Grandma's Cranberry Jello Salad

Hello, everyone! I started writing this post last week, but then finals caught up to me and I finally got around to finishing it today. Along with the recipe for my dad's favorite Thanksgiving dish, my grandma's cranberry jello salad, there are some pictures at the end of the post of our second Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, we had a second Thanksgiving dinner. I easily could have gone for a third and a fourth because I love Thanksgiving so very much, but I had to settle for just two.

The menu for our second dinner was pretty standard turkey day stuff, except there was no turkey. We went for a goose instead, and we were all pleasantly surprised by it. This was my first time having goose, unless you count the force-fed liver variety, and it was really good! It's comparable to the dark meat of a chicken or turkey. When I walk past all the geese in the park I now think "mmm...lunch" instead of "quit pooping everywhere." In other exciting goose news, my brother took the fat home with him to make fries. I've been told that he took pictures and that they were delicious, so hopefully he'll share those one of these days.

For now, here is my grandma's recipe for cranberry jello salad. Also, Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Cranberry Jello Salad

1 lb. cranberries

1 cup sugar

1 large can crushed pineapple

2 envelopes Knox plain gelatin

1 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1/2-1 cup pecans, chopped

16 oz. container sour half & half

2 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Here's the actual recipe card that my Grandma gave to my mom. I wish I could still write in cursive. Dang!

Cheers!

Rinse the cranberries and pick out any bad seeds.

My mom (and I'm assuming my grandma) always uses the KitchenAid grinder attachment to grind the cranberries. You can probably pulverize them by other means as well - maybe a food processor or your really strong fists. Just kidding about the fists. Unless you are indeed really, really strong.

Grind the cranberries into a large bowl, stir in the sugar, and set it aside.

While the sugar and cranberries mix, measure out the orange juice concentrate.

Pour the packets of gelatin into 1/2 cup of cool water.

Drain the pineapple, but reserve the juice in a measuring cup.

Add water to the pineapple juice until you have 1 1/2 cups liquid. Bring it to a boil, and then add the gelatin mixture.

Add the orange juice and gelatin mixture to the cranberries.

Add the chopped pecans.

As well as the pineapple.

Stir everything together and pour it into a large dish - either a large, round dish or a 9x13" dish. Refrigerate until set.

Once the gelatin mixture is made, combine the sour half & half with the marshmallows and refrigerate it. It's best to do this several hours before you're going to eat, but if you forget it is fine if eaten right away.

As you can see, it's not your typical jello mold with random objects suspended in it. It's a far more sophisticated dish that can only be achieved with the holy trinity of gourmet ingredients: canned pineapple, orange juice concentrate, and gelatin.

Here is the rest of our Thanksgiving #2 menu:

Dill mashed potatoes.

Boil a bunch of potatoes until fork-tender. Mash with any combination of butter, cream, milk, sour cream, plain yogurt, and cream cheese. Season with salt and pepper, and add as much chopped fresh dill as you can handle.

Southwest Corn, Chili and Cumin Saute from Bon Appetit, November 2002

Goose with Port Sauce and Chestnut Stuffing from Saveur.

Goose!

More goose.

My brother's pretty plate.

My brother's plan to make a pumpkin pie for dessert fell through, so we ate some of these amazing mint-filled brownies from Noble Pig.

Delicious.

Applesauce

Hi, friends! I have a super quick and simple recipe today because that's just what I need today. Quick and simple. I love homemade applesauce because I have complete control over the level of sweetness, and I usually stick to the tart end of the spectrum. The best thing about this is that it's a foolproof recipe. Every time I make applesauce I just wing it and don't really follow a recipe, and the end result is always a big, delicious batch of applesauce. So I guess I shouldn't say it's a foolproof recipe. More like a foolproof method. All you need is apples, water, and a little bit of sugar. How simple is that?

Applesauce

Apples

Water

Sugar of some variety (optional)

Cinnamon (optional)

I started with 1/2 peck of mixed baking apples. Judging by the fact that mixed baking apples are a sorry lot yet still produce excellent applesauce, I would imagine that any variety of apple would work just fine.

Core and peel ze apples.

If you have one of those handy little peeler/corer devices, lucky you. Otherwise a knife works fine. Just a tip: an apple corer makes a huge difference. I've made applesauce without one, and peeling and coring a dozen apples makes for really achy hands. Maybe I'm just a weakling, but whatever. I'm running a marathon tomorrow. Take that!

Having a bowl nearby for the discarded skins and cores is helpful. I learned that little trick from Rachel Ray. Did you know she sells "garbage bowls?" Yeah, they're big bowls. And it says "garbage" on the label. Clever, huh?

Roughly slice the apples, and add them to a large pot with a little water. Unlike in some areas of life, size does not matter here. The apples will break down into applesauce whether you cut them into tiny little pieces or large slices. I added 2 cups of water for my 14 apples. They don't need to be covered with water or anything. We're not boiling potatoes here. You just need there to be a little water to simmer in the bottom of the pot.

Cover the pot and let it simmer over low heat until the apples have broken down enough that there are no longer big slices. Some chunks are fine at this point.

Add a little sugar, or a lot of sugar if that's what you're into. I added a small spoonful of brown sugar because although I don't like sweet applesauce, this batch needed a little something.

Leave the lid off and let the applesauce cook over medium-low heat until the pieces break down more and it thickens a bit. Keep an eye on it, and stir it every couple minutes or so to prevent the bottom from burning.

Serve warm or cold. I like to add cinnamon or extra sugar to individual servings rather than the whole batch. It's like the variety pack of homemade applesauce. Or something like that.

I hope to have a post tomorrow with my pre-marathon feast that's baking away right now. If things get a little hectic laying around watching football, stuffing my face, reading for class, and, um, running a marathon, you might have to wait until Monday, though.

Peach + Prosciutto Pizza

On our way back to small town Iowa last week, Matt and I rendezvoused with my mom in Iowa City for an al fresco lunch at Atlas and a trip to the co-op to buy some goods for our weekend of cooking.  For some time now I've been reading about and wanting to try La Quercia prosciutto, and I figured that New Pi would be the place to find it.  Unfortunately, every time I step foot in there my mind is a complete blank, save the ticker running a constant message of "peppered bacon peppered bacon peppered bacon..."  I stock up on Amana peppered bacon and I'm out of there.  Ironically, the peppered bacon caused me to discover the LQ prosciutto this time around.  I went to grab a package or two of the bacon from its usual spot in the top left section of the refrigerated case, and it wasn't there.  There was plenty of maple bacon, but there wasn't a package of peppered bacon to be found.  While the nice, ponytailed guy from the wine section attempted to track down some peppered bacon for us, I glanced over the rest of the cured meats.  Lo and behold, about three feet down and to the right of the bacon were several packages of La Quercia Prosciutto Americano.  My mom and I each grabbed one, settled for some maple bacon, and checked out.  

Shortly after arriving home that evening, we tore open the first package of prosciutto.  It was incredibly delicious, as you would imagine from prosciutto that comes from happy pigs.  That first night we just ate pieces straight from the package alongside chunks of crusty bread, slices of mahon, and creamy Reichert's Dairy Air sun-dried tomato basil goat cheese.  

A few days later when we headed back to Minneapolis with an unopened package of prosciutto and a couple of juicy peaches I heard the kitchen calling my name.  I initially considered using them in a salad, but for one reason or another I opted for the less healthy route of using them to top a pizza.  My thighs may be a little worse off, but my taste buds rejoiced.  The combination of the salty, crispy pork and the sweet peaches was phenomenal.  

Peach + Prosciutto Pizza

Pizza dough

3-4 slices prosciutto

1 fresh peach

2 tbsp crumbled blue cheese and/or

2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan 

Olive oil

Start by tearing the prosciutto into about 1" pieces and slicing the peach into 12-16 pieces.  

Roll out the pizza dough on a flour or cornmeal dusted surface and brush it with olive oil.  Top with prosciutto, peaches, and cheese.  I couldn't decide between blue cheese and parmesan, so I added a little of both.  This is More Cheese More Chocolate, after all.  I'm a sucker for blue cheese on pizza, but the parmesan also worked well and was a little more toned down.  

Cook on a pizza stone in a 450 oven for 15 minutes or until the crust is browned to your liking.  

The prosciutto crisped up and was absolutely delicious paired with the soft peaches.  If you don't want all of the prosciutto to be crispy I imagine you could just place it under the peaches instead of on top or just throw it on when you take the pizza out of the oven.  You really can'tgo wrong either way.  

Waldorf Salad

My craving today for Waldorf salad was something I could not explain.  Nor was it something that I could deny.  Did you know that Waldorf salad originated in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel?  I didn't.  Wikipedia did.  I always thought it was just something that grandmothers made and then passed on to a generation of PTA moms to make for potlucks and picnics.  Wikipedia has proven me wrong yet again!  Just kidding.  It's usually me proving other people wrong (hi, Matt), and then using Wikipedia to back myself up.  

Aaaaaanyway... I really wanted Waldorf salad tonight, and Waldorf salad I did make.  I didn't take many pictures along the way because I just wasn't feeling it.  I was feeling the Waldorf salad though.  Yeah, you betcha I was.  Speaking of which, I was called "Sarah Palin" this weekend.  Yeah, you betcha I was insulted.  Yes, I was wearing a red dress and glasses, but it was the 4th of July and my contacts were bothering me.  Excuse me while I add "taking away my ability to wear red dresses on days where I am wearing my glasses" to my list of reasons why I am unimpressed with that folksy little lady.  And you betcha I just did.  

Moving on to bigger and better things, here is what a nice batch of Waldorf salad looks like.  Sorry for the terrible lighting.  

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

Here's what you'll need should you decide to make your own.  I didn't really measure anything, so these are estimates.  

2 apples, chopped (I used Braeburn) 

1 cup grapes, halved (I used red, but you can mix & match or just use green)

2-4 celery stalks, diced

1/2 cup pecans, chopped 

1/2-3/4 cup mini marshmallows

1/3 cup raisins 

1/2 cup plain yogurt 

1/4 cup sour cream

Mix everything in a large bowl.  Chill and serve.  Or just eat it right away.  I ate two bowls of it.  I just ran 5 miles, so I can do that kind of thing.  At least that's what I kept telling myself.  

I know real Waldorf salad calls for mayo, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the lowfat mayo I got at Trader Joe's and I didn't want to risk ruining this salad by adding it in there.  I think it's totally fine without it, but if you want a little mayo, feel free to add some.  I also have no idea what the actual amounts of yogurt and sour cream were that I used.  I just dumped some yogurt in, added a couple spoonfuls of sour cream, gave it a stir, and decided that it looked alright.  

You can even add a little flaxseed if you feel like it.  Holy fiber, Batman!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

One of my favorite summer desserts is rhubarb crisp.  Growing up there was always a bunch of rhubarb growing in the yard, and it generally ended up in the oven.  It wasn't until about a year ago that I realized you could actually buy rhubarb at the grocery store.  I thought you had to grow it or scavenge for it like morel mushrooms.  Shows how much I know.  

When I left home a couple weeks ago my mom sent me back with a bag full of rhubarb stalks to have my way with.  Get your mind out of the gutter.  I had some strawberries that were working their way towards expiration, so I threw them into the crisp along with the rhubarb.  

Crisps are pretty flexible and you can easily adjust the fruit to topping ratio.  I added way more topping to this one that I would have liked, but if you're more into the topping than the fruit go ahead and stick to the recipe.  Next time I make this, hopefully tonight, I will probably cut the topping amount in half or reduce it by a third. 

Chop several stalks of rhubarb into about 1/4" pieces and toss in a bowl with a couple tablespoons of sugar.  

I didn't measure any fruit amounts, so here is how many strawberries I used.  

Chop them up a bit.  

Mix the strawberries and rhubarb and add them to a baking dish.  

The dry ingredients for the topping are:

1 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup quick-cooking oatmeal

3/4 cup wheat germ

1/2 tsp salt

Mix the dry ingredients and add a stick of melted butter.  

The result should be a crumbly mix like this.  

Top the fruit with the crumb mixture.  If you made too much you could save the excess to sprinkle on fresh fruit or ice cream.  Or ice cream with fresh fruit.  Or yogurt.  Or yogurt with fresh fruit.  Or yogurt and honey.  Or you could just cut to the chase and eat it with a spoon.  

Here is the before.

And here is the after.  

Bake it at 375 for about 45 minutes or until it's bubbling and the top starts to brown.  

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.