Everything's Better with Bacon

Happy Thanksgiving! This is my favorite holiday. We always spend it at home together and with family and friends. This year the girls are with their mom in Florida so it'll just be Ken and I along with four other dear friends. Today's tasks included making the cranberry sauce and the wild rice stuffing. As always it's total improvisation in my kitchen and after a day of cooking and tasting and cooking and tasting some more I find I'm not the least bit hungry...hmmmm, wonder why.

Cranberry Sauce
1 bag of fresh cranberries
2 oranges peeled and sectioned
1 good handful of candied ginger chopped
Pinch of cloves
Pinch of allspice
Dash of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of sugar
Splash of water

Cook and stir until the berries pop and the liquid becomes thick.

Wild rice stuffing
1 package of wild rice cooked in chicken stock
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
1 1/2 cups cooked pork sausage (sage flavored)
1/2 cup or so of dried cranberries
4 or 5 ribs of celery diced
4 or 5 green onions chopped (white and green parts)
4 big fresh sage leaves chopped
1/2 cups or so of chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter

Saute celery and green onions in a few tablespoons of butter while the cranberries are soaking in a little hot tap water. Combine all ingredients and try your level best not to sit there with a big spoon and eat it all. I mean who'll know really if you just eat it now and destroy the evidence before Ken gets home. Really...

Tomorrow I'll be making brussel sprouts with bacon and onions, and corn pudding with smoked cheddar and bacon. Good times. I'll diet later.