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The Supermarket Gourmet

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Eggs By the Numbers

by Buck Reed

As popular as eggs are, each person in the United States eats about 270 per year. That still adds up to a $10 billion a year business that employs 125,000 full-time employees. That is certainly something to crow about.

As far as purchasing eggs for you and your family, free-range chicken eggs are better than mass-produced eggs. Free-range chicken eggs can cost 2-3 times more than those found in the supermarket, but are worth every penny in terms of flavor and freshness. A chicken who scratches out at least part of her nutrition from the backyard will produce a better egg. Scientifically speaking, happy chickens make better eggs. There is a ton of data to support this.

As far as the culinary world, eggs are an essential part of our world. A chef’s hat has a multitude of folds, each one representing a different way they can cook an egg. Omelets, scrambled, or fried are just a few of the many ways we can enjoy eggs every morning. In baking, eggs have an important function in stabilizing finished products, making them firm. As an ingredient, they also add richness and nutrition to everything they touch. This little miracle ingredient could be the most important part of any cook’s or baker’s repertoire.

As far as eating eggs safely, they have a dubious reputation. For every study that says they are good for you, someone will fund a study that says they are bad for you. To some extent, it is about the money. You won’t see the Egg Council fund a study saying eggs are dangerous to your health nor the Big Time Cereal corporations fund a study that says eggs are the wonder food for nutrition. That being said, you should monitor your health and eat eggs in moderation.

Eggs are best eaten fresh. The best way to determine freshness is to put them in a pot of water and see if they float. If they do float, they are old and should be discarded. The white or albumen part should have two distinct parts, described as thick and thin. After it is cracked the thick part surrounding the yolk should actually stand up looking like a mountain. As it ages, the thick albumen becomes thinner.

No matter how you eat your eggs, you should take the time to prepare them well. Just in case they really are super bad for you, you may as well make sure you enjoy them.

The Supermarket Gourmet

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by Buck Reed

Chili Nation

The exact origins of chili are muddled at best. The only sure thing is that it is an American dish that is only made in Mexico for tourists. In most Mexican culture, chili con carne is considered a vile dish served and eaten in the United States, from California to New York. So, I do not believe anyone would dispute our claim that this is an American dish.

Chili can find its origins all the way back to the 1600s, where a nun, Sister Mary of Agreda of Spain, said she ministered to the American Indians, who never even met her. She never left Spain, but it is said that she would go into lifeless trances for days, in which she claims she brought spiritual guidance to a faraway land. The Indians of North America called her spirit “The lady in Blue.” She is credited with being the first person to write out a recipe using antelope meat, onions, spices, chilis, and tomatoes. Every great dish should have a mystical element in its history. If we only could have worked in how Excalibur was used to chop the meat in the first chili.

Chili eventually found it’s way to the New World, and firmly found its place in the cattle drives of the 1850s. Dried beef was mixed with dried chilis and spices and formed into bricks that could easily travel and be rehydrated into a hot meal on the long drives. By the 1860s, the Texas penal system adopted chili to feed the inmates a cheap meal. Criminals would actually rate a jail house by the quality of the chili they served.

By the 1880s, Latino women would sell bowls of homemade chili, kept warm over mesquite fires from brightly colored carts. These women were dubbed “Chili Queens” and were considered a must-have for both a quick lunch or a late-night meal after a night of drinking. By the 1930s, they were put out of business due to poor health standards. A resurgence of the Chili Queens started in the 1980s, when San Antonio began doing historic reenactments, with a festival dedicated to them held in May.

The Chili Queens were quickly replaced by chili houses all through Texas, as well as the surrounding states. As this was the Depression, nearly every town had an establishment, and chili, being a cheap dish to produce, got many people through the hardest times. In these one-room houses, with little more than a counter and some stools, a bowl of chili was served with all the crackers you could eat.

Cincinnati made its mark on chili in 1922, when Athanas Kiradjieff, also known as Tom, made a chili with Greek spices and served it over spaghetti. Five-way chili is served layered with cheese, onions, and kidney beans, and served with a side of hot dogs.

If you want proof that Chicago is the home of dirty politics, you can look no further than its treatment of chili and its origins. First, they spell it with two “L’s” to more closely resemble Illinois. And in a shameful and immoral move, Illinois State Senator Karen Harasa introduced Resolution No. 89 in the Illinois General Assembly, which proclaimed Illinois to be known as “The Chilli Capital of the Civilized World.” Texans are still pretty angry about that one.

Make It Easy

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The Supermarket Gourmet

by Buck Reed

What is cheating exactly? In life, we are taught not to drive on the shoulder to avoid a traffic jam. But who is to say that you shouldn’t do that? Why can’t we just ignore the rules, throw caution to the wind, and just save ourselves some time and keep moving forward? Because some things are just wrong. The culinary world is no different. There are just some things you do not do, and there are some things that are just not that bad.

Take Yankee pot roast. I have a crock pot of it going right now. I could make it from scratch, but I opted for the Lipton Onion Soup recipe. This recipe is so standard for this dish that they don’t even print the recipe on the box anymore. Sure, I can take the time to purchase all the ingredients, measure them out and prepare it from scratch. But what would be the point. Lipton makes a product that not only makes an okay soup, but a really good pot roast as well. I would go so far as to say a better pot roast than one made from scratch. Clearly, no one is going to culinary jail over this dish.

Is it cheating if it makes a better dish or is it a question of having the time we save for something else. Sometimes, we must take the time to learn how to properly utilize a product in order to use it to make things not only easier, but better as well. That goes for working dishes made from scratch, as well as using a short cut.

For instance, take box cake mixes. There are a lot of mixes that make cakes, but they are seldom as good as ones baked from scratch. But, if we take a little time and do a little research, we will find several ideas that can kick that mix up a few notches. Try adding an extra egg to the mix and using mayonnaise instead of vegetable oil. Also try substituting milk for the water, or even better, if you are making a chocolate cake, use coffee or cola. Adding a couple of dollops of sour cream will help make your cake moist. For the price of a few extra ingredients, you can have a significantly better product.

Short cuts are no different than lining your pans with aluminum foil before you turn them into a mess. If you learn how to properly use short cuts, you might find yourself cooking more often.  And if these ideas do save you a little time, use it to look up some ideas for your next short cut.

What is your culinary cheat/shortcut? Is there a product that comes in a box that helps you in the kitchen? Let me know at rguyinthekitchen@aol.com.

Following the Trend

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The Supermarket Gourmet

by Buck Reed

From the time Homo erectus placed his mastodon rib over the fire he had just invented, we have been experimenting with how to cook in the pursuit of the perfect meal. This is not the search for the perfect tasting meal, but the best way to produce the perfect meal. It seems that these days, almost every day there is a new trend, a newly discovered ingredient, an obscure cuisine, an all-encompassing new diet, or some clever technique that is thrust into the lime light and, for a brief time, we are held captive to it. The sad part is, unlike fire, these ideas are cast aside for the next big thing, almost before we can grasp them.

Some of these trends are a flash in the pans, like Southwest cuisine, and others have real staying power, like Pizza joints. Others are throwbacks, like cast iron skillet cookery, to a kitchen history that was all the rage only to be lost and then brought back.

In order to understand these trends and get the most from them, we have to look at history. We need to go all the way back to the late 19th century to Auguste Escoffier and his book, The Guide to Modern Cuisine. In this book, he wrote out all the various elements of French cuisine and broke down each recipe to the techniques, as well as the measurements for each ingredient. Before his book, anyone trying to explain a recipe for the professional chef was giving a list of the elements or ingredients with no measurements. It was up to each professional chef to learn these measurements on his own, as well as the techniques needed to produce them. This called for decades of practice as an apprentice and then a cook in a professional kitchen. Today, we can do the same thing online, apparently in a class named after Auggie. I can hear him spinning in his grave.

It can almost be a full-time job keeping up with all these trends. No sooner does one pop up, it is quickly replaced by the next one. By the time a book or a trendy magazine article is written about the next big thing, it is over and the next one has taken over. I do not even think the internet will be able to keep up.

What once took time and effort to learn for the professional can now be “mastered” by the amateur cook during a weekend class. You can spend a couple hours a week in a local culinary class or spend a vacation in a foreign country, getting a real taste of another country’s local fare, as you learn to prepare it yourself. For the professional chef, following a career path can be fairly typical for everyone; but for the amateur cook, there are many ways to go.

How are you keeping up with culinary trends? Do you have a chance to try any at home? Let me know at RGuyintheKitchen@aol.com.

Supermarket Gourmet Throwing Tricks

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by Buck Reed

In last month’s article, I used the term “throwing tricks.” This in no way made me popular with my colleagues in the food service industry and may have confused a few of the many fans of The Supermarket Gourmet. So, I wanted to take a moment to express my absolute respect for what they do. The techniques they are preforming are obviously something they must practice and perfect before serving it on a plate for which they are charging you money. With that in mind, I thought I might share a few tricks I have thrown in my career.

One of my first tricks was learned during my time in the Navy, in the Galley of the USS Cushing. During extended time out to sea, we would unavoidably run out of fresh food. We could supplement with frozen or canned veggies. All our meat, poultry, and seafood was frozen, so no problem there. It was the dehydrated foods we had to deal with that would need our tender loving care. After ten or so days of dehydrated eggs and mashed potatoes, we would have to get creative. Before the eggs and fresh potatoes ran out, our chief would have us freeze a couple of egg shells and a couple pounds of potato peelings. Just as the crew was getting tired of our instant creations, we could slip our hidden treasure into someone’s tray. An egg shell in the eggs of the sailor with the biggest mouth was like gold in the propaganda arsenal of the naval cook, as was cooking the potato peelings into the instant mashed potatoes. For really extended cruising periods, we would have to rely on a steak and lobster tail dinner to get our shipmates over the underway depression.

Lately, I have been struggling with thoughts of dehydrated foods, mostly online with a group I am a member of, dedicated to Italian food. Last week, someone posted about using dehydrated marinara sauce. Almost everybody rejected it outright, but some people defended it. They said it was a great way to save time, and others thought it was a real money saver. I couldn’t agree with either of these opinions. As far as time, a good tomato sauce really can be made in a relatively short amount of time and will taste way better than the dehydrated mess. And, if you are considering price, you can find a jarred sauce on sale on any given day, and with a little manipulation, you can turn it into a nice dish.

So, can a dehydrated tomato sauce find a place in my pantry? Absolutely, but not as a standalone sauce to be poured over pasta. I can see using it to enhance a soup or stew, if it can add a unique, respectable flavor to it. Maybe it can add a good tomato flavor as a secondary component of a dish.

The idea is to not turn down an idea as a first response. After all, Yankee pot roast wouldn’t be the same without instant onion soup. Some of the best chowders in New England are made with canned milk. Bouillon cubes are not my go-to for stock, but crushed up and added to fried potatoes can transform Lyonnaise potatoes into an amazing side dish. It really is about looking at these components like an ingredient and getting the most out of it.

Do you use a dehydrated food product in a unique way? I would love to hear about it or any ideas you have for an article. Please write to me at RGuyintheKitchen@aol.com.

The Supermarket Gourmet

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Buck Reed
Buy the Book

Even though trends indicate that less people are cooking at home these days, cookbook sales are climbing almost every year by 3-6 percent. Who is buying cookbooks? Not surprisingly, over 60 percent are bought by women, of which most are college educated. According to my wife, the other 23 percent are bought by me. And, 76 percent of people who buy two cookbooks a year say they cook at home at least once a week. Cookbooks bought for personal use are clocked in at 70 percent, while the remaining 30 percent are bought as gifts. And what kind of cookbooks are they buying? American cooking tops the list, followed by Italian cuisine, desserts, and seafood.

So, what type of cookbook would best suit you? Well, you must ask yourself if you are looking to cook better or become a better cook. If you just want to cook better, then you are looking for recipes that will actually work and you can easily follow. This is called having faith in the book. However, if you want to become a better cook, you want a book that will explain how the basic techniques work, and how to get the most out of ingredients. The books you are looking for will inspire you to think “outside the recipe.”

How can you tell if a cookbook is not for you? As you thumb through it, look through the ingredients. Are they calling for things like saffron or truffles in every recipe? You have to ask yourself if you are really going to cook with truffles at $1,300 per pound? Is the book trying to get you to Sous Vide everything, which isn’t a bad technique and could elevate your game considerably, but could be difficult for people who are tim- challenged.

Some of my favorite books include authors such as James Peterson. He puts out a book about every two to three years and usually tackles one element of cooking. He explains things very well, in an easy manner that most everyone can understand. Then there is the other side, with Kevin Gillespie and his book, Fire in my Belly. It is easy for me to say that I can get a lot from this book, not just with his inspiring stories about food but his recipes as well. Take his sweet bread recipe. Although I doubt many of us will ever really cook with them or even try this recipe, he tops his fried sweet breads with a celery relish. Looking at this recipe, I cannot help but think this relish would be great in tuna or chicken salad, which most of us make and eat. So, from this one recipe that most would pass by, we can elevate our cooking.

A cookbook shouldn’t just be a collection of recipes. It should inspire you to actually cook something. It should tell you something about the ingredients, the region the recipe comes from, and how the person feels about this dish. You may never cook with geoduck, but maybe a good seafood cookbook will encourage you to pick up those clams at the grocery store.

Buck Reed The Supermarket Gourmet

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It’s An Ingredient, Not a Snack

Unless you are lactose intolerant, I think we can all agree butter is a pretty great thing. Not only can it be argued that it is better for you than margarine, but it enhances most anything you add it to. Mashed potatoes need butter. Hot biscuits need butter. But as great as butter is, most people do not get a bowl of it and eat it like ice cream when watching a movie. There are so many ingredients that are misunderstood, because so many people believe they are just too gross to eat as a stand-alone food.

Take capers for instance. Capers are the unopened buds of a bush found in the Mediterranean that are picked and pickled. My wife made the mistake of introducing herself to them by eating a small handful of them by themselves. Now, convinced that she hates them, she will not even try them in any dish I make them in. These little buds are not a snack food, but are desperately seeking a dish or sauce they can enhance.

Anchovies seem to have the reputation as the food everyone loves to hate. Anchovies are tiny salt water fish that are gutted, salted, and aged, then packed in oil jars or tins. They have a strong flavor that almost no one would munch by the handful, but as an ingredient, when used correctly, can enhance many dishes loved all over the world. Anchovies are used to create Worcestershire sauce, and if you do not use them to make Caesar dressing, it just doesn’t cut it (I am talking to you, Texas Roadhouse).

How about Bleu cheese? This is a fromage in which a mold is introduced, in a very controlled environment, to create an extremely pungent flavor. For full disclosure, I am one of those people who can actually cut off a hunk of this cheese and eat it on a cracker (on purpose). But most people would rather have it toned down in a dressing. If you want something amazing, try pairing it with pears—raw, poached, or even canned.

Fish sauce is the darling of every chef looking for the ever-elusive umami. Fish sauce is a brown Asian liquid extracted from various ingredients, including fermented fish. Rest assured, it will not be taking the place of root beer or ginger ale as the drink of choice, but it should be in the kitchen of anyone who wants to be a better cook. Use it to develop the flavors in soups, stews, and sauces.

No one would argue that liverwurst makes a great addition to a charcuterie tray, if for no other reason that, with so many choices on the tray, it would be easy to avoid. No doubt there are those who would eat a liverwurst sandwich every day, and served with French mustard and little pickles, it makes for a great no-fuss meal. But try adding a bit to the stuffing you make for your next roast chicken. It also makes a great addition for hash, meat loaf, Salisbury steak, or meatballs.

Opening your mind to a few misunderstood ingredients, and learning how to use them, could open your dining room table to some amazing meals. Just a little time and some experimentation might be needed to expand your repertoire.

Want to tell me about your secret ingredient? Or you have a question about this article or any of the ones from the past? Maybe you have an idea about a future article. If so, I would love to hear from you at rguyinthekitchen@aol.com

Food Celebrations of November

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Buck Reed, The Supermarket Gourmet

As far as food celebrations go, Thanksgiving takes the spotlight for not only the month of November, but quite possibly the whole year. Let’s face it, if food were a sport, then that one Thursday in November would be the Super Bowl, World Series, and Stanley Cup, all rolled into one. Thanksgiving has all the advantages: the iconic foods we all love that we only see once a year; the good gravy; the family traditionally congregating around the table; and, if you do it correctly, three kinds of pie for dessert. Did the Fourth of July really have a chance? But if we took away this day—pretend turkeys are extinct, soon to be followed by cranberry sauce—we might find out that November has a full menu of other food festivities.

The first thing we find is that November is National Sweet Potato Awareness Month (big surprise). We should all be aware that sweet potatoes are chock-full of beta-carotene, which is a big help in general nutrition and an excellent antioxidant. We should also be aware that sweet potatoes are great baked, mashed, boiled, candied (with little marshmallows), and French fried.

The eleventh month also claims to be National Peanut Butter month. This is convenient because November 3 is also National Sandwich Day. So, a peanut butter sandwich, with some milk, is an easy means of celebration to toast the day. Anyway, it beats defrosting a turkey, figuring out a 20-minutes-per-pound roasting time, and making stuffing.

November 2 happens to be Deviled Egg Day. November 14 is Guacamole Day, and November 17 is Homemade Bread Day. Right off the bat, I want to know who is on this committee, anyway. Wouldn’t it be way better if bread day was the day before sandwich day? Clearly, this was a government operation, and proves my point that government hates us and always will.

November 23 is Eat a Cranberry Day, November 25 is Parfait Day, and Chocolate Day brings up a big finish on November 29. Oh, and November 15 is National Clean Out Your Fridge Day, probably a practice day for when you will have to do it again a few days before Thanksgiving. Make it into a tradition and use any food that isn’t discarded to make a casserole. It may not be a meal to rival that turkey, but it most certainly will be memorable.

In an effort to promote food safety in the home, November 29 is Discard Your Leftovers Day. If you haven’t used up your turkey and cranberry sauce to make delicious post-thanksgiving sandwiches, then our friends at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) want you to be aware that it has to go. Since it is that time of year, there is plenty of information on the proper handling of leftovers to be found online.

So, even if we were to take away Thanksgiving—and in this politically correct world, it could happen—November would still have plenty to offer the culinary world.

Season to Taste

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Buck Reed, The Supermarket Gourmet

“Season to taste.” In the world of culinary arts, this might seem like a small sentence, but in the kitchen this can be a big concept. Say “season to taste” to the wrong student and the fear in his or her eyes grows faster than the line at a Vegas buffet. Immediately, they want to know how much salt they should use. Why can’t they measure it out? You would think I was asking them to design and build a nuclear power plant.

For a few, “season to taste” was a concept easily absorbed, but for many, you had to drag them kicking and screaming—they just were not going to get it. Trying to explain it in an article may seem impossible, but you can’t really write an abstract piece every month and not try to tackle the big ideas. (Just writing a sentence like that proves I have the ego to try.)

On the cruise ships, we called it the blessing. Every soup or sauce got seasoned with salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. Naturally, we did this as a last step, and it is probably more important than any other step. Seasoning your dish properly will not save a bad dish, but if done properly, it can turn a good dish into something memorable.

The trick is moderation. Just as we do not want to over-salt a dish, we do not want to overdo it with any of the ingredients in the blessing. Clearly, a certain finesse is called for in this situation. You want to add enough lemon juice or vinegar to make you wonder what that was, yet not so much as it over-powers the dish. In this case, practice makes perfect.

Many professional chefs employ a salt and pepper blend, enhancing the mixture with different spices or herbs. Kosher or sea salt is preferred because of its size; being a bigger grain, it makes it easier for us to measure how much we have when we use our fingers as we add it. Pepper and Tabasco add a piquant flavor to the dish. Worcestershire sauce adds an umami flavor to your dish. Umami is a fairly recent term used to describe a savory flavor in food. Lemon juice adds an acidic flavor to food that when used correctly literally adds a lip-smacking quality to your dish.

Another great finishing ingredient used in a savory dish might be sugar. I like adding brown sugar to bean soups and salad dressings, and it even works well to enhance egg and tuna salad. The same rules apply as to not overwhelming the dish. Prepared mustard can add a unique flavor as well. Today, a lot of professional chefs are swearing by fish sauce as the miracle flavoring. They are adding it to everything from peanut butter sandwiches to ice cream.

Care must be taken to properly season your food in the end. It does you no good to make a beautiful broccoli soup, adjusting the consistency, chopping the vegetables, and getting just the right color, if you cannot season it correctly before you serve it.

If you have any questions or ideas on a future article, please feel free to stop me on the street (seriously, I am not that busy) or write to me at RGuyintheKitchen@aol.com.

June Food Celebrations

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Buck Reed, The Supermarket Gourmet

Just like every other month, June is filled with national and international food recognitions. Some make sense and others were clearly conceived by some advertising agent hoping to make a fast buck. Here are a few.

June is National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month. This makes sense because this is the first month in which really good, fresh local produce can easily be purchased. It is also National Iced Tea Month, because we need to be told to drink iced tea when it gets hot out. It should also be noted that Iced Tea Day is also celebrated on June 10. National Steakhouse Month and National Candy Month also fall in June, but don’t we really keep these in our hearts all through the year?

Most perplexing of all, though, is that National Turkey Month is celebrated in June as well. I guess it is just a bit too easy to appreciate turkey in November. Put Ginger Bread Day on June 5 in the same category, and it’s practically Thanksgiving in summer.

Doughnuts and ice cream get their due in June. National Doughnut Day on the June 5 and National Jelly Doughnut Day is June 8. Rocky Road Ice Cream Day is on June 2 and Chocolate Ice Cream Day is June 7. And then we have Frozen Yogurt Day on June 4, to keep something a bit healthier in mind. Don’t forget Root Beer Float Day, officially called Black Cow Day, on June 10, and Vanilla Milkshake Day on June 20. The Baskin Robbins/Dunkin’ Donuts® merger doesn’t seem so crazy now, does it?

And for those who bake, we have Strawberry Shortcake Day, German Chocolate Cake Day, and Applesauce Cake Day. Round it out with Apple Strudel Day, Strawberry & Rhubarb Pie Day, as well as Peanut Butter Cookie Day, and June becomes one sweet month. Maybe we should just celebrate the baker as well. 

So, why do we really have all these seemingly silly holidays celebrating what we eat? It is easy to be cynical and believe some Wall Street mogul, who is somehow leveraging these “holidays” into the cornerstone of their mighty empire, invented all these. At the very least, we can be grateful that the greeting card companies have not wedged their way in yet.

Yet I look on it with a tribe-like mentality. The tribe not only celebrated everything, but also treated it as sacred. At one point in history, our ancestors thought about what they ate and drank. They took the time to appreciate their meals and even celebrated them with others. The idea was that everything had its place in their world. That made everything sacred. And if everything wasn’t sacred, then nothing was.

So maybe taking an extra moment out of our lives to enjoy a glass of cognac with our fellow comrades on National Cognac Day this June 4th is a good start to making our society just a little more reasonable.

Have a question or an idea for an article, please contact me at RguyintheKitchen@aol.com.

A Cranberry for All Seasons

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Buck Reed, the Supermarket Gourmet

Overhead of a bucket of cranberries and a pot full of whole cranCranberries come from the family of Ericaceae, which is described as an evergreen dwarf. They are cultivated from October until December, which probably explains their popularity during the holiday season.

Cranberries are a great source of vitamin C, vitamin A, B-carotene, lutein, zea-xanthin, folate, potassium, and manganese. Studies have shown that the consumption of berries has potential health benefits against cancer, aging and neurological diseases, inflammation, diabetes, and bacterial infections. Also, cranberries have antioxidant compounds, which may prevent cardiovascular disease, help lower LDL cholesterol levels and increase HDL cholesterol levels in the blood. Furthermore, cranberries are beneficial to your teeth as well as your urinary tract.

They start out as a white berry that ripens to a deep red, and has a unique tart acidic flavor that overwhelms it’s sweet flavor. It goes without saying that they are most popular during Thanksgiving as a sauce served with roast turkey or sold as juice that is enjoyed all year long. This being the case, doesn’t it seem a shame most of us only enjoy the whole berry during the holiday season?

The easy solution is to buy fresh whole berries after the holiday season when the price drops, double bag them and keep them in the freezer, up to a year, until ready to use. You can also go ahead and cook them down a bit and again store them in an airtight container and freeze them for a quick enhancement to your everyday cooking. Freezing berries helps break the skin and makes the juice easier to extract, so when defrosting them, make sure you do so in a bowl to catch all the juice.

Here are a few ideas for using those cranberries:

Cook whole cranberries into your oatmeal for a morning delight.

Add whole cranberries into your pancake, waffle, or coffee cake recipe.

Use whole cranberries (frozen and thawed) in your sangria or mojito recipe, or add into a fruit punch for a sizzling summer pleasure.

Serve cranberry sauce with grilled sausage, pork or chicken at your next barbeque.

Add pureed cranberries into your favorite barbeque sauce for a unique flavor.

Mix cooked cranberries with mustard and serve with hot dogs or as a spread for any sandwich (roast turkey sounds like a natural).

Use whole cranberries in your favorite oatmeal or chocolate chip cookie recipe instead of raisins.

Puree cranberries into your favorite vinaigrette recipe and toss with salad greens (think raspberry vinaigrette).

Use cranberry sauce and walnuts on your baked Brie.

Add whole cranberries to a beef stew recipe.

Add whole cranberries or cooked cranberries into a baked cobbler or crisp recipe, with apples or most any other berry for a delicious dessert.

Just remember, now is the time to purchase your cranberries. If you need a recipe for any of these ideas, please email the editor at news@thecatoctinbanner.com.