I'd never thought about cranberry salsa as a compliment to my Thanksgiving menu until putting together the November issue of Working Mother magazine. One of the recipes in our featured cookbook, How to Cook a Turkey and All the Other Trimmings (Tauton Press 2007), was eye-opening for two main reasons: 1) uncooked cranberries when properly balanced with more than just a ton of sugar are bright in flavor and fun in texture and 2) it gains big points for not monopolizing an already busy stove top. I 86'd the pears to let the cranberries be the star and nixed the chilies too to keep it kid friendly. And what would salsa be without a splash of fresh lime juice? The real secret here, though, is agave nectar. Unlike honey which is more pungent tasting, agave nectar adds a creamy sweetness to temper the tart nature of cranberries. This dish only gets better with time, so plan on making it two days in advance. —Jennifer Perillo
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