A Thanksgiving Surprise

There are people in my life dealing with real, seemingly unending crises, and I then I wonder why I can't even manage to post to this site regularly. I try... I really, really do. I've been holding on to this great recipe that my Aunt Toni shared with our family on Thanksgiving for cranberry salsa. I need to share it because it's simple, it's delicious, and it's appropriately festive. And it's a great way to use up any leftover cans of cranberry sauce (you know - that stuff that is unnaturally can-shaped).

One gripe is that I can't find a brand of whole berry sauce that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup. It's not the end of the world, but I'd rather limit my intake of that particular, pervasive ingredient. If anyone has a favorite HFCS-free brand - let me know.

A quick word about my family - there are a lot of us. I come from a huge family and have only recently begun to appreciate how different from a small family that really is. My mom comes from a family of 10 and my dad comes from a family of 8. Thankfully, we don't try to be with both families for every major holiday. We spend Thanksgiving with my dad's family and Christmas with my mom's family. For both occasions all the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and associated spouses descend with food and beverages galore. For outsiders these events can be daunting I'm sure - but to me - it's normal.

There are old standbys that particular people bring every year, but occasionally a new entrant captures the hearts of many and then the recipe gets passed around (that happened to a soup I took to Thanksgiving several years ago). This year at Thanksgiving it was Aunt Toni's cranberry recipe that had people shoving crackers at each other saying "Try this!" We also have a tradition of naming recipes for the person that either made it or liked it the most. Chocolate cake made with buttermilk will forever be "Tommy cake."

I hope you like this recipe as much as we have.

Toni's Cranberry Salsa
Sauce:
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup horseradish
2 Tbs. brown sugar
2 Tbs. spicy brown mustard
1/4 cup lemon juice*
To serve:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
crackers

Directions:
Mix the sauce ingredients together, place in a covered container, and refrigerate overnight or at least four hours (the time allows everything to meld and mellow).

When you are ready to serve place the cream cheese on a plate, and pour the salsa over the cream cheese.









*Full disclosure - the pictured version only had half the lemon juice because I had cooked with lemon that night and thought I had more than I did - the lemon is necessary, but may work as a "to taste" ingredient.