Most families have Thanksgiving traditions. Whether it’s cooking a certain food or going over to other people’s house’s to eat their food, traditions are nice.

A majority of people look forward to that long weekend and expect to gain a couple of pounds by stuffing their faces with the variety of foods available on that long table. To make cranberry sauce to top off the turkey and give a little sweetness to your taste buds you will need: (this makes 2 ¼ cups of cranberry sauce.)

• 1 cup (200 g) sugar
• 1 cup (250 mL) water
• 4 cups (1 12-oz package) fresh or frozen cranberries
• Optional: Pecans, orange zest, raisins, currants, blueberries, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice.

Once you gather all the materials if you correctly follow these steps you will have a sweet and flavorful sauce to top things off.

1. Wash and pick cranberries. In a saucepan, boil water and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the cranberries, and return to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst.
   1. You can add the optional other ingredients to give it more flavor and spice things up.
   2. Remove it from heat; cool completely at room temperature and then cool it in the refrigerator. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.

Another way to bring in the traditional home-made way of thanksgiving to the dinner table is to make mashed potatoes!

• 1 1/2 lbs gold potatoes, peeled and quartered length-wise
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tbsp heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp milk
• Salt and Pepper

Once you gather all the materials if you correctly follow these steps you will have a salty treat to fill you up and accompany the main dish— turkey.

1. Put potatoes in saucepan. Add ½ teaspoon salt. Add water until potatoes are covered. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, covered, 15-20 minutes or until done— a fork can be easily poked through them.
2. Warm cream and melt butter, together, either in microwave or in a pan on the stove. Drain water from potatoes. Put hot potatoes into a bowl. Add cream and melted butter. Use potato mashers or use a fork to mash the potatoes.
3. Add salt and pepper to add flavor.