Holiday Leftovers Recipe: Cranberry Orange Butter

Happy New Year!  Cranberries are often the only remaining leftover in the fridge by now, and sadly, they often end up getting tossed. Instead of throwing them out, try this super-simple recipe, and you can enjoy your cranberries for at least another week in a different form! Enjoy on hot cranberry bread or muffins, or warm biscuits.

This calls for cranberry orange relish, but you can also use plain cranberry sauce - just make sure to drain it well in step 1.

Using up leftovers doesn't get any easier than this!

Cranberry Orange Butter

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
1/4 cup cranberry orange relish

Directions:

• Put cranberry orange relish in sieve over a bowl and let drain; discarding the liquid or keep it for another use.
• Put butter in shallow bowl, and when it reaches room temperature, add the cranberry orange relish.
• Using a fork or pastry cutter, mix the relish into the butter until well blended, then put in pretty serving dish and put in refrigerator to get cool and solid.
• Serve cold on hot cranberry bread or muffins.

Recipe - Cranberry Ricotta Pie

Here is a tasty way to use up those leftover cranberries you didn't get to use yesterday. It's satisfying, tasty, and not too sweet - a welcome change from all the holiday candy and sugary cakes and pies.

Cranberry Ricotta Pie

Image by Shaw Girl via FlickrIngredients:
1 cup whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 1/4 cup ricotta
4 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
dash ground nutmeg
dash ground cloves

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, add the cranberries and, using a potato masher, mash them up a little bit to break them up.
3. Add to the bowl the remaining ingredients, stirring to mix; do not over-mix.
4. Grease, butter, or coat with cooking spray a large pie tin or other shallow baking dish about the same size.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 1-1/4 hour to 1-1/2 hour or until pie forms a crust-like top, browns slightly, and sets up.
6. Remove and let cool at room temperature.
7. Serve at room temperature with a dollop of whipped topping.