By The ISFA work continues — another kitchen table this week, another young family with numbers that might work. I sat across from a couple in Story County and laid out the grants and watched their faces change from fear to possibility, and the change is the thing I live for now.
The recipe this week: lemon chicken with capers. Standing at the stove, Marlene's wooden spoon in my hand (the cracked one, the one that will outlast us all), the recipe either from the card box or from my own expanding collection, both equally real, both equally mine. The kitchen holds all of it — the old recipes and the new ones, the teacher's food and the student's food, the grief and the joy and the cinnamon. All of it. Always.
Seed starting continues at the Holloway household — the windowsill green, the grow lights purple, the soil mix precise. The annual miracle of February and March: things grow even when everything says they shouldn't. The growing is the argument against everything.
The lemon was already on the counter when I started thinking about what to make alongside the week — not the chicken this time, but something bright and preservable, something with that same citrus note that carries. Lemon cranberry sauce isn’t far from where I was standing in the kitchen anyway, and there’s something right about a recipe that starts with things that seem sharp and difficult and ends up something you want to put on everything. That’s the week in a jar, honestly.
Lemon Cranberry Sauce
Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 10
Ingredients
- 12 oz fresh or frozen cranberries, rinsed and sorted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
Instructions
- Combine base ingredients. Add the cranberries, sugar, and water to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine.
- Bring to a boil. Increase heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. The cranberries will begin to pop open after 5–7 minutes.
- Add lemon and reduce. Stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 8–10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the sauce has thickened and most of the berries have burst.
- Adjust and cool. Taste and add more sugar or lemon juice as needed. Remove from heat and allow the sauce to cool — it will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Store or serve. Serve warm or transfer to a clean jar and refrigerate for up to two weeks.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 72 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 19g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 24mg