Fresh Cranberry Sauce

I never liked the traditional jellied cranberry sauce while growing up and it would always sit on our Thanksgiving dinner table almost untouched, except that my dad would always take his little portion of it.  However, when my sister, Angie, introduced this recipe to me one Thanksgiving, I've been converted and it's a must at our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

Ingredients:

1 bag fresh cranberries
1 medium-sized orange
1 cup white grape juice concentrate

Directions:

Cut orange into quarters, peel and all.  Throw it all into a blender and blend well!

Happy Thankgsgiving Everyone!

Thanksgiving "Turkey" Salad

I have a fun memory helping my Grandma Bingham make these Thanksgiving turkeys when I was 12 years old.  I came across this recipe in my copy of Grandma’s Golden Goodies recipe book which is a compilation of my Grandma Ethel Bingham's recipes. I'm going to make them this year with the kids and see if we can get them to look like turkeys.  We used them as table decorations, but they could also just be a fun snack activity to do before the big feast, too.

Ingredients:

Pear halves

Bananas

Pineapple rings with juice

Olives

Maraschino cherries

Pineapple Sauce (see recipe below)

Whipping cream

Directions:

Prepare on Lettuce leaf:

Body – pear half

Neck – about 1/3 banana; fasten upright to pear half at narrow end with toothpick

Tail – ½ pineapple slice; fasten to wide end of pear (over end) with toothpick

Head – fasten olive to banana top with toothpick

Wattle – slice of maraschino cherry; fasten below head to banana neck with toothpick

Wings – dressing;* pour across back

*Dressing for Wings:

Mix equal amounts of pineapple sauce (see recipe below) and sweetened whipped cream to form dressing.

Pineapple sauce

1 ½ Tbsp. cornstarch

½ cup sugar

1 cup pineapple juice

Dash salt

¾ cup water

1 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar

Combine cornstarch and sugar, stir in juice and water.  Bring to boil, stirring constantly.  Boil until clear.  Add lemon juice.