Gourmet Fruit Leather from Leftover Cranberry Sauce

Following the holidays, there is an onslaught of "what to do with leftover turkey" posts, but one thing that leaves a lot of people scratching their heads is what to do with the cranberry relish. Cranberry relish looks great on the table; a pretty, garnet-colored accompaniment to our holiday feasts. But am I the only one that thinks a lot of people don't really like the stuff that much?

Granted, the tart and tangy side dish has such a pungent flavor that a little goes a long way, but maybe the reason so much cranberry sauce is leftover after the holidays is in the presentation. Umm, cranberry jelly log, anyone?

Canned Cranberry Sauce "Log": Is This Appealing? :)

My family ditched the canned cranberry sauce years ago, and I hope that after reading this post you are inspired to do the same thing and make your own relish. It's sooooo easy, all it takes is a food processor and 10 minutes. Once you try it, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner will never be the same!

Homemade Cranberry Relish: A Feast For the Eyes

And once you use the leftover cranberry relish for my "grown up" version of fruit leather, you will want to make a ton of the relish so you can savor this tasty treat when away from home! I can't wait for fresh cranberries to go on sale after the holidays for $1 per bag, so I can dehydrate away :)

---

Making Your "Gourmet" Cranberry Relish Fruit Leather

Cranberries, Orange, Sugar make the relish

First, make the Fresh Cranberry Relish from the Recipe Below. Pop it in the blender.  Eyeball the amount of relish, then add about 2/3 the same amount in unsweetened applesauce. This isn't rocket science, so don't sweat the actual amount.  You just need enough applesauce to "bind" the ingredients for the leather.  Otherwise the finished product will be too crunchy.

Cranberry Relish and Applesauce

Now, I like to add my "secret" ingredients, which are totally optional.  Guess it's not such a secret, anymore, haha.  The fruit leather is delicious as is, but adding a few extra things will definitely add some pizzazz.   Add a smidgen of jalapeño and some fresh cilantro, which compliment the tartness of the cranberries beautifully.

Next, spread the mixture out on a solid drying sheet and dehydrate for about 6 hours at 100°F until the mixture is dry and flexible.  The leather will still be slightly tacky due to the sugar and pectin.

Fruit Leather Ready for the Dehydrator

Halfway through the drying, peel the leather from the solid sheet, and flip onto mesh dryer sheet.

Flip over Halfway Through onto Mesh Tray

Cut with pizza cutter or knife, and store in ziploc bags or in Mason jars for longer term.  

Finished Fruit Leather

---

Fresh Cranberry Relish Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 - 12 ounce bag fresh whole cranberries
• 1 orange, unpeeled, quartered and seeded
• 1/2 c sugar or evaporated cane juice (add more sugar to taste- I like mine very tart)

Directions:

Place ingredients in half-batches in food processor and pulse until chopped coarse. Serve chilled.

---

Now for the good stuff! Use one part of your cranberry relish to 2/3 part unsweeted applesauce. The "surprise" ingredient is jalapeño peppers. The spice of the jalapeño nicely balances the cranberries and sugar, but less is more in this recipe.

---

Cranberry Relish Fruit Leather

Ingredients:

• Leftover cranberry relish
• Less than equal measure of applesauce 
• Jalapeño pepper to taste, fresh & seeded or canned, diced finely (optional)
• Fresh Chopped Cilantro (optional)

Directions: 

Place leftover relish in blender or food process. Add just enough unsweetened applesauce to thin cranberry relish and make it easily pourable. Add a small amount of jalapeño pepper (1/2 teaspoon at a time).  Pulse gently until ingredients are blended well.   Add additional applesauce as needed to blend to smooth consistency.

Pour onto solid dehydrator sheets and dry until leathery at ~100°F, about 8 hours.

Remove from sheet and cut with pizza cutter or knife into equal strips for storage.

Great Lakes Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice with Mushrooms: Trail Food

This is a super easy recipe that requires minimal effort but provides a delicious and nutritious cold weather comfort food. Like wild rice and mushrooms?  Then you are going to love the taste of the two together.  A marriage made in trail heaven! 



Great Lakes Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice with Mushrooms



Urban Foraging: Edible Ornamental Callery Pears with Video

5-petaled flower of Ornamental Pear

Foraging takes some continuing education to become proficient. I am 95% self taught at this point, but have a loooong way to go to get really good. I'm not sure what quantifies "really good" as far as foragers go, but I am thinking Sam Thayer or Steve Brill good. I want to have interesting discussions with other plant nerds about the merits of cooking a wild plant this way or that. I would love to be able to really live off the land with what the mother provides her children.

How to accomplish this? On my "to do" list, I would like to take some taxonomy and botany courses, but this would mean sacrificing time from hiking, backpacking, and cleaning my often messy house. Also on the list is attending more foraging hikes offered by fellow plant enthusiasts. In the meantime, I will have to muddle through on my own.

Trail Foods: Wild Ginger or Asarum caudatum and Asarum canadense

Foragers often have a niche when it comes to their skills; some are fixated on fungi, others gaga for green and herbaceous plants, and even more are nuts for, well, nuts! I like to think I love all food-producing plants equally, although my strength is typically with identifying things green. I find it easier to recognize patterns of growth with green understory type plants. However, my skills are challenged by green shaded plants that have heart-shaped leaves and grow close to the ground. Weird, I know, but it's probably because I live in tidal wetlands so the local woods are devoid of greenery with the exception of greenbriar (Smilax rotundifolia).

Wild Ginger, or Asarum canadense leaves

Awesome One Day Deal On Freeze-Dried Chicken Dices!

Emergency Essentials is having an amazing one day deal today on freeze-dried chicken!  $24.95 for a #10 can.  I am seriously stocking up! You can click on the banner above and search for "Freeze-Dried Grill Marked Chicken Dices" (Copy and paste that text).  I get a small commission, and you get a great deal.  

Homemade Energy Gel Packets Video

I really like the ease and simplicity of those little packs of energy gel.  The only thing is that they are really expensive.  I can find them on sale for $1 each, but most of the time they are in the $1.50-$2.00 range.  For 100-ish calories that is a lot of money per calorie. 

I decided to try and make my own packets of energy gel with store bought ingredients.  The results were quite satisfying!!  Although, I must admit that sugar alone doesn't do a lot for me. I tend to get the sugar-crash thing going during my hikes, so I prefer nut butters over straight sugar gel packets.  Regardless, the idea is the same, and I love to play around in my kitchen.

Here is my video of homemade energy gel. Please comment if you have any packet-worthy recipes!

Wide Sleeping Pad Comparison Chart

Outdoor air, beautiful scenery, and sitting around the fire at night sipping some whiskey. What is not to love about backpacking? I mean, why would I want to spend my weekend at some cushy hotel when I can be schlepping a 25 pound pack up and down mountains in inclement weather?!  Choosing between relaxing in a hotel spa or splashing in a 40° waterfall is easy; I pick the waterfall :-)

My camp in March on the Black Forest Trail, 35°F

Any pending trip makes me giddy with excitement (or maybe trepidation!), but there is one area of camping that causes me distress: sleep! Most backpackers are so exhausted by their daytime wanderings that they easily fall into blissful slumber.  Nooo, not me :(  This chickie has a long standing issue with sleep, even at home in my own bed.  Deep, peaceful sleep is an oxymoron for me.  Tossing and turning is compounded when I add in strange animal noises, not to mention the snores, midnight leaf waterings, and wind breaking of my camping companions.