My Absolute Favorite Thanksgiving Dish

There are few things that I enjoy more than cooking. I grew up going to a ton of family gatherings where the food was the main focus. Buzzing around in the kitchen while the women made turkeys & hams, collard greens & green beans, mashed potatoes & candied yams, and buttered biscuits & sweet rolls, it was all so much fun. As I got older, I started out snapping green beans and cleaning collard greens. I was promoted to dough mixer (a patently difficult job, that we gratefully have machines for now).  All that dough practice led me to baking, and I became the resident holiday cookie maker. I honestly feel like I was raised in the kitchen and those holiday meals where my culinary pre-school.

As I grew up, instead of watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, I watched cooking shows on PBS. I drove my mother nuts! There were many failed dishes, but my family was supportive and we ate them all. Fortunately for everyone, I perfected my cookie game, and by the time I was in high school, I could make cookies from almost any set of ingredients in the kitchen. All those mornings watching Julia Childs and Jacque Pepin leveled up my cooking substantially, and by the time I was introduced to the Food Network in college I was already a dorm room chef. Now, of course, all this bragging about my cooking abilities doesn’t help you one bit, but I do want to impart one of my favorite holiday dishes. It was the absolute first holiday dish that I learned to cook to perfection, and have received rave reviews for ever since.

What’s this magical dish, you ask? It’s Fresh Cranberry Sauce! Of all those holiday get togethers I remember from my childhood, the cranberry sauce always came out of a can – usually bought from the nearest Walgreens. I’m sure it was the influence of one of the hundreds of cooking shows I’d watched, but I just knew I could do better. So, one Thanksgiving, I offered to bring the cranberry sauce. Most people thought I was going to do like everyone else – just get the can, maybe two, if I was feeling generous. I totally shocked their pants off with a Fresh, Homemade Cranberry Sauce! It was a hit and I’ve since been commissioned to make it every year. 

No worries, I won’t be stingy. I’ve included the recipe below:

12 oz. Fresh Cranberries

½ cup Honey

½ cup Water

¼ cup Orange Juice

½ tsp Grated Cinnamon

1 tbls Unsalted Butter

½ tsp Vanilla Extract

¼ tsp Kosher Salt

Empty a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries into a saucepan with the ½ cup of water. Bring the cranberries to a simmer and added honey, orange juice, and cinnamon. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries are soft, about 10 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and cook until the cranberries burst, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat and add the unsalted butter, vanilla extract and salt, to taste. Let the dish cool to room temperature before serving.


*Written by Lindsay S., a proud writer, cranberry sauce aficionado, and Redwood resident.