Pickled Zucchini Spears

Pickled Zucchini Spears  

This recipe from Sherry Vinson's Put 'em Up! makes about 6 pints.

Ingredients:

4 pounds small zucchini or summer squash

1 large onion (chopped)

½ Cup salt

4 garlic cloves (halved or chopped rough)

4 Cups white vinegar

½ Cup sugar

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon peppercorns

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Optional crumbled bay leaf

Prepare your vegetables: Cut the zucchini (or squash) into spears an in shorter than your jars and then toss it in a largebowl with the salt. Cover with cold water and let sit two hours. Drain. Rinse.  Drain again. Then pack the squash mixture into clean hot pint jars and divide the garlic among them.

Prepare your brine: Bring the vinegar, sugar, and spices to a boil in a large nonreactive saucepan. Pour the hot bring over the vegetables (waiting in your jars) to cover by ½ inch and leave ½ inch of headspace.

Process: Use the hot water bath method. Release trapped air. Wipe jar rims clean. Put on lids. Process in hot water bath with 30 minutes at full rolling boil. Turn off heat. Let sit 5 minutes. Then remove to sit on the counter for 24 hours. Check seals and store for up to a year.  

These flavorful pickles won first prize at the Alaska State Fair!

Yellow Cake

This is based on the Yogurt Bismark Cake in Bakin' Without Eggs. It makes a simple yellow cake that is sturdy enough to transport individual slices for afternoon snack.

Yellow Cake

Preheat oven to 350. Get a stick of butter out of the fridge to warm to room temperature.

Grease and lightly flour a loaf pan. 

With a hand mixer cream together in a large bowl:

1/4 C butter (room temperature)

1 Cup granulated sugar

1 Cup yogurt (plain or vanilla is fine)

Beat in 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract (I don't measure, I just pour a splash in)

Sieve into a smaller bowl:

1 and 2/3 Cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Add the dry to the wet in two installments and beat until smooth and creamy (a couple minutes).

Put batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Cool in the pan 20 minutes or so and then turn out onto a plate to continue cooling.

Notes:

For more depth of flavor add a bit of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. 

Alternatively, substitute another extract for some of the vanilla.

This cake is too light to carry heavy mix-ins, but would support a little bit of citrus zest.

More eggnots

We ordered another dozen eggnots this year and dyed them with lovely results. We save them from year to year, so in addition to dyeing our new dozen, we also were also able to re-dye to a deeper color some that we had dyed pastel in prior years. 

Dyeing eggnots     Easter 2014

For these richer colors we again used basic liquid food coloring from the supermarket, including some from both the standard red, blue, green and yellow package and some from a package of "neon" dye. We used more vinegar and less water than in prior years. We let them sit in the dye bath for several minutes, as recommended on the eggnots packaging. To compare, here's a link to our results from a previous year.

Maple Mustard Vinaigrette

This vinaigrette is a nice way to dress up simply prepared whole grains like wheat berries and is easy to make with ingredients we generally have on hand in the fridge and cupboards.

Maple Mustard Vinaigrette

Combine the ingredients in a small mason jar, shake and serve. Stash the jar in your fridge to store leftovers and shake before each use.

1/3 Cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of pepper
1/2 teaspoon rosemary (dried or fresh)

Variations: The original recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon salt, which I omit. 
Using honey instead of syrup will produce a thicker sweeter dressing with more body.

Soda Bread

Although I bake regularly, I never used to bake soda bread. It wasn't that familiar to me and I suspected that it must be complicated.  I was wrong.  

Soda bread is not at all complicated. It won't even require a trip to grocery store if you have a jar of buttermilk lurking in your fridge (which I always do now that I have realized how easy it is to culture buttermilk). The taste is quite familiar, somewhat like buttermilk biscuits, with less fat. 

I like this recipe because I always have these four ingredients handy and it produces a hearty, tasty quick bread that works well as a sturdy side for savory soups or as support for sweets like jam.

Basic Soda Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

pinch salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

How to:

Preheat oven to 375 and oil a loaf pan.

Stir the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. 

Add buttermilk and mix into a soft dough.

Transfer to loaf pan and cook in the center of your oven for 35 to 40 minutes.

Turn out onto a wire rack or plate to cool.

Notes and variations:

There are lots of soda bread recipes and variations, including double-sized recipes cooked in cake pans or on parchment on a cookie sheet for a round loaf and mixing up the ingredients with whole wheat flour, rye, raisins or currants, caraway seeds, butter, wheat germ, brown sugar, other sweeteners, eggs, sour cream instead of butter milk, etc. 

I have made round loaves on parchment by doubling the recipe, kneading the dough briefly to get it into a smooth ball, and then once the ball is on the parchment doing a few quick slits into the top, brushing with a little extra buttermilk and baking at 400 to get a very nice crust.

What all of these recipes seem to have in common is something close to a ratio of 2:1 dry to thick wet ingredient and a teaspoon of baking soda for every 2 Cups of flour. 

So my advice is to feel free to freestyle different flours, or sour cream instead of buttermilk, etc. but try to preserve those basic ratios.

Pound Cake

This variation on the Butter Pound Cake recipe in Bakin' Without Eggs has a wonderful texture.

Pound Cake

1 Cup butter (room temperature)

2 Cups sugar

1 1/2 Cups buttermilk

1 Tablespoon vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 1/4 Cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

handful of mini chocolate chips (optional)

How to:

Preheat oven to 325 and prepare a Bundt cake pan. 

Cream the butter and sugar. 

Beat in the buttermilk, vinegar, and vanilla.

Sift in the flour, leavening and cinnamon. 

Beat until completely smooth.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes.

Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes or so and then turn out onto plate.

Notes and variations:

I added the cinnamon and chocolate to jazz up the original recipe. I use the Enjoy Life brand chips which are small enough to not sink too much in the dough. Other mini chips would work equally well. 

For more classic pound cake flavor, scrape in a vanilla bean instead of cinnamon and chocolate. 

For more zing, use ginger instead of cinnamon and small chunks of crystallized ginger instead of chocolate 

Citrus zest, lemon or orange or both, would also be a nice variation.

Eggless Pumpkin Pie

Eggless Pumpkin Pie

This originates from a recipe on cooks.com, which I am not linking to because it didn't work very well for me. After repeatedly baking and tweaking the liquid and starch ratios in this pie, we are now pretty happy with the results. 

Start by stashing a pie pan in your freezer to get it nice and cold. 

Make a single-crust pie crust from any basic recipe. I typically use my food processor and make half of the basic crust recipe from Joy of Cooking, using 1 Cup flour, 1/3 Cup plus 1 Tablespoon of butter for the fat, 2 Tablespoons of liquid plus just a little more if necessary. I use whatever neutral or fruity hard alcohol we have handy in lieu of water (which makes for a more tender crust). Or use the Pillsbury premade dough if that's your pleasure. Chill the dough a little if you are making your own crust. Roll it out. Put it in your pie pan and pretty up the edges. 

Then stash the pie pan with raw crust in your fridge and preheat your oven to 450 degrees while you make the filling.

1 can pumpkin puree (15 or 16 ounces)
1 tsp cinnamon *
5 Tablespoons corn starch
1 1/2 Cup milk
2/3 Cup brown sugar

Add cinnamon and corn starch to the pumpkin. Stir in the brown sugar. Stir in the milk. 
Bake in an unbaked shell. 
Start for 10 minutes in a 450 degree oven. 
Then reduce to 350 for an additional 1 hour. 
Check it and it may need 5 minutes more. 
Mine often does.

Tip: 
For flaky tender crust, keeping the dough cold at every step is important. As is starting with a hot oven. If your oven isn't fully up to temperature by the time you have the filling prepared and in the crust, you can stash the unbaked pie (filling and all) in the fridge until the oven is hot enough.

Flavor options: 
If you aren't a cinnamon hound like me, you can use just 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
For more complex flavor, use your favorite "pie spice" blend instead.

Or if you don't have that handy, wing it with any or all these additions:
Scrape in a vanilla bean with the sugar or a splash of vanilla extract with the milk. 
Grate in a little bit of nutmeg.
Add just a little ginger or a very small pinch of cloves. 
Add a bit of zest from a lemon or orange. Cooks.com called for 1/2 tsp lemon extract. I never buy that. So I omit or add zest from fresh fruit instead. 

Combinations work nicely. For example, making pie Thanksgiving dinner tonight, I made the crust using orange cordial as the liquid. With the filling I used the full dose of cinnamon, a vanilla bean, just bit of nutmeg, and a the zest from one mandarin orange.

Making it vegan: You can use other liquids instead of milk to make the filling vegan. 
And shortening or coconut oil can be used to make vegan crusts. 

Simple Slurpies

Sometimes simple hits the spot. 

This summer, Anchorage broke records for consecutive days with temperatures above 70. degrees. All that gorgeous heat stretched our imaginations for more refreshing warm weather treats (after all the Popsicles, sorbets and ice creams that we had already eaten). We have moved well past that now to the cold rains of August, but for those of you who still have hot sunny days ahead:

This recipe comes from my son who first called the results Slushies and then renamed it Slurpies once he got a straw into the action.

How to do it:

Throw a tray full of ice cubes in your food processor and pulse until they are reduced so those ice-y granules that he calls snow. 
Use your favorite ice cream scoop to transfer some "snow" to a juice glass. 
Pour some juice over the top. 
Slurp away.

We like cherry juice. Or to really pucker up try pure cranberry. Something with bold color makes it more fun. 

Fig Jam

Fig Jam

Figs really don't grow here in Alaska. But I ordered fresh figs as an add on to my produce order from Full Circle this week. They were incredible, sweet and tender and so luscious that I could easily have eaten lots and lots of them plain as hand fruits. Instead I ate some and put the rest up as this fig jam. It tastes great. Looks lovely in the jar. And has definitely turned me on the to concept of balsamic adding a depth of flavor to other fruit jams. 

What you need:
2 pounds figs
1 Cup water
1 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup balsamic vinegar (you don't need super fancy aged sipping balsamic)
1/4 Cup bottled lemon juice

Important Note: Do not squeeze lemons for juice. 
You need the reliable acidity of bottled for safe storage.


What you do:
Stem and quarter the figs.
Bring water and figs to a boil in a large nonreactive pot.
Simmer for 5 minutes, smashing the fruit a little to soften and break it up.
Add the sugar, vinegar and lemon juice.
Return to a boil then reduce heat to simmer for about 20 minutes until thick and jammy.
Remove from heat.
Wait 5 minutes.
Stir to remove air bubbles.

How to store:
Then either ladle into jars to keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
Or use the boiling water bath canning method to preserve for up to a year. 

The specs for canning:
Use four ounce or half pint jars.
Leave 1/4 inch of headroom.
Processing time at a rolling boil is 10 minutes. 
Then turn off water and let rest for 5 minutes before removing to a kitchen towel on the counter to sit for 24 hours. 

How much?
For me, this produced a little less than the 4 Cups predicted in the original recipe from Put 'em Up! But start with sufficient clean hot jars to handle that quantity. I may have reduced it a little too much and you might get slightly more. Better to have the jars ready and need them, then to find when you are almost done that you are short a jar. If you do end up with a partial jar, pop it in the fridge and use it within 3 weeks. 

Asian Slaw

This variation is based on the slaw recipe presented as the companion for Marinated Flank Steak in The Essential New York Times Cookbook. The two foods echo each other with similar flavors and good texture contrast.

Asian Slaw

Foods to cut:
3 Cups thinly sliced red cabbage
2 carrots peeled and thinly sliced
2 shallot minced
2 scallions thinly sliced
1 Cup thinly sliced Thai basil leaves (the original recipe would have used sweet basil)

To measure for the dressing:
2 Tablespoons oil (we use canola, the original recipe called for peanut oil)
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt (the original recipe called for 3/4 tsp but we cut it back a little)

How to: This dish is really all about the prep work and measuring. Just get it all in a bowl and toss well so the veggies are well coated with the dressing.

Variations: The original recipe also called for 2 small hot chiles, seeded and minced.

Marinated Flank Steak

The original recipe from The Essential New York Times Cookbook calls for marinating the meat for 6 to 36 hours. We don't have much experience with that full range of times. My husband puts it together one evening with plans to serve it the next.

Flank Steak

Put a 2 pound flank steak in a large plastic bag to marinate overnight (ish) with:
1/4 Cup rice vinegar
1/4 Cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes.

When ready to cook, broil until it is done the way you like, several minutes per side works for us. Transfer to a cutting board. Let rest 10 minutes or so. Then slice thinly on the bias.

Ginger Chick Peas

Based on the recipe for Chickpeas in Ginger Sauce from The Essential New York Times Cookbook.

Ginger Chick Peas

1/4 Cup oil
2 Cups chopped onion
2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons lemon juice
pinch cayenne
a little black pepper
4 Cups cooked or canned chick peas plus 1 Cup of their liquid
1/3 Cup water

In a large skillet, brown the onion in the oil on medium high.

Turn the heat down a little and add the ginger and garlic.

A couple of minutes later, add the coriander, cardamom, cayenne and black pepper. Stir to combine.

Then add the reserved chick pea liquid, water and lemon juice. Cook for 10 more minutes.

Then add the chick peas and cook for 10 more minutes, until heated through.

Leftovers keep well for tomorrow's lunch.

Variations:
The original recipe calls for adding a chopped tomato just after the spices and for serving with thinly sliced onion and shredded green chile (seeded). To please a picky child, we omit all of that. I am sure it would taste marvelous though.

Rich Cheesy Crackers

This cracker recipe is another one of my favorites from The Homemade Pantry. It makes quite a lot for our three person family, but they will last a week in a tin on the counter and also freeze well. So when I make a batch we can have some now and some for later. A tray of these makes nice nibbling at parties. The original recipe contemplates using a stand mixer, which I don't have. So I whir everything up in my food processor. This does require advance planning because the dough needs to chill at least two hours and they need quite a long time in the oven.

Cheesy Crackers

Ingredients:
6 ounces cheddar cheese - grated
3 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes or chunks
1 1/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon mustard powder
2 teaspoons white vinegar (or use cider vinegar if that's what you have)
an ice cube

How to:
Whir the butter, flour and mustard together in the large bowl of your food processor to a smallish crumb (or cut them together by hand with a pastry cutter). Add the cheese and process for a few more seconds.

Put the vinegar and the ice cube in a large measuring cup with 3/4 Cup water.

Add six Tablepoons of that mixture to the food processor and whir around for several more seconds. Add more water a Tablespoon at a time until the dough clobs up into one mass.

Mound the dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

When you are ready to bake: Preheat the oven to 325. Remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit out about 15 minutes. Then roll it quite thin -- 1/8 to 1/4 inch -- cut with a knife into squares or with a biscuit cutter into rounds. Bake in a greased sheet for 30 minutes or until slightly golden. Turn off the oven and leave the trays of crackers in there while the oven cools (an hour or so).

About timing and storage: Overnight or even a couple of days in the fridge is fine for the raw dough, so you can prepare the dough well ahead if you are making the crackers for a party. To make them even farther ahead, you can freeze the dough and then let it thaw in the fridge before baking. Once baked, the crackers keep fine in a covered container on the counter for a week. If you freeze the finished crackers, you can thaw them and crisp them up with a few minutes (5ish) in a hot oven.

Creme Fraiche

Once you have cultured buttermilk, making creme fraiche is a snap.

Ingredients:
One pint heavy cream
3 Tablespoons cultured buttermilk

How to:
Put the cream into a clean jar. Stir in the buttermilk. Rest the lid on top of the jar. Let it sit out at room temperature for 16-24 hours, or until thickened. Then store in the refrigerator for up a week. It really is that easy.

You can use as you would sour cream. Or try a dollop a top a slice of fruit pie. Or on a scone.

Moroccan Carrots

This cold carrot dish (doubled to feed a larger crowd) worked well as a lively side for our Thanksgiving table. The recipe comes from The Essential New York Times Cook Book.

Moroccan Carrot Salad

1 pound carrots
1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
A few cranks from your pepper grinder
2 teaspoons olive oil

Peel the carrots and slice them into 1/2 inch thick rounds. Steam for approximately 10 minutes, until tender but slightly firm. Drain. Dress with the remaining ingredients. Toss well. Cool to room temperature and then store covered in the fridge to marinate for several hours. Toss again before serving.

Notes: These carrots keep well, so making them farther in advance is fine.
The original recipe called for adding a Tablespoon of chopped cilantro. I left it out because we didn't have any on hand. If you have cilantro, add it to give another fresh layer of flavor.

Lemon Sorbet (with Buttermilk)

Immediately after culturing my first quart of homemade buttermilk, I began trying to figure out what I could do with it. This tangy dessert has a fresh lemon flavor without the ice-iness that you sometimes find in commercially available lemon sorbets. It is based on the Almond and Buttermilk Sorbet recipe from The Essential New York Times Cook Book. This sorbet require advance plannings. And an ice cream maker. If you don't keep the cylinder for your ice cream maker in the freezer, remember to put it in when you start the buttermilk. Time matters and they really do work best if the cylinder is frozen for 24 hours before you start churning.

Lemon Buttermilk Sorbet

Ingredients:
1/3 Cup lemon juice -- Fresh is fantastic. Bottled works fine.
1 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup light corn syrup
2 Cups buttermilk

How to:
1.Combine the lemon and sweeteners in a small sauce pan and simmer over medium low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Then let it cool back to room temperature.

2. Combine the lemon syrup and the buttermilk and chill. To speed the process, put them in a freezer bag, Seal it well and immerse it in a bowl of ice water.

3. Churn in an ice cream maker.

4. Remove to a freezer safe container with a tight lid. Put a sheet of parchment paper flush to the top of the sorbet. Then put on the lid and stash it in the freezer for a couple of hours.

Variations:
This sorbet is sturdy enough to stand up to some mix-ins like a little fresh lemon zest stirred in after churning.

The original recipe  called for taking 1/2 Cup of whole raw almonds, roasting them briefly in a small dry skillet on medium-high heat, pulverizing them in a food processor with 1/4 C sugar and adding that to the lemon syrup and buttermilk before churning. I haven't done it since we don't cook with almonds, but it sounds delicious.

Buttermilk

Cultured buttermilk is incredibly easy to make, keeps well for a week or so in the fridge, and really is wonderful in pancakes and baked goods. Making buttermilk is very easy. But it does require some advance preparation.

Some things you need to make buttermilk:

1. Buttermilk culture. I order from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company which has a user friendly website. Look in the "ingredients" section under cheesee cultures and mold powders. Once you have the culture, store it in your freezer.
2. A thermometer. I had thought I could use my candy thermometer with its handy clip, but then found that its dial starts at 100 degrees. For buttermilk you need one that reads accurately at lower temperatures. There is such a thing as a cheese thermometer, but I don't have one. So I use my meat thermometer and just keep dipping it in. Not as convenient as a thermometer that clips to the pan, but workable.

3. A clean mason jar with lid

Cultured Buttermilk

Ingredients:
1 quart whole milk (not ultrapasteurized)
1 packet (1/2 teaspoon buttermilk culture)

How to:
Heat milk in a medium saucepan until it reaches 72 degrees. Stir in the buttermilk culture. Transfer to clean jar. Set lid on top, but don't screw it on. Let the jar sit out at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours (or until thickened). Then refrigerate until ready to use. Keeps for a week or so in the fridge.

A note on timing: If I prepare the buttermilk in the evening, it isn't ready by the time I go to work the next morning. It is ready by the time I get home in the afternoon.

What to do with buttermilk? Buttermilk is fantastic in scones. Buttermilk can also be great in cakes. It's a key ingredient in ranch dressing. Where buttermilk really shines -- sorbet.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This modification of the Sour Cream Ring Cake recipe in Bakin Without Eggs, produces a cake that's dense, nutty and not too sweet. A great brunch dish.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1/2 Cup granulated sugar
3/4 Cup brown sugar
1/4 Cup butter - softened
1 Cup sour cream
1/2 Cup skim milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 Cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Cup quick rolled oats
1/4 Cup poppy seeds
1/3 Cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a Bundt cake pan.

Sift into a mixing bowl the flours and leavening. Stir in the oats and poppy seeds.

In a large bowl, cream together the sugars and butter. Mix in the sour cream. Mix in the milk, vanilla and lemon juice.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir to combine. Do not over mix.  When almost fully combined, fold in the pecans.

Spoon into prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes or so. Invert onto plate or wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Variations: The recipe from which I was working did not call for poppy seeds, but I think they are a nice addition. This is a pretty sturdy dough and you can vary the mix-ins a little by substituting other nuts or seeds or adding small amount of chopped dried fruit. 
The original recipe called for twice as much vanilla, so don't be afraid to add a little more.
Or heighten the citrus flavor by adding fresh orange or lemon zest with the dry ingredients.
Add zing with some grated ginger and smal chunks of crystallized ginger.

So much better than Jello

I love Jello. I'm an adult and I should know better. The artificial colors alone should put me off. But I do love it. Fortunately, as an adult I have discovered that it is very, very easy to make something equally delicious with many fewer chemicals. With just a few minutes of work and your favorite juice, you can make fruit gelatin.

Fruit Gelatin
(makes 4 Cups -- that's 8 half cup servings)

4 Cups of fruit juice
2 envelopes gelatin

Use a medium sized bowl. Measure 1 Cup of juice into it. Sprinkle both packages of gelatin into the bowl and let it sit.

While the gelatin is soaking, bring the other 3 Cups of juice just to a boil in a sauce pan.

Pour the hot juice into the bowl. Stir to combine and thoroughly dissolve the gelatin.

Pour the gelatin mixture into one large pan or several smaller serving dishes.

Chill for several hours.

Variations: Use your imagination and pick your favorite juices or blends. Today we enjoyed using a blend of apple, cranberry and pomegranate juice. It was a hit.

Optional fruit: Fruit can be added to the pan or serving dish before the gelatin mixture is poured in. Today we sliced in fresh strawberries. Frozen blueberries are also nice. If you have canned mandarin orange slices, those are nice too.

Cranberry Relish

Late October is the time we start to brainstorm for our contributions to the annual Thanksgiving potluck with my husband's family. We particularly enjoy bringing bright lively dishes with fresh tang, zesty crunch or straight up spiciness to balance out the traditional turkey, stuffing, potatoes and pies that we know will be there. Whatever else we bring, every year we also bring this fresh cranberry relish. It is standard of my mother's as well and is based on the Uncooked Cranberry Relish recipe in The Joy of Cooking (we have the First Scriber edition from 1995). We just reduce the sugar.

Raw Cranberry Relish

1 pound cranberries
1 orange (leave the peel on)
1-2 Cups sugar (the original recipe called for 2 Cups, we like less)

Grind the cranberries in a food processor. Remove the seeds from the orange, add it to the cranberries and grind them together. Stir in sugar. Cover and refrigerate. Ideally for 2 days, but one is fine and if you haven't planned that far ahead then serve it fresh. It will still be tasty.