Cranberry chutney

I've been asked for this recipe three times in the last 24 hours, so I'm publishing it here. Once you try it, you may never be completely happy with ordinary cranberry sauce again! I got the recipe from my mother; although there are many cranberry chutney recipes on the web, none that I found even came close to this one.

Note: Since cranberries seem to come in 12 oz. bags now, instead of 1 lb. bags, you will need to do a little math.

The recipe:

1 lb. whole fresh or frozen cranberries
1 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. Golden raisins (black ones work, too)
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. Ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1 c. Water

Combine all in large pot. (I use a Dutch oven.) Simmer, uncovered, over medium heat, stirring, 15 minutes.

Add:
1 c. Chopped onion
1 c. Baking apples, peeled, cored and chopped. (I don't bother to peel them.)
1/2 c. Chopped celery

Stir to combine with cranberry mixture and simmer an additional 15 minutes. Cool and serve or refrigerate.

Happy holidays!

Big Easy is Not So Easy!

Spent the last week of June in New Orleans attending the American Library Association's annual conference. My hotel, the Intercontinental, was about a mile from the Morial convention center. The convention center is just over a mile long. I did a LOT of walking! I blogged my conference sessions at Annot8tions. This post is about the other things I did on the trip.

The first day, I walked to the convention center to register, and then strolled through the Riverwalk shopping mall. On a whim, I bought a ticket for the Battlefield Cruise on the Creole Queen stern-wheeler. Best idea of the day! We cruised 8 miles downriver to the Chalmette Battlefield, where the Battle of New Orleans took place in 1815. The operator identified historic buildings and sites along the way, and there was a little breeze to take the edge off the sweltering heat. We disembarked, crossed over the levee, and got a blow-by-blow from Howard, the park ranger. On the way back, just before we docked, ominous black clouds piled up across the river and treated us to a lightning show.

The next day, I participated in ALA's Libraries Build Communities program. It started with an offer 5 years ago to help New Orleans libraries recover from damage caused by Katrina, and proved to be very successful. Now the program has broadened to include restoration work on homes still needing rehabilitation. My group of nine librarians put in about 5 hours of work on Kevin's house - still uninhabitable after 5 years. His application finally rose to the top of the list in the St. Bernard Project, and we were the first step in beginning the rebuilding process. We cleared many trash bags of stuff from the inside, borrowed a weed-whacker from a neighbor and knocked down the overgrown front lawn, and removed 5 years worth of jungly brush from the back yard. We also painted the front of the house. Shortly before we quit for the day, Kevin and his son stopped by to thank us. I can't describe the feelings that ran through our ranks as we listened to him tell how his family has been coping for the last 5 years, and his dream of finally being able to return to his home.

The rest of the week was basically conference stuff.  I stayed two days after the conference ended to do some personal research about my mom's great grandfather, Noel Crosswell, but didn't find anything in the two libraries I visited.  I'll just have to go back for another visit, I guess.