New Thanksgiving Discovery

I like cranberries, but not in their traditional Thanksgiving manifestation: the sauce/jelly Ocean Spray can. It was too suspect a product when I was younger and pickier: red and jiggly=totally untrustworthy. We will throw them on the table of other who may prefer to partake.

However this Thanksgiving morning, I threw the Alton Brown Good Eats Thanksgiving episode in the laptop for inspiration as I started to prep the Turkey. He didn't have a jellied or thick sauce, he had a smooth dipping sauce. And I had most of a bag of fresh berries (a small amount was destined for salad dressing) and almost everything else on hand. So what the hey? Other than the fact that I neglected to let it cool, so I was frustrated by the lack of thickening before I blended it. I lost a white t-shirt to the cause, due to slightly explosive blender. Anyway, it worked out well, I even liked my little taste. Fruit on my turkey still not my thing, but a nice spicy tart option.

I do expect a stick blender, if someone want to see this again next year.

Holiday Green Beans

2 cups fresh or frozen green beans, trimmed
2 cups fresh or frozen yellow wax beans, trimmed
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
3 Tbsp. pine nuts or cashews, toasted
1/2 tsp. dried tarragon leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
dash pepper

Preparation:

Place green and yellow beans in heavy saucepan and add water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium and cook for 8-10 minutes until beans are tender if fresh, according to package directions if frozen.
Drain well in colander. Add all remaining ingredients to beans and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes to melt butter and blend flavors, stirring constantly. Serves 8