Cranberry Chutney

a relish good for holidays or anytime

This is cranberry sauce, but not the bland gelatin you can buy in a can. This is spicy, sweet, and anything but bland. My brother used to make it at Thanksgiving. The version here is modified a bit from his, but includes all the things that made his so delicious.

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
3/4 lb. cranberries (one bag of the Ocean-Spray fresh cranberries, for instance)
1 cup walnuts
1 tsp each of cinnamon, coriander, fennel, and mustard seed

Stir the vinegar and sugar together in a pot and add the spices. When you've got a good boil, add the cranberries and walnuts. As it boils, the cranberries will start to pop. Squash them up with a potato masher, otherwise the guts will burst out of the skins and start swimming around separately. Boil it a while after that. Remove from heat, chill, eat. I especially like it on top of gingerbread.

For something a bit different, finely sliced granny smith apples and pistachio nuts may be substituted for the cranberries and walnuts. The resulting brown-green colour is not so pretty as the lively red of cranberries, but it tastes wonderful.