OK, so here's what I did (I'm tellin' about it whether you are interested or not):
Picked thru the rinsed crans and tossed a few wrinkly blackish ones. Most of them were still bright red, although squishy.
Put two very thick, salt-and-peppered boneless pork chops in the bottom of the crockpot, threw in the cranberries, threw in a can of pineapple rings with their juice, and about a cup of unthawed, chopped green pepper that I conveniently had in the freezer. Also threw in a packet of dry onion soup mix. Set the whole thing on high about 3 hours ago.
Just checked on it, and it's starting to smell pretty good. Added about a coffee cup of water just to make sure I had enough juice going.
Around 6 pm or so, I plan on checking it again. If the meat seems tender, I'm gonna take it out,keep it warm, and reduce the liquid/fruit/peppers in a saucepan to thicken it up, adding a little cornstarch slurry if necessary.
Also making those potato latke waffles mish so kindly provided the recipe for. Had to go out and buy a ricer ($6.99 at Target) and loved the texture it created in the boiled taters. Too late now, but I wish I had added some garlic powder to those.