Sparkle Stories Blog

Like Martin and Sylvia’s family, our family has experimented with making holiday meals from ingredients closer to home. Increased interest in local eating means that it’s easier than ever to make local meals.

While berries are good in a variety of dishes and desserts—pie, cobbler, ice cream, and on and on—really good, fresh-picked berries rarely require that much fuss. In season, our local blackberries are so big, fat, and juicy that we often have them plain for dessert or with just a little whipped cream.

Cranachan is a Scottish dessert, through and through. In its classic form it has only five ingredients—oats, raspberries, honey, cream, and whisky — all as Scottish as a tartan plaid. To make it suitable for kids, the version below substitutes orange juice for whisky, but other than than I wouldn't dare tinker with such a classic.