Yes, I am still alive!  Any faithful readers may have noticed that I have not been posting as frequently lately, but for good reason.  I started my ER rotation last week and have worked the last 11 days in a row!  (I do finally get a day off this Friday, and I cannot wait!)  Thankfully it has been a very fun and interesting experience so far, which makes the long hours and crazy shifts much more bearable.  It has been really putting the hurt on my kitchen time though.  I’m lucky to have such a wonderful husband take over making dinners for the time being.  I have been able to squeeze in a bit of kitchen time and have some wonderful treats to share – now I just need the time to blog them!  Another issue is the fact that I am basically never, ever home during daylight hours anymore which poses quite a problem for taking good pictures.  My solution – a DIY lightbox.  It has been working wonderfully so far, and was so quick and easy to put together.  (More on this at the end of the post.)

Anyway, enough rambling – on to the sorbet!  My, oh my, this is some fabulous stuff!  I am normally not a huge fan of cranberry, but this is really fantastic.  The cranberry flavor is perfect – not overly sweet, but definitely not too tart either as many cranberry things can be.  I have a few bags of frozen cranberries in my freezer and though I have lots of other recipes I plan to try with them, it is tempting to just make them all into sorbet.  It’s that good.

Cranberry Sorbet

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups cranberries, fresh or frozen

1 cup water

¾ cup sugar

1 ½ cups cranberry-raspberry juice

2 tsp. Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur (optional)

Directions:

Heat cranberries, water, and sugar in a medium saucepan until liquid begins to boil.  Let boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat and cover.  Let stand for 30 minutes.  Puree the mixture in a food processor or a blender, and then pass through a fine mesh sieve to remove any large bits of cranberry skin.  Stir in the juice and the liqueur.  Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. 

Source: adapted from Use Real Butter, originally from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

A few quick lines about my lightbox: super simple to put together.  Basically all you need is five pieces of foam board, tape, two basic reflecting lamps and some natural light lightbulbs. 

The lightbox (currently living in our guest room).

It’s a great light source!

See how dark it is when I’m taking these photos?  No longer a problem.  Make yourself a lightbox today!