what to do with all those cranberries
November 20, 2011 A quick Sunday hello, with fabulous ideas on what to do with all those cranberries, besides making cranberry sauce.
If you missed Angela’s winter salad + cranberry dressing, you need to check it out. Full of color, flavor, and a great contrast to a rich holiday meal.
I’ve made this 3 times in the past 2 days and it will be eaten again today. The only thing I added was Love Grown Foods Sweet Cranberry Pecan granola. The perfect crunch and slightly sweet addition, in lieu of croutons.
The only thing better than the salad, is the dressing. This is a great way to use up extra cranberries you may have in your fridge. But it’s also worth buying a bag, just for this dressing.
Prettiest dressing ever.
And so dang delicious.
Now I’m about to get all domestic on you!
Another way to use leftover cranberries and maybe some herbs you have rotting in your fridge?
Centerpieces!
For a whole $1.68, I bought 1 bag of cranberries and made up this quick centerpiece idea. A few years ago, I filled large hurricane vases with water and green leaves, then added cranberries and a white floating candle on top.
So pretty + festive and comes together in a snap.
I don’t have the hurricane vases anymore, so I just pulled out other pretty glass items in our cupboard, filled them with water and placed the cranberries on top.
You could definitely spruce up this setting more with putting greens in the center of the table, or a nice table runner. Neither of which I had, or wanted to buy. To throw a little more color in there, I filled two small mason jars with cranberries and stuck in fresh thyme and rosemary.
This took about 10min to arrange. It ended up a little Christmas-like, but with the plates + fall napkins it all evened out.
Dinner with friends felt so much more special with this festive little touch.
Enjoy the rest of your day! I’m about to get working on a dessert, edit people photos, and hopefully head out for a brisk, but sunny bike ride.
Ashley
thanksgiving in seasonal 
Reader Comments (21)
Oh my -- I think I need to get MORE cranberries now! The sound and look of that dressing is delightful. I love the color of cranberries -- nothing beats it's warm hue. I love how much of a seasonal treat it is..I'm so excited to make my cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving!
Hope the dessert work and photo editing is going well. I just did the same things and now it's out for a brisk run for me.
Love all your cranberry ideas!
Such a pretty table setting! I'll definitely use that idea this holiday season. You can't beat the price too!
Cute centerpiece ideas! I'm always one for minimalist, easy centerpieces! Thanks for sharing! :-)
What great ideas! Lovee cranberries :D
That's very pretty! I find that the simplest decorations are often the prettiest. My table centrepiece at Christmastime is just a large clear glass bowl filled with gold glass balls. I'm no Martha Stewart...but it makes me smile when I see it.
Oh, what a great idea for centrepieces! So easy too. I love how elegant it looks! That would work nicely for Christmas too.
Glad you like the dressing...love your photos! I agree it's the prettiest dressing and it contrasts nicely with greens. Have a great rest of the weekend.
I have Angela's holiday salad on my list to make and bring to my families house. I might massage it into kale instead of regular greens. Can't wait to try it!
Great centerpiece ideas-- if only I was hosting Thanksgiving this year...
Thanks girl!! Just ate another huge plate of it...hehe You always have the prettiest centerpiece ideas!
I love centerpieces like that!! And I know what you mean..this morning, just seeing the table made me smile!
Welcome!!! Yes, extremely easy. :) Love it!
Angela's salad is bookmarked! And your centerpieces are beautiful. What a creative idea.
Those photos seriously look like they're straight out of a Crate n Barrel catalog! Love them!
I've decided to take Angela's salad to my friends' house on Thanksgiving. It sounds so good!
Last year I made a Christmas table decoration with fresh cranberries. I placed a white candle in a tall, glass holder that was a couple sizes too big and then surrounded the candle with cranberries. It looked so pretty :)
Wow, you're creative. I love your cranberry usage!
THat sounds gorgeous!!
You are too kind!! Thank you :)
Wow, those water glasses with cranberries floating on top are SO simple yet so beautiful. I absolutely adore this idea and will be trying it ASAP. Thanks for the tip!
Oh pretty table! Love it!
This is so creative and cute!
Thanks so much Irina! I just love how easy it is. :)