Cranberry Syrup recipe

I know!
I was as shocked as you that I pulled this one off. A recipe? One I made up as I went along? What are the odds? Pretty slim it seems, since, it's been quite awhile since I posted a recipe. I thought I'd throw this one out there see where it landed.

With my travel schedule it is sometimes hard to put food on the table let alone something that I made up on my own. Why is it that my family thinks they need to eat? Do they think it magically appears on the table? Yes, yes they do.

Sunday was JR's birthday. I won't mention how old he is now but let's just say that retirement age is not so much creeping up on him as it is roaring up on a Harley. At our age we don't make a big fuss out of birthdays. We have or can go out and buy whatever we want so there is none of that gift angst anymore but I like to do something a little special for him. In that spirit I made him one of his favorite breakfasts...french toast.

Not just any french toast but cranberry walnut french toast with homemade cranberry syrup. I know, I give and I give. HA!  The day before I found a loaf of cranberry walnut bread on the day old bread shelf at the grocery store. I immediately thought of french toast. So I snapped up that loaf of bread like it was a Running of the Brides sale at Filene's Basement. I paid .89 cents for this cranberry walnut loaf of love. JR didn't need to know that he was getting discounted breakfast for his birthday.

Then Sunday morning I discovered that we had no maple syrup. Oh groovy! No syrup for the french toast. This could have been a birthday breakfast disaster but no! I saved the day by making syrup.

If you are on some sort of diet you are going to want to stay clear of this or do what I do...use moderation. I'm not sure if you can use artificial sweetener but I don't see why not. Here is my recipe that I made up on the fly, if you want to change it up be my guest. That's cool.

Cranberry Syrup

1 1/2 cup cranberry juice cocktail (I had diet Ocean Spray on hand)
1/2 cup orange juice (straight out of the carton. JR buys it that way. Without champagne in it I don't really do OJ.)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Craisins
1/4 cup or so corn starch

Combine cranberry juice cocktail, orange juice, sugar and Craisins to a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Turn down heat to low and let syrup gently boil, stirring frequently to prevent it from burning. Boil for 15 minutes or until sugar completely dissolves and Craisins plump up. Take off of the heat. Whisk in corn starch a little at a time. It will thicken up as it cools down so don't be generous with the corn starch. You can also use arrowroot if you are not into corn starch. Corn starch and arrowroot thicken in cool liquids. Spoon over french toast while it is still warm. Eat. You will have to remind yourself of the moderation rule because this stuff is Yummy!

This sounds really sweet but the craisins and cranberry juice cuts the sugar sweetness. We started talking about all the other things we thought it would be good with, such as;
turkey (JR's contribution)
grilled tofu (mine)
pork tenderloin (JR again)
grilled romaine lettuce (me)

I'm sure you can think of many other savory dishes where a semi-sweet sauce would work well.

Love,
M
It's not really Saturday but what the Elmore!