During our time at home over the holidays I picked up four or five new recipes from family members and this is the first one onto the blog!  One of my sisters-in-law made this for us right after Christmas and we devoured the whole thing… in a matter of minutes.  I had never even heard of cranberry salsa and I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor.  I didn’t expect it to taste bad, I just didn’t know what to expect:-)The flavors create an interesting balance of tart (cranberries) and sweet (agave) with a little citrus kick as well (limes) and the overall affect is just wonderful!  Last night I had a reunion with old friends and we all brought a dish or two to share.  I thought it was the perfect excuse to make this salsa again and I was so enthusiastic about it that I made a triple batch.  I probably could have gotten away with just a double batch, but who complains about good leftovers, right?The party was just heavenly.  There is something so satisfying and heart warming about being surrounded by true friends.  The kind of friends where no matter how long the gaps are between gatherings, it is always comfortable and easy to be with them and you know that they will always love and accept you.  We all need friends like that (we should probably all strive to be friends like that:-)So this recipe originates from allrecipes.com and the only change I made was lowering the sugar and changing it to agave.  I was a little unsure of using an entire bunch of cilantro, but the cranberries and lime juice have such strong flavors that it all balances out in the end.  Also, the recipe calls for one jalapeño per batch.  I am a spice wimp and I was nervous so I did one jalapeño for the triple batch and you couldn’t taste it at all.  So if you like a little kick you can stick to the recipe and do one per batch, but if you are like me and don’t really care for a jalapeño kick you can leave it out entirely.

Cranberry Salsa

12 oz bag of cranberries, frozen or fresh

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

1 bunch of green onions, roughly chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced (optional)

2 limes, juiced

½ C agave, to taste

Pinch of salt, to taste

1. Add all ingredients to food processor or blender and pulse until all the ingredients have been broken down into small pieces and the salsa has reached the desired consistency.  Adjust salt and agave to taste.

Enjoy!  This is a great party recipe (big or small), but it is also great to just have in the fridge.  Have a wonderful weekend and get ready for next week.  We are getting a new theme and it is one I have been looking forward to for months… so be excited:-)