pork chops with cranberries-- delicious and easy!

i'm heading across the country to spend the holiday with my family tomorrow, but really wanted to get one more post out because... i found cranberries!! dance and prance of cranberry joy! it's not that i exactly adore cranberries, or even that i've done much cooking with them. it's that one winter night two years ago rob and i found a pork chops with cranberries recipe that we decided would be our perfect saturday night dinner, and then were completely deflated when we couldn't find cranberries anywhere. evidently, after the holidays have passed, grocers don't stock them-- not even frozen ones.

i had no idea cranberries grew around here, so was completely surprised to see the box of bright and happy, organic, marble-sized berries at the foraged and found edibles booth at the farmers market. such an unexpected find! i cooked them up with pork chops from skagit river ranch (seriously-- can these guys do anything wrong? i continue to be blown away by the quality of their meats...) and we finally had our cranberries and chops experience.

recipe here: pan-roasted pork chops with cranberries and swiss chard from gourmet, november 2001.

the only thing i changed was to serve with kale and mashed celery root instead of the chard. so good! the chops were juicy, buttery and briny (despite having not been brined!), while the berry sauce was rich, earthy, and sour. they were perfect together. the recipe is really easy, too. as evidence, i burned the crap out of my left hand when i grabbed the handle of the skillet that i'd just pulled out of the oven (let's hope i'll be a one-trial learner of that lesson...), but was able to finish the dish one-handed.

another couple of pounds of cranberries are now in my freezer. any suggestions for what to do with them next?