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Cashew Ricotta, Cream, Mozzarella, and Garlic Cheese Recipe

The problem with vegan cheese (and a lot of allergy free food) is that the manufacturers ignore that their ingredients start with a slightly different taste profile than the originals. Instead of working with those different tastes to create a unique foodstuff you can use as a “cheese”, they just bodge right through and declare that the finished product is tastes just like cheddar cheese when at its best it tastes like plastic and at its worst it tastes like cardboard. I had given up on dairy free cheese until I learned about cashew “cheese.” The thing that makes this dairy free vegan cheese recipe work is that it plays into the flavor of the cashews, adds a hint of nutty cheese flavor with nutritional yeast and the slight cheese tang with lemon juice. Cashew cheese doesn’t taste like a traditional dairy cheese (or plastic sawdust vegan cheese) but a unique flavor that allows you to do cheesy things with it. This cashew cheese recipe is very versatile. You can use it to make

Quick and Easy Spiced Cranberry Sauce Recipe

I grew up eating Thanksgiving cranberry sauce from a can. I figured cranberry sauce must be hard to make and that's why so many people buy the canned stuff.

Nope.

I learned just how easy it is to make cranberry sauce the year Husband and I threw a Thanksgiving dinner for some international grad students. We wanted the dinner to be as traditional as possible because we were introducing them to their first American holiday.

Cranberries. Water. Sugar. That's it.


Cranberry sauce yum!

We've been making cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries ever since. 

In a house with two daring foodies with a large spice rack, it didn't take long for Husband and I to start tweaking the basic cranberry sauce recipe into a fantastic and still easy spiced cranberry sauce recipe.

Easy Cranberry Jelly Recipe



You will need:

4 cups of cranberries (approximately one pound)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground clove (or 3 whole cloves)
2 cups sugar

Make it: 

1. Bring the water, cinnamon, clove, and cranberries to a low boil in a covered saucepan until the skin on the cranberries start to burst. This should take about 3 to 5 minutes after the mixture starts to boil.


Boiled cranberries!


2. Dissolve 2 cups of sugar into the cranberry mixture and stir until it reaches a steady boil. Now it is time to make a decision on how thick (jelly) or runny (sauce) you want your cranberries to be.

  • To make cranberry sauce: Remove the cooked cranberries from the stove. 

  • To make cranberry jelly: Boil the cooked cranberries while continually stirring to keep the sugar from scorching until the spiced cranberry jelly reaches the desired thickness. This may take between 5 and 15 minutes depending upon how thick you like your cranberry jelly.


Cinnamon and clove cranberry sauce

3.  Skim the foam from the top of the cranberries with a spoon. If you leave the foam, it won't hurt anything or affect the flavor. This is clearly for looks.

4. Serve it up and make your guests think you slaved hours over your spicy cranberry sauce!

Which one do you like best? Cranberry sauce or cranberry jelly?


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