I love cranberries so much I made them two ways for this year’s Thanksgiving – in cranberry salad, and this cranberry sauce. I love the cranberry salad by itself, but I love the cranberry sauce with turkey, on a sandwich, or topping the pancakes I’ll share with you soon that I made with the leftover sweet potatoes.

Honestly, I didn’t measure anything very carefully, but just tasted it and added things until I liked the flavor. But, it turned out so well, I at least wanted to have a record for next year of what I put in. I think this kind of thing is best made tasting as you go anyway, since what it needs will depend on the flavor and sweetness of your cranberries.

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First in a series of Thanksgiving posts. I know it’s way too late for this year, but in case you want to really, really plan ahead…

As I was looking for a new way to make sweet potatoes this year, I found this recipe from 101 Cookbooks, and I’m so glad I decided to try it. The coconut milk and ginger are a nice departure from the usual brown sugar and pecans or marshmallows, and they are just sweet enough but not overly so. I adapted the recipe slightly from the original, using hazelnuts instead of macadamias, and adding a bit of brown sugar. The leftovers were great in pancakes, which I’ll share sometime soon.
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This is the recipe for butternut squash soup that I mentioned in my last post, but I decided it deserved its own so it could be found more easily later. It comes from our good family friend, Kelly Branson. It’s deliciously smooth and rich. The goat cheese, pine nuts, and chives garnishes are optional, but I highly recommend including them, especially the goat cheese and pine nuts.

Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe from Kelly Branson

2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
4 c chicken stock
1 1/4 c crème fraîche or sour cream
2 T butter
salt and pepper
pinch of cayenne
1 T sugar
several chives, chopped
goat cheese
toasted pine nuts

Combine squash and stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes, or until squash is tender. (Puree can be made a couple days in advance). Cool a bit, and puree the mix in a blender. Return puree to saucepan, and turn heat to medium low. Stir in crème fraîche and butter. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Cook, stirring until heated through. (Do not allow to boil.) Add sugar. Keep warm over low heat. Garnish with goat cheese, pine nuts, and chives.

So I got the idea of stuffing acorn squash with pears a month or two ago from a post at briciole, someone commented suggesting gorgonzola, and I went from there. This is good as a not-too-sweet dessert, which was how I made it, but it could probably be a side dish or even a main dish with a few sides. This was a very good combination and one I will definitely make again.

Ingredients:
1 Acorn squash
about 1/3 c crumbled Gorgonzola
about 1/2 c Pecans, roughly chopped
1 Pear, chopped into 1/2″ cubes
a couple T Brown sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut acorn squash in half and scrape out seeds. Put a little bit of water in a jelly roll pan, and place halves of squash upside down in the pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, until squash is just tender. Meanwhile, mix gorgonzola, pecans, pears, and brown sugar. I’m not really sure if the amounts I listed above are right, so eyeball it. When the squash is done, turn it rightside up and mound the filling in each half. You may have to slice off the top of the squash so that it will sit flat. You want the filling really mounded up as much as possible, as it will cook down a little bit. Empty the water out of the pan, and bake the filled squash for another 7 minutes or so, until the topping is a little bit brown.