase the cooking time slightly. Leaving our Basic Cranberry Sauce on the stove for too long left us with a mushy red mash, so it was important to keep a close eye on it as it cooked.

Makes about 2 cups

Fresh and frozen cranberries work equally well. If you are using frozen, add one to two minutes to the cooking time. Ginger ale can be substituted for the ginger beer, though the ginger flavor will be less pronounced

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
The standard back-of-the-bag recipe for cranberry sauce was a little soupy. Cranberries contain a lot of water, and cutting down on the additional liquid yielded the ideal consistency. Replacing the water with ginger beer and adding grated fresh ginger added a unique flavor to our Pear-Ginger Cranberry Sauce. Shredded pear added sweetness. We found frozen cranberries worked equally well as fresh, but we needed to increase the cooking time slightly. Leaving our Pear-Ginger Cranberry Sauce on the stove for too long left us with a mushy red mash, so it was important to keep a close eye on it as it cooked.

Makes about 2 cups

Fresh and frozen cranberries and raspberries work equally well. If you are using frozen, add one to two minutes to the cooking time. Sprite and 7UP are both good soda choices here. Don’t use diet soda.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
The standard back-of-the-bag recipe for cranberry sauce was a little soupy. Cranberries contain a lot of water, and cutting down on the additional liquid yielded the ideal consistency. Sprite and 7UP were both good soda choices to replace the water in this recipe, as long as we didn’t use the diet varieties. We found frozen cranberries worked equally well as fresh, but we needed to increase the cooking time slightly. Leaving our Raspberry-Lemon Cranberry Sauce on the stove for too long left us with a mushy red mash, so it was important to keep a close eye on it as it cooked.

Make it ahead: refrigerate the mashed potatoes for up to 2 days. To reheat, place ina double boiler or glass bowl set over (but not in) simmering water, adding whole milk as necessary to adjust consistency until heated through, 15-20 minutes

Corn Casserole is one of my favorite sides during the holidays or at potlucks during any time of the year. It is the easiest recipe to throw together and can be prepared with various ingredients mixed in. Me? I like it in its simplest form, with mainly cheese, corn and corn bread. Mmmm…mmmm…good!

Some people like to top their corn casserole with cheese, but I like to stir it into the mix instead. It’s really just a preference thing, so you can decide. I just don’t like to cover up the yummy crackly corn bread with greasy looking melted cheese. But, hey, I’m not going to try and sway your opinion.