After many years at this, we’ve got this Thanksgiving thing figured out. Since we usually go to friends’ houses for the holiday, we don’t need to worry about the turkey. Julian makes the key lime pie in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning. When I get up, I make the cranberry relish(es) and any other contribution. This keeps us out of each other’s way. By the time Julian gets out of bed, the kitchen is more or less cleaned up after my escapades and he can practice quality control.
This year I made the tried and true raw cranberry relish, and an experimental cooked one. The raw one is from The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American, and consists of just cranberries, oranges, and sugar. This year I used maple syrup and sugar in smaller quantities than usual. The maple flavor got lost in the cranberries, but no matter. The cooked one is from the October-November issue of Fine Cooking magazine. This one combines cranberries, sugar, mint, bourbon, and a little water. You cook it until the cranberries all pop and the mixture thickens. After it cools, you add chopped toasted nuts. The original recipe called for hazelnuts, but I substituted pecans to continue with the southern vibe.
Cooked cranberry-mint relish with pecans.
Then I made applesauce. I managed to find some Rome Beauty apples at, of all places, Uwajimaya. There’s a reason they’re called Rome Beauty–look at them! The red pigment is in the pulp as well as the peel.
How do I like them apples? In sauce!
This is what I wound up with after they were cooked and I put them through the food mill. If you want to know how I did this, check out my earlier post, “Oh, Applesauce!” 
No red dye #2 here.
Now this is applesauce worth making for Thanksgiving.
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