Cranberry Salsa

Kenny beat me to posting this, but it’s worth pointing out for those who don’t read both of our blogs…

A few years ago, my mom found and clipped a recipe for cranberry salsa. We made it for Thanksgiving that year, and it was really good, but we sort of forgot about it for a few years. This year, we went to the big Thanksgiving bash at our Cousin Sunny’s (as we often do), and we made a large batch of the salsa as an alternative to the standard cranberry relish that is also served. The salsa was a huge hit – we got compliments from everyone, and several people asked me for the recipe (one of whom has already made it for her friends now, who have in turn asked for it).

We made it extra spicy by adding a couple of extra serrano chiles. You can scale it up or down to fit your taste. The recipe is here and it is awesome.

Hummus

I am a fan of this hummus recipe on Epicurious. However, this makes a monstrously huge amount (and, in my opinion, doesn’t call for enough olive oil or garlic), so I like to adjust the proportions:

  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cans TJ’s organic chick-peas, drained and rinsed
  • 1/3 cup well stirred tahini
  • 1/8 cup fresh lemon juice, or to taste
  • 1/3 cup olive oil, or to taste
  • 1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted lightly

This is still rather large, but is easily cut in half if one desires.

Yummy Tahini SauceTonight I discovered an even easier way to make this, using “Tahini Sauce”. This is also found at my favorite store, TJ’s. The sauce already contains tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil (note that the sauce is pretty yummy on its own too, although I prefer hummus). You’ll still need to add a bit more of each of those ingredients yourself to get the taste just right. Here’s what I used tonight:

  • 3 tablespoons Tahini Sauce
  • 1 can TJ’s organic chick-peas
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 2 cloves of garlic

This came out pretty good, and was a reasonable amount for 2 people to actually finish in a few days. :)