New-School Cranberry Salad

I used "Tart Montmorency" dried cherries and followed the recipe ingredients and amounts exactly. The cherries overwhelmed the cranberries. Next time I will use a 2/1 ratio of cranberries to cherries.  It was also much too tart so I added 1/4 c more sugar and twice the amount of mandarin orange segments, fresh pears and fresh pineapple. That left a good sweet/tart balance. I made the sauce (first 4 ingredients) the night before, refrigerated over night, and added the fruit the next day.   It was a hit with the Thanksgiving feast.   Single modified recipe is enough for 11 servings.