Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Thanksgiving Dinner. Those two words strike chill in the hearts of many American men and women. There are several reasons for this. One is that they usually mean that your family is getting together. All your family. Even the parts you don't get along with too well. The other reason is that it is arguably the most important meal (food wise) of the year.

Each family has its own set of traditions and special dishes. I know lots of folks who would not eat dinner without the famous string bean casserole. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I prefer my green beans cooked just until hot and served with butter and lemon. In our family the menu, and it never varies, looks like this:

Turkey, of course, the bigger the better, even though some years there were only 5 of us.
Stuffing, cornbread and sausage, only made for Thanksgiving.
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Cranberry sauce and Fruit Relish.
Pies, usually apple and pumpkin

When I say it never varies, I mean it. I suggested a small change and there was an uproar and someone said, "Well, you might as well cancel Thanksgiving!". We are nothing if not attached to our traditional foods. So, I thought I would share our recipe for fruit relish. It is an interesting alternative to cranberry sauce.

Fruit Relish

1 bag fresh cranberries
1 8 oz can of chopped but not crushed pineapple
1 8 0z can of pears cut into chunks
1 8 oz can peaches cut into chunks
1 cup raisins
1 c walnuts
Orange Juice
sugar to taste

1. Put cranberries into a good sized pot and just cover them with orange juice.
2. Cook them until they pop. You can hear them pop and they start to get mushy.
3. Add sugar to taste.
4. Add chopped fruit, raisins and walnuts
5. Stir well and let cool.

This will make a good bit of relish so feel free to cut it in half. It it good and not too sweet. It gets better as it ages so make it the day before you want to serve it.

This year we are only having 8 for dinner. It will be a squeeze around the table but I love it.

Tomorrow, Cornbread with sausage stuffing.

8 comments:

amy said...

I love our quiet Thanksgiving. Enjoy your day, too. :)

Nancy @ the Jersey Shore said...

that sounds really good, that fruit relish. I fear if I made it and brought it to my brother's it would raise eyebrows, they never deter from the norm. No one eats them, but turnips still get in a dish. One year, I was doing really well on a diet and decided I'd add a fantastic mixed green salad to our feast, and forego the usual overcooked veggies and rich sides my SIL serves, and brought it along. One would think I committed a sin. I enjoyed my salad, no one else touched it. :-)

Andrea said...

Hi, thanks for the comment. I am taking much better care of myself. I bought new sneakers & am wearing them everywhere now. Have a great Holiday.

Andrea said...

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The meetup is at Panera Bread in Mount Laurel. Anyone can come. You are most welcome. If you are on ravelry, check out the Jersey Represent Group. There is a thread going in the forum about when our first meetup will be. Hope to see you there.
Andrea

Dianne said...

Thanksgiving around her is always just four of us, but if I suggest that maybe we don't have to have the mashed potatoes AND sweet potatoes AND blah, blah, blah, I have a real battle on my hands. It's just easier to make everything, and know we will all be eating the leftovers for days.

MadMad said...

Ooooh! Sounds good to me! (Save me some leftovers!) Have a happy one!

Georgie said...

this sounds delish! We dont do Thanksgiving of course, but we have turkey at Christmas (on a day in the middle of summer, usually hovering around the 35oC / 95F mark, we fire up the oven for the hours it takes to cook an enormous hot dinner. Go figure). Im going to put this on our menu this year.

Only we cant get fresh cranberries here - do you think frozen would work OK?

TinkingBell said...

Happy thanksgiving! Enjoy the turkey and trimmings!

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