Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving and were very fortunate that all of our family was willing to travel to be with us :) It was sort of potluck meal, and people brought lots and lots and lots and lots of yummy foods - including the turkey!! We made the mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce, and all of it was good, but the cranberry sauce was the big hit! So, courtesy of my friend Jenny, here it is (a non-secret family recipe - so hopefully ok to share!)

Hansen Family Cranberry Sauce:
1 bag Ocean Spray cranberries, rinsed and drained with stems and bad berries removed (Other brands beside Ocean Spray can sometimes be sour.)
1 10.5 oz. can mandarin oranges in pear juice. (If you can't find them in pear juice, you can buy a can of pears in their own juice along with the mandaring oranges.)
1 cup sugar

Drain mandarin oranges, reserving 1 cup of the juice. (There usually isn't enough juice, so you make up the difference with water.) Set aside some mandarin orange segments (about 6) for garnish. Combine juice and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Add cranberries and return to a boil. Boil at low heat (to minimize splattering) for 10-15 minutes or until thickened (it will thicken more once you refrigerate it). Mix in drained mandarin oranges, pour into serving dish, and immediately arrange reserved orange sections on top. Cool, uncovered, at room temperature for about an hour and then refrigerate. The sauce can be covered once it has cooled completely in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Yum! We finished the night watching the Eagles win, playing Quiddler (a very fun card game!), and eating way tooooo much dessert. I'll have to steal some photos from the people who took them to post later. Our first family holiday in the new house was a success :)