We have an ongoing standoff in our family about cranberries. My husband and our younger daughter are not fans. My older daughter and I are. Of course, the month of November and the Thanksgiving holiday brings this little family rift to the surface each year. Actually, it’s not truly a rift. We’re live-and-let-live about personal choices, including cranberries, which always make their way to our Thanksgiving table, even if dear husband and younger daughter delight in wrinkling their noses up at them.

I have noticed that they don’t wrinkle their noses at the cranberry coffee cake I make from the leftovers. Hmmm.

Anyway, in October, our older daughter graduated with her “wings” from her training program in the Air Force. We all gathered to celebrate with her, as did extended family and friends. Of course, I asked our older daughter what kind of pie I should tote down to the base at which she was stationed at the time. She immediately said, “cranberry apple,” because, as she put it, cranberry and apple would taste great together.

Dear husband and younger daughter reacted with variations of “ewww” and “is there such a thing?”

Well, of course there is. I’ve made a cranberry-cherry pie in the past, which *everyone* in the family loved. (Sometimes, I think my family teases me that such-and-such pie won’t be tasty, just to goad me into making said pie. Hmmmm.)

In any case, I made the Cranberry-Apple Pie, using this recipe. And, well, *everyone* liked it.

Ingredients:

1. Two prepared pie crusts.
2. 4 cups peeled and finely chopped apples. (I like to use Granny Smith).
3. 2 cups whole cranberries. (I use raw, from the bag in the produce section, or frozen if the raw is not available.)
4. 1 1/2 cups white sugar. (Cranberries are tart, so increase to two cups if you prefer a sweeter taste.)
5. 1/4 cup flour or cornstarch.
6. 1 teaspoon cinnamon
7. 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
8. 2 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425-degrees F.

1. Mix cranberries, apples, sugar, flour or cornstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
2. Fit one pie crust to pie plate.
3. Fill will cranberry-apple mixture.
4. Dot with butter.
5. Top with second crust. Cut slits to vent, brush with milk or egg whites, sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
6. Bake at 425-degrees F for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350-degrees F and bake 50 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly.

Cranberry-Cherry Pie variation:

Substitute 3 cups frozen or raw, pitted cherries for diced apples. Or, use 21 ounces cherry pie filling and cut sugar to 3/4 cup.