Red Wine Cranberry Sauce

So if you want to have a cranberry sauce that doesn’t come out of a can this holiday season, try this recipe! You can even leave out the wine, but it does give it an extra flavor (don’t worry, you cook out all of the alcohol). This has just the right combination of sweet and tart plus it is made with natural ingredients – no high fructose anything, preservatives, etc. We served this over some chicken and it was delicious. It would also be good on a turkey sandwich or just as a small side dish to your Thanksgiving feast. Who cares how you eat it, just as long as you give it a try! This makes about 2 cups of sauce.

12 oz fresh cranberries

1 cup fresh grapes
2 cups red wine (I used some leftovers from an already opened bottle – no need to waste wine!)
¼ cup orange juice
1/3 cup stevia or sugar or honey
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp roasted garlic

• In a large saucepan, combine cranberries, grapes, wine and juice. Simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until berries and grapes start to pop. 
• Add in sweetener and seasonings.
• Using an immersion blender, blend mixture until smooth. Add more or less sweetener/spices to taste.
• This recipe gives  a slightly tart flavor with just a hint of spice (not much at all!). Store any leftovers in a sealed container in fridge.

Red Wine Pears - in the pressure cooker!

I hadn’t tried making a dessert in my pressure cooker.. until now. I was nervous… I know you can make all kinds of things in them-cake, rice pudding, etc but I was scared to try. Anyway – I had some extra pears, some leftover red wine and a sweet tooth. You’re welcome. Also – today is my 5^th wedding anniversary! What a quick and easy dessert that will both satisfy your sweet tooth and let you feel like you are having an extra special treat for a special day. A little mushy here – my husband is my best friend. We’ve been together over 9 years now and each year gets better! He’s my major support person – my rock! I hope God blesses us with many more years together!

4 pears (any kind), peeled but left whole

2 cups red wine
2 cups water
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp apple pie spice (or nutmeg/allspice)
¼ cup honey (or sugar or other sweetener)
Whipped topping, if desired

• In your pressure cooker, mix together water, honey, cinnamon and apple pie spice.
• On the “brown” setting, cook for about 3 minutes or until honey is dissolved into water.
• Once your honey and water are combined, place pears standing up in pressure cooker.
• Pressure cook for 8 minutes. Release pressure and add wine.
• Pressure cook for 8 more minutes and release pressure.
• Carefully remove pears as they will be very soft. Pour some remaining wine sauce over pears and top with whipped cream, if desired.
• The longer the pears set in the wine sauce, the softer they will get it so don’t let them set for too long or they will fall apart!