Dreaming of Snow

I LOVE it when it snows.  I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night, because I'm suddenly aware of an intense quiet.  It worried me at first, but now that I know what it is, I smile and sink back to sleep, all warm and safe and secure.  In the morning, I go to the window and my heart skips at the sight of the winter wonderland I knew I'd see, just there outside.  But it's January now, and this winter so far there has been NO snow!

It's all people are talking about, and even the ones who hate snow, are confused and disoriented.  On Christmas Eve, people celebrated breakfast in the cafe and felt the holiday only in the awareness that it was indeed, December 24.  There was a sweet, but tender mood in the room. The view outside our bay windows was the golden brown of autumn.  Even the snow-haters watch as fat flakes drift down...in past winters.  We've got a crazy Robin who has not migrated, and remains to defend our crabapple trees from all comers.  I worry for him/her if the temperature drops to normal, too suddenly! 

Trying to stay positive, I'm putting little squares of gingerbread on every plate, with sliced green pears.  I've got all cold-weather coq au vin, ribolitta, chicken paprikas and Basque cabbage soup on the menu.  I worry though, that when it does finally snow, it will dump and we won't be able to get out of the door...or worse even, that this will be the first year ever, that it doesn't snow at all!  In hopes of perpetuating the highlight of the season that seems to have slipped by too fast, I'm continuing to promote cranberries!  I've been serving a simple, unusual roasted cranberry side dish that may be the only savory cranberry recipe I ever use again.  To me, anyway, it's Christmas, it's holiday time, it's snow!

ROASTED CRANBERRIES
I recalled bits and pieces of a recipe I read somewhere, and just put this together from memory.

1 pound of thawed cranberries (or fresh)
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp walnut oil
Fresh rosemary, thyme, and sage
1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup red wine with 2 Tbsp water

3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp red wine

Preheat oven 425 degrees

Mix cranberries with sugar, oil and salt, in a roasting pan.  Toss with the fresh herbs, and place in the oven for about 15 minutes (edges should begin to bubble)

Bring wine and water mixture to a boil and stir into the bubbling cranberries in the roasting pan

Cook 3 Tbsp sugar and 3 Tbsp wine until it turns to syrup

Return the pan to the oven, and roast until the cranberries shrivel, stirring occasionally for 10 to 15 minutes longer.

Remove cranberries from the oven, pull the fresh herbs out and stir the syrup in.  Serve hot or room temperature.