My twice-yearly shopping at Ikea always means a couple of jars of Lingonberry Preserves.  We have almost as many flavors of jam and preserves in the ‘fridge and in the cabinets as we do mustards.  I like my sweet and I like my savory.

Back home there is a small supermarket chain named Andronico’s.  Great food with fairly high prices, but unsurpassed quality.  The original “you get what you pay for” type of store.  Their sandwich/deli area had the best turkey sandwich with fresh-roasted turkey, spicy mustard – and lingonberry preserves.  It was the most excellent sandwich.  they had a whole wheat french roll that was just the perfect container for the fabulous fillings.  I miss that sandwich!

But I digress…

With two jars of Lingonberry preserves (and one cloudberry and one gooseberry!) that sweet/savory taste was calling to me…  Years and years (and years) ago when I worked at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe, we had duck with a lingonberry sauce at Hugo’s.  I didn’t have any duck at home, but I had pork chops.  That sauce started with a classic demi-glace that I was not about to start making at home an hour before I wanted to eat, but I’ve done quick wine and stock reductions and figured this was a perfect time to do another!

Lingonberry Sauce

  • 2 cups red wine
  • 2 cups beef stock
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1 cup lingonberry preserves
  • 1/2 tsp tarragon
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tbsp butter mixed with 1 tbsp flour

Put wine and both broths in a pot, boil, and reduce to 1 cup.  Stir in lingonberry preserves and tarragon.  Heat through. Thicken with flour/butter paste.  Taste for seasoning.

Really simple.  Really!

And since we were having pork chops with lingonberries, I decided we needed Pumpkin Polenta to go along with it.  Victor has been laughing at me because every year I go on a huge pumpkin kick and serve it in some fashion at least three times a week for a month or more.  This pumpkin polenta was just another in a long line of pumpkin recipes that have been appearing this year…

Pumpkin Polenta

  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 2/3 cup polenta
  • salt and pepper to taste

Bring chicken broth, cream, butter, salt, pepper, and pumpkin to a boil.  Slowly stir in polenta.  Reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked. (I used a really coarse polenta that takes about 45 minutes.  Finer-grained polenta will take less time.)

I pan-fried the pork chops in a bit of olive oil, S&P.

I steamed the brussel’s sprouts and then browned in a skillet with butter and a dusting of Honey Dust.

I dirtied four pans.  It was worth every one of them!