Preparing Thanksgiving meal is a marathon and I like to get as much done in advance as possible. This whole berry cranberry orange sauce can be made up to a week in advance and you can make your pie dough up to 3 days in advance and refrigerate or up to a week in advance and freeze it. You can buy canned cranberry sauce or jelly but homemade is so much better and very simple to make. Here’s how to make it:

Whole berry cranberry/orange sauce

12 oz fresh whole cranberries

1 cup sugar

1 cup orange juice (freshly squeezed) or use bottled orange juice

zest of one small orange (I like mandarin)

pinch of salt

Bring all ingredients to a boil on high heat, the cranberries will start popping and at that point place a lid on the pot, slightly ajar, reduce to medium heat and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Pour into a glass storage container, let come to room temperature and then refrigerate up to a week before using.

Apple pie

6-8 assorted variety of apples peeled and sliced

juice of 1 lemon freshly squeezed

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1-2 tbs cold butter

1 egg beaten with a tsp of water (egg wash)

sugar to sprinkle on top of pie before baking

pie dough for double crust pie (recipe was linked in last weeks post) or use pre made pie dough

Roll out one of the discs and place in pie pan. Add the lemon juice to sliced apples to keep them from turning brown. Mix all the ingredients for the apple filling and place in the pie pan, place small pieces of butter on top of the apples. Roll out 2nd disc of pie dough and place on top of the apples. Trim any excess dough (overhang) and press to seal, crimp and cut a few slits on top crust. Brush with egg wash (beaten egg and 1 tsp water) and sprinkle with sugar. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to chill the pie dough. Bake in a pre heated 375 degree oven 45-60 minutes until browned and bubbly. (Place pie on sheet pan when baking)

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