Cranberries

I was looking for an easy chicken recipe to serve to a crowd and found this recipe for cranberries and chicken.  But first a little history on cranberries.

Cranberries weren't always "cranberries".  For eastern Indians, they were "sammanesh", Cape Cod Pequots and Southern Jersey Leni-Lenape tribes called them "ibimi", or bitter berry.  And the Alogonuins of Wisconsin dubbed the fruit "atqua".  But it was the early Dutch and German settlers who started calling it the "crane berry", because of the flower's resemblance to the head and bill of a crane.

Cranberries are grown in the wild on long-running vines in sandy bogs and marshes.

It was the Native American's who took advantage of the cranberry's attributes.  By mixing mashed cranberries with deer meat, they made a survival food called pemmicana.  They also believed in the medicinal value of the cranberry, using the berry in poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds. 

The following recipe comes from the book "A Taste of Young Life", put together by a church's teen group in Northwest Atlanta, that offers summer camps to Teens all over the US, with about 300 recipes contributed from the various teen's family.  Very well put together.  You too can own this for $7.99 plus $3.99 shipping & handling, by contacting me at crazyvalbrown@yahoo.com.  This is not sold on my Amazon storefront: www.amazon.com/stores/oneofakindcookbooks , but there are more than 1600 cookbooks that are available at my storefront, so check out my other titles.

Cranberry Chicken

1 (16oz) can whole cranberry sauce

1 (1 1/4 oz) package Lipton Onion Soup mix

1 (8 oz) bottle Russian or Catalina dressing

6 boneless skinless, chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Combine cranberry sauce and next 2 ingredients in a bowl.  Place chicken in a 13x9x2 inch baking dish.  Pour sauce over chicken.  Bake for 1 hour.  Serves.

Easy Pizzy!

Again, note the spelling disclaimer-no spellcheck in my blogger, anymore.  Where it went anyone knows.

Happy Cooking!