You are going to wrest my easy-handy-dandy holiday, really-pretty-color, got-to-have for upcoming feasts recipe from my hot little hand.

The year I discovered that it could be made in the microwave, and NOT spill over into a sticky goop of Exxon Valdez proportion in my oven, was a great day in Luceyland.

CONTENTS: YOU WILL NEED

• bags of fresh cranberries
• granulated sugar
• fresh oranges
• dry sherry
• orange liqueur

You are going to create Sherry Berries... or Cranberry Souse....or whatever you want to call it to make it your own.

1. one pound fresh cranberries
2. one cup+ sugar
3. juice of an orange
4. 1/4 cup dry sherry
5. 1/4 cup orange liqueur
6. zest the orange peel or grate it

Mix it up and microwave on high in a ceramic or Corningware dish for ten minutes Cool. Mash it up.

Adjust proportions accordingly. I tend to cook without measurement. Depending on the size of your dish you can double or triple the recipe easily.

Ms. Lucey went to the Smidgeon & Fistful Culinary Institute.

PRESENTATION: YOU SHOULD GET

• A bunch of glass jars of all sizes.
• pretty labels
• cloth remnants
• ribbon

1. Spoon mixture into glass jars.

2. Use a pinking shears to make cloth circles

3. Place cloth over the lids and tie with ribbon or use elastic

4. Slap on your personal labels

5. Refrigerate

Bring to any Thanksgiving or holiday feast. Serve as a relish.

Can be used as a glaze for ham or corned beef.

Keeps for at least six months in the refrigerator.

It's colorful.

It doesn't slide out of a can and shiver.

It's handy when caught off guard with an attack of 'what should I bring?

Beverly Carol Lucey is a published fiction writer living in Georgia. Her on-line websites are: Language Wrangler, Poodle Press, Ethical Oasis, and Woman of a Certain Age