Tired of that same old gelatenous crap out of the can that has the balls to call itself "Cranberry Sauce"? Really don't want to have to contaminate your turkey again with that horrible sauce Aunt Martha brings every Thanksgiving? Don't despair. Help is on the way.

With just a little elbow grease and an hour of leisurely prep and cook (I'm writing this *while* I'm cooking my sauce), you too can have a cranberry sauce that truly rocks, will burn the socks off Aunt Martha, and make that turkey sandwich palatable even after a solid week of eating bird.

To truly be able to appreciate below recipe however, you need to know a little background on how this delightful creation came to be.

You see - many years ago, I was terribly tired of turkey for Thanksgiving. I wasn't gonna take it anymore. So I decided to cook something a bit more exotic, a bit more challenging: Crispy Cranberry-Walnut Duck. Now - duck is awfully hard to prepare properly. The recipe I had however was from some award-winning California chef. So I figured I can't go wrong. Right? Wrong. The duck turned out horrible. Dry and far from crispy, it was completely inedible (my theory here is that many chefs with restaurants purposely put out tweaked recipes that set the unsuspecting home-cook up for disaster - that way, they prove their superiority and assure themselves a steady flow of curious fools who are dying to know what the recipe was *supposed to* taste like ...).

But I disgress. Anyway - the recipe called for a walnut-leek stuffing for the duck. Only I had somehow misread the recipe (ok - the title implied it, didn't it?) and instead added the walnuts to the cranberry sauce. Henceforth, my very own version of Cranberry-Walnut Sauce was born. If you follow it closely, you too can be popular at Thanksgiving dinners ...

Cranberry-Walnut Sauce

2 cups of FRESH cranberries
3/4 cup of chopped walnuts
3/4 cups of brown sugar
3/4 cups of beef stock/broth ("Pacific" brand works well)
Zest of 1 orange
3/4 water

1. Wash your berries. Pick out any that are soft or mushy. Pick out stems too.
2. Put the berries in a large pot.
3. Add the sugar, water, and orange zest. If you feel like it, and you like the taste of orange, you can squeeze the juice of half an orange in there too.
4. Cook over LOW heat until the berries split open.
5. Add the beef stock, mix well.
6. Cook for a little bit, uncovered, then add the walnuts.
7. Simmer on LOW, uncovered and stirring at times, until the sauce is thickened.
If it's not as thick as you like, take a bean masher and squish the berries to release their starchy insides.
8. Serve warm or cold.

This recipe btw can also be prepared days in advance. I happen to think that gives the ingredients some time to get to know eachother, and eventually even like eachother. And I've never had them *not* like eachother...

The amounts can also be bumped up according to the number of guests. If you're single, with no family and no friends, above recipe will suffice (adding a large shot of whiskey straight-up might help with the no-friends scenario there too). Otherwise, make at least triple the amount. I'm thinking ahead this year (to the turkey sandwich) and I'm making 5 times the amounts listed above.

It will keep in the fridge for at least one week, but you can also freeze it and use it later in the year. Under no circumstances should you give this sauce to your relatives together with the inevitable Thanksgiving doggie bag. You'll want to keep it all to yourself.

Trust me on this one.