Homemade Cranberry Sauce and Acorn Squash Stuffed with Cranberries and Chestnuts

My blog is a great creative outlet and hobby for me that spotlights the new and fun aspects of my life.  However, I don't often talk about how other bloggers influence me.  This year a friend helped make my holiday special.

I spent the holidays of 2016 in Los Angeles, away from my family.  I wanted to do something special for myself but without a lot of muss and fuss. I saw a posting on facebook around Thanksgiving by my foodie friend Sue Burns, who writes the blog It's Okay to Eat the Cupcake.  A recipe for a homemade cranberry sauce, it was a simple facebook posting, not an elaborate blog post; but the photo caught my eye, and the fact that it was simple enough to be written up in a couple of sentences fit my holiday agenda.

I've never liked cranberry bread and generally steer away from them, but the fact that I made this sauce myself allowed me to flavor it to taste.  And the citrus in the recipe convinced me that it would be sweet, not tart.  I added cardamom to Sue's recipe for a bit of warmth.  The sauce was fun to watch bubble and pop as the cranberries boiled and softened into a thick mixture.  

To balance the sweet/tartness of the cranberry sauce, I served it stuffed in a roasted acorn squash, and added the holiday garnish of roasted chestnuts.  It made for a beautiful and special holiday presentation as a meal for one, but would easily work with a crowd.