Today, for Thanksgiving, I’m trying two new cranberry recipes. The first is, in a sense, retro, as it uses gelatin and you create a mold and then glob it out. It won’t have ridges from the side of the can and it won’t have sugar in it, but otherwise it’s old school. I found it here, but you might not have permission to see that page, so here’s the recipe:

1 package whole raw cranberries
1 envelope plain, unflavored gelatin
honey to taste (½ – ¾ C)
1 C orange juice

Cook berries with ½ cup OJ until soft and split. Let cool. Purée. Add honey to taste. Mix gelatin in remaining OJ, then add to warm cranberry purée and mix well. Pour into mold, and chill, undisturbed, for twelve to twenty-four hours. To unmold, turn cranberry sauce upside down, with a hand to catch it underneath. Dip under running hot tap water to release the sauce, and remove quickly. Slide the sauce onto serving plate and remove mold. Keep chilled until serving time. Variation: substitute blueberries or other fruit.

The next one is raw. No cooking, only delicious ground goodness, from The World’s Healthiest Foods:

1 package fresh cranberries
1 medium pear
1 medium apple
1/4 C honey
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp vinegar

Blend cranberries in a food processor. Same for apple. Same for pear. Grate horseradish root. In a bowl, combine blended cranberries and rest of ingredients. Chill.

Retro or raw, I’m grateful for cranberries!

You see, 64 days ago my sister Emily and her family brought me 3 lbs. of Wonderful Wyoming Honey, when they came to Anaheim to visit some large theme park or something. The honey comes from the hives of Milt & Peggy Miller, who live in the shadow of the Tetons and make the world’s best honey. I’ve eaten it by the spoonful for 64 days now (but who’s counting), and I miss it already. If you find this honey, buy it.

Here’s the thing. Due to my unpredictable, voice-oriented career, I’ve kept bottles of water in my trunk for a long time now — not to use all the time, but when I forget to hydrate and I need a backup stat! Tuesday, I happened by a TJ’s as I hurried, parched, to a commercial audition, so I ran in and grabbed the first thing I could find: a case of Trader Joe’s Sparkling Mineral Water. Bad move. Every single one of these large bottles makes an enormous mess whenever I open it, no matter how cautious I am — and no matter how long my car has been stationary. Yup, I even tried opening one first thing in the AM. And the “lime” taste is only meh, anyway. So, back to plain bottled water. And back to Trader Joe’s … I have a long, long grocery list of many favorites I’m out of!