CRANBERRIES as an APPETIZER?

Absolutely! All the upscale cheese shops and gourmet counters sell blocks laced with cranberries. So why not expand your holiday appetizer table and include them? Your guests will appreciate the festive touch. Emma Lane is here with her delicious and easy recipe. The kitchen is all yours, Emma!

Hi Everyone.

My family insists upon this favorite every holiday, Thanksgiving or Christmas. If I get my hands on fresh berries, I serve it when it is not a holiday. It sounds difficult, but is anything but. It’s one of the dishes that may be prepared ahead of time keeping the hot food preps for the special day. I use my prettiest bowl, usually a clear one to show off the gorgeous color. Many recipes call for unpeeled oranges, but I prefer to peel. A food processor is necessary; I once used a blender with a great deal of caution when my processor was broken. The texture should be coarse but not lumpy.

Fresh Cranberry Relish

One bag fresh cranberries
1 cup of walnuts (or pecans)
1 peeled and chopped orange
⅓ cup orange juice or apple juice
1 cup sugar (to taste) (Can use Splenda or some other artificial sweetener to taste.)

Wash berries and carefully pick out any bad ones. They will usually float to the surface of the water.

Add all ingredients to food processor, but do not over fill the bowl. Use pulse speed and slowly process. Avoid turning it into slush. The end results should be coarsely chopped.

Serve in pretty bowl. May be prepared beforehand and refrigerated. The sweetness will counteract the acidity of the cranberries, but it is purely to taste—yours!

Enjoy!

Here's a peek at Emma's latest release to carry you in the holiday mood.

A Wild Wicked Duke
After a cruel family betrayal, Caroline Engelson vows the wicked duke will never regain her love unless he first earns her respect, no matter how fervently she longs for his kisses.

A serious accident delivers the wicked duke into Caro’s care, but she is shocked and hurt when he refers to her teen years as the ‘brat with tangled curls.’ Caro is all grown up now when the wicked duke tries to take advantage of her emotions, even as he turns the orderly household into total chaos with his ducal roars. To his astonishment, his best friend’s sister is made of sterner stuff. The situation changes drastically when Caro learns of a shocking family secret..

A Duke Finds Love
Young love is disrupted and the couple parted, but their unsympathetic parents fail to extinguish the strong bond between the two.

Roseland, left pregnant by the duke’s son, weds a neighbor, mistaking that her lover has been forced to marry another. A war and five years later, the two face a second chance, but despite their deep love for one another, impediments must be faced before happily ever after will be theirs at long last.

Beloved Soldier Returns
A wounded British soldier faces amnesia and frustrating dreams, but is finally well enough to reclaim his fiancée and his heritage when a gypsy woman arrives to share an important secret.

Robert Cooper-Hanton, a soldier who fought against Napoleon at Waterloo, is seriously wounded and suffers amnesia but survives in a gypsy camp for three years. Pockets of memory are still missing, leaving him with dreams of people with no names, when he makes the decision to begin his journey home. He has no conscious remembrance of a fiancée he left behind but is not surprised to learn that a cousin has usurped his property. When neighborhood friends reveal the fact of his engagement to Lynda Clarington, his memory of her returns in a flash and he recognizes the woman of his dreams.

Lynda had struggled without much success to accept her loss and is overjoyed to learn that Cooper is alive. She has loved him since childhood, but can she adjust to a man who seems irrevocably changed? When a gypsy woman shows up searching for Cooper, Lynda is plagued with doubt. Will Cooper manage to reunite with his old life and the woman he loves or will he remain lost in his hazy memories, dreams and a changed reality?

Dark Domino
Sarah Louise and Ethan have loved each other all their lives, but a war and time apart may have jeopardized their relationship.

Ethan has been away at war for six long years—without a single letter to the young girl he left behind. He is certain she has forgotten him, but he is still drawn to her. Dressed for a masquerade in a dark domino, he leads her to the garden and tries to steal a kiss. Sarah does not know why the man in the dark domino is so familiar, and why a stranger should give her a feeling of home. When Ethan reveals his identity, Sarah’s anger and hurt overwhelm even her love. Can a new life be built on the foundations of a first love? Or will the Dark Domino remain alone forever?

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Emma Lane is a gifted author who writes under several pen-names. She lives with her patient husband on several acres outside a typical American village in Western New York. Her day job is working with flowers at her son’s plant nursery. Look for information about writing and plants on her new website. Leave a comment or a gardening question and put a smile on Emma's face.

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