Although most Thanksgiving cooks will use fresh cranberries for the quintessential sauce or chutney this coming Thursday, these tart crimson berries can be used imaginatively in other courses of the day’s feast.  Start your festivities by assembling sparkling Cranberry Champagne Kirs or include Cranberry Poached Pears with Vanilla Ice Cream as a sweet finale. Neither recipe is complicated and both would enhance your holiday buffet.

Champagne combined with cranberry juice cocktail concentrate (available in the freezer section of some groceries or online) and garnished with glazed cranberries, makes a colorful and festive apéritif to begin Thanksgiving dinner. The cranberries can be glazed ahead so only a quick assembly is necessary after popping the cork.

For dessert, pears are poached in a mixture of sugar, red wine, lemon juice and zest along with a spicy accent of cinnamon. Then for a glaze (yes, another glaze!), fresh cranberries are cooked quickly in some of the poaching liquid until the mixture is syrupy and a rich red wine color. Then this sauce is spooned over the poached fruit. Both the pears and the glaze can be made two days ahead.

From my table to yours, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!