• 2 cups of cranberries (1 pack/16 oz)
• ¾ cup of sugar
• 1 cup of crushed pineapple with juice
• ½ cup of crushed walnuts
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
• Some fresh ground pepper

Homemade chili powder is much more flavorful than anything you can get in the store and it is easy enough to change the types of dried chilis you use to change the flavor from time to time.

This powder will keep for a few months in a sealed glass or plastic container.

Total Mass of Recipe: 31 grams (1 ounce)

Total Volume of Recipe: 5 tablespoons

Method

Dice the dried chilis and place in a cast iron pan with the cumin seeds and toast for a few minutes, until you can smell the aroma, but not enough to burn them.

Let cool for a minute.

Place the toasted mixture in the blender with the salt, paprika and garlic powder. Place a dish towel over the top and blend for about 2 minutes.

After the ingredients are blended let the contents settle before you open the cover. The fine particles can very easily get in your eyes, so take care.

We made this pineapple glaze for a pork roast. It could easily be used for an ice cream topping or any other meat.

This glaze is very easy to make. There are only three ingredients and it enhances any dish.

Method

Boil the pineapple juice until it reduces by 1/3. Add the brown sugar and then whisk in the cold butter in pieces. 

This glaze thickens quite a lot once it cools. 

Over the summer we picked a couple pounds of blackerries and blueberries and froze most of them so that we could always have fresh berries during the year. Now that the fall is here we decided to take some out of the freezer and make a dessert sauce. We have made berry sauces before but this time we wanted a creamier texture so we added a corn starch slurry to the berries as they cooked.

We started by adding 2 cups of blackberries to a 2 quart sauce pot and then adding the 1/2 cup of sugar. The trick to making a great sauce is time. It takes a while for the berries to boil and reduce to a syrupy texture. After they boiled for a while we added the corn starch slurry.

The result was excellent. This was the best berry sauce we ever made. It was very easy and made the vanilla ice cream that much better.

Applesauce is the perfect way to utilize the abundance of apples that fall brings. It’s easy and quick to make as well as an excellent accompaniment next to many dishes. Applesauce goes excellent next to pork, turkey and chicken, or on top of potato pancakes, crepes or oatmeal. The easiest way to enjoy apple sauce is to have it plain topped with some milk and cream, then the flavors come through especially well.

This is a very nice recipe. It only takes about 30 minutes to cook the applesauce and its consistency turns nice and smooth. We use Fuji as well as Granny Smith apples, it’s a good idea to use a combination of various apples. Other good cooking apples include Gravenstein, McIntosh and Golden Delicious.

This applesauce is sweet, although not too sweet and flavored with cinnamon

About 1 quart of applesauce

Ingredients

• 3 lbs of peeled, cored and chopped apples (We used 3 large Fuji apples and 4 smaller Granny Smith)
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar (or regular white sugar)
• 1 cup water
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 lemon peel pieces
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice

Method:

Add the apples, the sugar, the water, the salt, the cinnamon stick and the lemon peel to a large pot. Place on medium heat and let come to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, stir occasionally. At this point, add the ground cinnamon and the lemon juice. Taste to see if the sauce is sweet/spicy enough, otherwise adjust the content.

Cook for another 10 minutes, then mash the apples with a potato masher. Either serve right away, or store in the fridge or in the freezer.

Sauce Béarnaise is a classic emulsion of egg yolks and butter flavored with a reduction of vinegar and tarragon. It’s traditionally served with steak, however it’s sister sauce Hollandaise (which is flavored simply with lemon juice) can often be found on top of eggs benedict or steamed asparagus. No matter what you plan to serve this simple sauce with, it will surely brighten up even the simplest dish.

Contrary to popular belief, a béarnaise sauce isn’t hard to make, it only requires a little extra attention. When you are making this sauce – don’t walk away for a second, and never stop whisking. If you only follow these simple steps, your end result will be beautiful, shiny and absolutely delightful.

• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 ½ teaspoon horseradish
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Sprinkle Old Bay seasoning

Orange, cloves and cinnamon lend their traditional flavors in this easy cranberry sauce. It's surprisingly simplistic yet very good. Cranberries go very well with orange and cinnamon and this sauce provides the perfect balance between sweet and tart.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of cranberries (1 pack/16 oz)
• ¾ cup of sugar
• The zest from half an orange
• The juice from one orange
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole cloves
• Pinch of salt

Method:

Add all the ingredients to a pot and bring to a simmer. Let cook for about 20 minutes or until the cranberries are soft. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve.

• 3 parts chili powder
• 2 parts brown sugar
• 1 part salt
• 1 part ground cumin
• 1 part paprika
• 1 part dried onion
• ½ part celery salt
• ½ part onion powder
• ½ part dried chili flakes

Mix all the ingredients together. Store in an air-tight container.

To use on meat:

Generously cover a piece of meat with this rub and massage it into the meat. Let the meat sit in room temperature for at least 20 minutes (preferably up to an hour) covered in this rub. The salt and the spices will draw moisture out of the meat, resulting in more concentrated flavor. Then grill, fry or roast the meat with the rub on.

A fresh, homemade salsa with mango, lime, cilantro and chili is quite refreshing and goes perfectly next to a piece of meat or fish (especially nice next to salmon). Food right off the grill works nice as the flavors of the salsa compliments the smokiness from the grill. This makes a small batch that can easily be doubled.

Ingredients:

• 1 mango (or papaya), diced
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 1/2 small green chili, minced
• 1/2 garlic clove, minced
• The juice of one lime
• Fresh Cilantro (Coriander), chopped
• salt

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together and taste with some salt. Depending on how sweet the mango is, you might need to add some additional sugar. If you like very spice salsa, then you can add some additional chili.

Preferably refrigerate for a couple of hours to let flavors come together.

Note: Additional ingredients that would work nice in this salsa include

• Fresh tomatoes, diced
• Peppers, diced
• Apples, diced
• Thai fish sauce
• Pineapple