HI! i promised myself last year, that i wouldn't fall off the recipe posting train EVER again… and here i am offering you cranberry sauce roses in consolation for being gone for almost a month!!
ummmm. my life has been willlllddd. work has been crazy and oh yeah i got ENGAGED and now everything is…. changing. for the better!
and we're gonna talk about a super easy way to impress your fam this year… with a can of cranberry sauce. yes A CAN. get ready.
can i first tell you that i'm SO sorry i forgot sunday sprinkles this week? WAHHH. my to do list/planner (aka my bullet journal) has been ALL out of wack this month. i was laying in bed on sunday KNOWING i forgot something and couldn't remember what until monday morning… figures.
to be fair – i was more scared that i might have forgotten to call my grandma, than anything else. Sooooo not that i didn't miss you guys, but i spent ALL weekend crafting up recipes to share and i'm hoping that you won't completely hate me for missing one sprinkles post.
However, if you're dying to know about my TV status – i'm loving the office and bingeing on gilmore girls at the moment.
SO anyway. For the next few weeks i'm going to make this up to you with… multiple food posts a week (probably 2!) woohoo!! i'm gonna make up for lost time i proooooomise!
also – in case you guys were worried, i'm TOTALLY not backing away from blogging. i actually just bought a brandddd new photography background and i'm SO excited for it to come in.
So please don't worry. i'm not going anywhere.
today's post is more like a “how-to” or “DIY” than a “recipe”
why am i quoting everything?
whatever. I took step by step photos, so hopefully this is clear! If you have questions let me know, i'm more than happy to answer ❤️ also maybe i'll make a video so you can seeeeee it happen. let me know your thoughts on that. (although i'm too much of a perfectionist to put something out there without realllllly figuring out how to do it well)
oh well. STEP ONE. cut the cranberry sauce in half! simple so far right? I say cut a diameter through the circle edge of the cylinder… hopefully thats clear. if not just look ^^^^^ up there!
thisssss is my favorite little pairing knife! it makes avocado roses like a dreammmm.
i quickly learned cranberry sauce is WAY softer than avocado and you could probably do this with a butter knife, but what's the fun in that.
ALRIGHT. so there are two ways you can “make” the rose. The first is to slice the jelly and spread the slices out like you see above. the idea from here is to take the slices and then curve them around each other. this method wasn't so successful for me, but i think my sauce was REALLY soft.
regardless of the first half being a complete failure – i scooped up the attempt at a rose and transferred it to the bottom of my shallow white bowl and i don't think you'd be the wiser about the mess up in person. moral: if you mess up the first half don't give up on the second!
this ^^^ is the other way to shape the rose and it worked MUCH better for me. I moved the cranberry sauce in a circle as i cut slices. this helped keep the structure and made it easier to see when i was running into issues. I kept this rose tighter so that it would work well in the bowl.
when i finished with this i just scooped it up and put it on top of the messed up half! easy peasy.
here's what it looks like without any pizazz!
its still super pretty, but i think it's the accessories that reallllly drives this home.
I topped the rose with zest from an orange and pomegranate seeds (arils?) and you can barely tell i messed up!
(if you can tell… don't tell me you can!)
but also i think the orange and the pomegranate add a nice flavor punch! plus they make it even “fancier” so it's not like you're “just bringing canned cranberry sauce again”
take that, thankgiving menu. TAKE THAT.
- 1 can cranberry sauce
- zest of one orange
- 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
- Use a can opener and remove the cranberry sauce in one piece.
- Cut the “log” of sauce in half, through the diameter of the circle end, to create two half circle logs.
- With the flat edge of the logs down, slice through to make approximately 1/4-1/8 inch segments. The larger the segments, the easier it is to control the structure – however, smaller segments look prettier I think!
- There are two ways to “form” the rose. One is to curve the initial segment around and shift the rest of the log in a circle as you slice, to create the rose. The other is to slice the segments, spread them out, and roll them back in. I found it easiest to rotate the sauce around in the formation of a rose while I was slicing!
- Sprinkle the orange zest and pomegranate seeds over the sauce to distract away from any imperfections (and add a boost of flavor!).
- Refrigerate until ready to serve!
yup. thanksgiving will never be the same. #so2016
Make it? Lemme see it! Hashtag it: #thepikeplacekitchen
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