My family always made cranberry sauce from scratch. My grandma's recipe involved heating the cranberries with sugar and letting it set up in a star shaped mold. My mother made the kind where you grind a whole orange with fresh cranberries, and sometimes add some diced fresh apples.

Mr. Troutbend's outfit, on the other hand, like the jellied cranberry sauce (not the whole berry kind) slid out of the can onto a plate and sliced. One time I wanted to cut the slices into shapes with a cookie cutter and he wouldn't let me. It's important to him that the lines from the can are right there to be enjoyed.

Today I saw Paula Deen's recipe for that canned kind:

Slip your cranberry sauce out of the can onto a plate and slice it.
Combine:
Softened cream cheese
Mayonnaise
Stir in:
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Make sandwiches of the sliced cranberry sauce filled with the cream cheese filling. You can garnish it with a little parsley.

I have been noticing that cream cheese is the new deep fried: no matter what other ingredients are involved cream cheese apparently makes the dish perfect. Even if the recipe already calls for sour cream, cream cheese makes it even better. I think Ms. Paula Deen's recipes have a lot to do with this craze, but I've noticed other cooks stirring cream cheese into all kinds of desserts, main dishes, and vegetables.

I haven't succumbed to this fad - yet. And if/when I do, I'll probably buy that lower fat Neufchatel cheese, but never 'fat free' cream cheese, because I don't like to even think about what chemical shenanigans go into making that.