Earl Grey Infused Cranberry Sauce

This year for our after Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner I thought it would be cool to add an eclectic Mediterranean twist. Okay wasn't meaning for it to turn out eclectic, just ended up that way.

The appetizers included hummus with whole-wheat flat bread, honey Greek yogurt with figs and a relish tray with assorted cheeses and olives. For the main course, we served Greek-style lemon potatoes, garden tabbouleh and Mediterranean barley salads, grilled eggplant, artichoke parmesan stuffing, Earl Grey infused cranberry sauce along with the whole-wheat flat bread and Mediterranean garlic butter. Now it would have been neat to had as the main dish, fish, but the invitees included my father and brother-in-law and we did not want to face their reign if we had not have had a turkey. However we did season it with a Mediterranean herb rub. Then we washed it all down with sparkling pomegranate cider with lemon ice-cubes.

For the main even, i.e., desserts, of course we had to have the traditional sour-cream pumpkin pie with whole-wheat crust and made enough so each guess could take their own pie home with them. This year since we weren’t doing sweet potatoes as part of the meal with did sweet potato cupcakes in addition to ginger-pumpkin bread and gingerbread baklava.

The two surprised hits of the meal were the tea-infused cranberry sauce and even more of a shocker, the gingerbread baklava.

The reason I chose this particular cranberry sauce recipe is because it called for Earl Grey, my mother’s favorite tea. Oh, I should probably mention that in our household, my husband is the Executive Chef (his true profession and why we can’t have our Thanksgiving on the actual day because he is busy serving up dinner to 200+ at the restaurant). I am the Pastry Chef (just because I like to play with my food...trust me, no formal training has been involved). Thus, the version of the recipe below is after my husband does that thing that he does that makes food amazingly good.

Earl Grey Infused Cranberry Sauce

• 2 bags of fresh cranberries
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar in the raw
• 3 to 5 cinnamon sticks
• 1 orange cut into wedges, leaving peel on
• ¼ cup lemon Juice
• 5 to 6 bags of Earl Grey Tea

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to boil. Turn down heat and simmer 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat to cool. Take out tea bags before serving.

Gingerbread Baklava recipe to follow....