Spiced jarred peaches and cranberries come together for a delicious warm compote. Perfect for Christmas morning or… even Christmas Eve morning!

Spiced Peach Cranberry Compote

Recipe by Hilary

1. Drain syrup from jarred peaches into heavy medium saucepan.  Add cranberries and stir.  Heat on medium, covered, stirring occasionally, until cranberries pop.

2. Think about how large you want your peaches to be in the compote.  If you’re serving the dish on its own plate, perhaps you want to keep the peaches as halves.  Or, maybe you want them to be smaller, in which case you should cut them now.  Also, discard the couple of cloves from the jarred peaches- they’ll be difficult to remove (and to remember to remove) from the final dish.

3. Add peaches to cranberries and stir.  Sprinkle the dash of cinnamon (being careful not to let it get clumpy) and stir again.  Add a bit of sugar and taste.  Then continue adding sugar until you’re happy with the level of sweetness.

4. Serve warm.

*I was very pleased with Rosie’s Spiced Peaches (Stello Foods) in this recipe.  The peaches are beautiful and the spices add a wintry flavor and aroma to the compote.  You could also use your own canned peaches and spices.  Fresh peaches technically could work, but fresh peach season doesn’t align with hot-fruit-compote season so well. 

Spherical, heavy, crispy, yellow-ish green and often covered in bits of moldy cobweb.

That’s how I’d describe quince to someone who needed to buy some for a recipe.

Thankfully, here’s a picture which is probably a bit more appetizing to guide you in the market so you can cook up some holiday dishes… emphasis on cook since raw quince can be toxic.

I need to work on my sales pitch.

A great recipe to convince you how, once cooked, quince doesn’t make you wince and in fact makes you, finally, very happy: Cranberry, Quince and Pearl Onion Compote, a seasonal complement to turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. I also tried some over vanilla ice cream which was delicious as a sweet-but-not-too-sweet treat.

Does this ever happen to anyone else?

You buy a bunch of green bananas.

You leave them to ripen.

They stay green for a long time.

Then brown spots begin to appear (even as parts remain green).

What happened to the middle stage, when they’re ripe and yellow?

Can you tell I love Larabars?  This is after I recieved a great package last Christmas.

I think this was enough to last me through… January?

My favorite thing about each flavor of Larabar is the simplicity of ingredients.  Take Pistachio: Dates, Pistachios, Cashews.  Period.

Or Banana Bread: Almonds, Dates, Unsweetened Bananas.

Even a more complicated-sounding flavor such as Key Lime Pie: Dates, Cashews, Almonds, Unsweetened Coconut, Lime Juice Concentrate.

Lovely.  And tasty!

There are two types of people: those who like “purple drink,” artifically-grape-flavored-juice, and those who won’t admit it.

I have fond memories of purple drink, even if I was only allowed to drink it a couple of times over the course of my childhood. It tastes like grapes should taste. My mom is horrified to read this, I’m sure. (She’s very far into the denial end of the purple drink enjoyment spectrum.) And unlike Dave Chapelle, I don’t think skin color is so influential here.

Enter concord grapes, in season currently. My bunch came from a farm in upstate New York. They taste like all of the delicious, sweet goodness of purple drink, and they’re FRUIT. =Healthy! =Nutritious! There are two little pesky seeds inside each grape, which you may choose to ignore the best you can and swallow, or meticulously retrieve and set aside.

Still, though. You can’t go wrong. Best part is? It’s always cool to admit you like concord grapes. Mom?