About two weeks ago, seasonal, local cranberries made their first appearance. Apparently, cranberries have a relatively short season, so we bought a bunch. Last weekend, Lindsay decided to try out a recipe for a sweet and spicy jelly. Except for the sugar, all the ingredients were from the greenmarket:

• Cranberries
• 1 Habanero Pepper
• 1 Jalapeño Pepper
• Apple scraps and cores (which we have been saving in the freezer for just such a thing)
• Sugar

We didn’t take pictures or do any documentation because this was a first attempt. When we try something new, we like to focus on the task. Also, like any experiment, we don’t always know how things will turn out. For once, though, we blew it with this policy. This came our great! Although we don’t have enough for a full post, everything came out so good that we had to post a “preview”.

The jelly is pretty sweet, until you get to one of those chunky bits, which are pieces of hot pepper. A lot of the heat cooked out of the peppers, so you get the great spicy taste but only just enough heat.

Next time we are going to try with with less sugar, so that the cranberry tartness comes through more, as well as more peppers (because we like ‘em). Then we can post both versions. Another thing on our to-do list is to write up a “Canning 101″ post or series of posts. This recipe makes enough that you have to be prepared to properly can it for storage. But once it’s canned, it will make a great gift!

After we sampled some of this jelly last week, we determined that we had to try it on a bagel. The bagels and cream cheese were not local nor were they homemade, but nobody’s perfect, and who cares? It was awesome! The heat and cream cheese made for a perfect combination.

Coming soon:

• The recipe for Cran-banero Jelly (maybe 2 versions)
• A detailed post with pics of the process
• “Canning 101″

Stay tuned!