B E B E R E

Cranberry Revolution

Even in the worst of times, there is good to be found. Even in the simplest of ingredients, there can be great enjoyment:

They say the earth does bad things . . .
The earth does all that is good:
She gives me food, she gives me drink,
She covers my body.

In honor of President Bush's upcoming visit to the Baltics, I thought it might be nice to share the recipe for a Latvian dessert I'm pretty fond of:

Heaven's Manna

3 cups cranberry juice
6 T sugar
1/2 cup (uncooked) Cream of Wheat cereal

In a saucepan, bring the cranberry juice to a boil over medium heat. While the juice boils, sprinkle in the sugar, a little at a time. Then slowly add the Cream of Wheat, stirring briskly with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture becomes thick.

With a rubber spatula, transfer the mixture from the pan to a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer (Trust me, you're not going to want to try this manually) on high speed for 10-15 minutes, until the pudding has doubled/tripled in volume, is a light pink color and is very light and fluffy. Pour into a large serving bowl, or into individual dessert bowl and serve right away. This stuff will only last a couple hours after making.

Serves 6-8

Enjoy!