Monthly Archives: November 2021

Holiday Cranberry-Apple Preserves

This is a holiday staple on Take Two, something we love to spread on bread (or eat with turkey!) and also give away as an edible gift. This year, I wanted to teach my kids the water-bath canning method and make some jars of preserves to give away. I thought I would share the recipe and process–if it can be done on a boat, it can be done anywhere!

Cranberry Apple Preserves to Eat and Share

Cranberry Apple Preserves

Prep time: 2 hours Makes: 3-4 pints (depending on size of apples)

Ingredients

  • 2 cups brown sugar (Rapadura raw sugar, Coconut sugar or Turbinado sugar work well)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 cup orange juice (fresh-squeezed is best)
  • 2 cups fresh cranberries
  • 10 baking apples (Granny Smith or Pink Lady), peeled, cored, and chopped
Cranberry Apple Preserves Combo 1

Instructions:

  1. Place sugar, spices and orange juice in large pot.
  2. Bring to a simmer and add cranberries.
  3. Cook over medium heat until cranberries begin to pop. Stir with a wooden spoon, gently crushing the cranberries against the side of the pot.
  4. Add apples and cook over low heat, stirring frequently. Cook until tender.
  5. Meanwhile, fill a large stock pot or pressure cooker with water and bring to a boil. Add mason jars and lids to boiling water. Boil for ten minutes to sterilize. Remove jars from water.
  6. Use a blender to purée the preserves or leave chunky to use as a relish.
Cranberry Apple Preserves Combo 2

7. Fill Jars with preserves to within 1/2 inch of the top. Wipe the top of the jar clean, place lids on jars and screw on rings until finger-tight.

Step 5 Cranberry Apple Preserves

8. Lower the jars gently into the pot of boiling water. The water should cover the jars; if not, add more.

9. Boil jars of preserves for ten minutes. Remove jars carefully and cool.

Cranberry Apple Preserves Combo 3

10. As they cool, a vacuum should form inside the jars and suck the lids down, preserving the contents so they can be stored at room temperature. If, after cooling, a lid has not indented, or pops back up when pressed, the canning process has failed and you must store that jar of preserves in the fridge.

Cranberry Apple Preserves to Eat and Share

Enjoy on biscuits, bread, or as a relish with turkey or ham. Fantastic addition to the leftover-Thanksgiving-turkey sandwich. Happy holidays from the crew of Take Two!

Success!

Success is fine, but success is fleeting. Significance is lasting.

–Beth Brooke

First Books

If you know anything about us, you know we have a very unusual definition of success. Several years ago, we left the rat-race, stopped climbing corporate ladders, got out of the fast lane, ditched the American Dream, and refused to keep up with the Joneses. If these things don’t define success, what does? For us, it is a sense of fulfillment, a life lived with purpose, and the hope that when it’s time to meet our Maker, we’ll die without regret. That doesn’t mean we don’t need money to live, or that we lack ambition; rather, that our goals, financial and otherwise, are in line with our principles.

What I wanted, when I first started writing my memoir, Leaving the Safe Harbor, the Risks and Rewards of Raising a Family on a Boat, was to fulfill a lifelong dream of publishing a book. Beyond that, I wanted to find one reader, just one, who would read the hope and joy in my words and be inspired, falling back on my favorite Emily Dickenson poem:

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Because I set my expectations so low–I was just hoping to write a book that didn’t suck–there was nowhere to go but up. Leaving the Safe Harbor has far surpassed my hopes and dreams, and is experiencing unexpected success, winning awards and hitting “#1 New Release” in its category for the first two days after launch, and continuing to make best-seller lists. I mention this, not to boast (though of course I am overjoyed), but rather to encourage. You, dear reader, whoever you are, you have an unfulfilled dream. We all do. Go pursue it, or die trying. Do it with all your heart, do it for yourself, do it for your family, do it for God. Define, for yourself, what “success” would look like, and it doesn’t have to be tied to accolades or money. For me, it is enough that I finished something, that I shared my story for posterity, and that my words have resonated in one heart.

Stats November 12
Stats from November 12

Of course, I did not do any of this alone. I worked hard and made sacrifices to write this book, but I also had help. I have a family who put up with me and fended for themselves when I was buried in my writing. I had a supportive group of praying friends that walked with me through every scary step. I have Ingenium Books, a small hybrid publisher that goes above and beyond, and an editor who is now my friend. I have an enthusiastic launch team that read and recommended my book and continues to put my name out there, even convincing local bookstores and libraries to get it on the shelf. And, of course, I have a sense of God-given purpose, for which I am eternally grateful. If I never sell another copy, it was a worthwhile effort and a joyful endeavor. Whatever it is that you do that brings you closer to that sense of fulfilment and significance–go do it! The feeling of accomplishment is so worth it.

Embrace the Chaos
Photo by Debra Ferragamo-Hayes

FAQ: What’s it like to have a baby on a boat?

Baby on a Boat

“There is barely enough space for me and my growing belly in the grocery-laden dingy as I putt-putt back across Elizabeth Harbor from George Town, Exuma toward Sand Dollar Beach, where Take Two is anchored in the lee of Stocking Island in the southern Bahamas. I have grown considerably over the last three months since we left Florida, and Jay’s prophecy about my discomfort while climbing in and out of the dinghy with groceries has proven to be true. When we found out I was pregnant, I had nonchalantly said, ‘Babies are born everywhere. We’ll just stop off on an island somewhere, add a crew member, then keep going.’ He looked at me sideways and said he thought I might feel differently in six months…”

–from Leaving the Safe Harbor: the Risks and Rewards of Raising a Family on a Boat, an award-winning memoir by Tanya Hackney

Nursery

Some of you may remember all my boat-baby posts from 2011. Rachel, the baby in the photos, is now ten, and learning to drive the dinghy! I can tell you this: climbing in and out of my bunk while pregnant was not comfortable, and bringing a baby to our floating home was not easy, but it was wonderful, and we now have a daughter who has a healthy sense of adventure and is at home on the ocean. She is home-grown and all-natural: I had her without drugs at a birthing home, nursed her for two-and-a-half years, used cloth diapers, home-made all her baby-food, taught her to swim, and homeschooled her. If I can do it on a boat with five kids, anything is possible…dream big!

Hurricane Sandy