Moms Thanksgiving Cranberry Salad Recipes

MOM'S CRANBERRY JELL-O® SALAD

Steps:

• Blend water, pineapple, gelatin, and sugar together in a blender for 15 seconds. Add cranberries and blend an additional 15 seconds.
• Stir celery, walnuts, chopped orange, apple, and orange zest together in a large bowl. Pour blended pineapple mixture into celery mixture and stir until completely combined. Transfer mixture to a serving bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until set, 8 hours to overnight.

MOM'S RAW CRANBERRY SALAD

Steps:

• Wash and pick through cranberries.
• Core and quarter apples.
• Seed and quarter orange.
• Grind in food processor starting with the orange, and then add apples and cranberries. You can do in batches so you don't over process it.
• We used a hand crank grinder to make this when I was a child.
• Add sugar (in the 50's we used 2 cups of sugar, so taste after a couple hours and adjust per your personal preferences).
• Let marinate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

MOM'S CRANBERRY SALAD

Steps:

• Stir cubed bananas in lemon juice to keep from turning dark. Fold all ingredients together gently. Freeze in 9x13-inch pan. Editor's Extra: Anytime I have drained pineapple juice, I put it in my orange juice carton for next morning's breakfast drink. Fun Fact: Native Americans used cranberries as medicine and for poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds. The juice was a natural dye for rugs, blankets and clothing. They also mixed mashed cranberries with deer meat to make pemmican, a convenience food that kept for long periods of time. Some say the cranberry gets its name from Dutch and German settlers who called it "crane berry" because its petals resembled the head of a crane. Others say the name came from colonists who saw cranes feeding on the red berries. Legend has it cranberries were served at the first Thanksgiving in 1621. The U.S. produces some 4.84 million barrels of cranberries in a given year. End to end, that's about 1.75 million miles.

HOLIDAY CRANBERRY SALAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, add boiling water to gelatins; stir 2 minutes to completely dissolve. Stir in cranberry sauce. Refrigerate 30-40 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in pineapple, celery and pecans. Transfer to a 6-cup ring mold coated with cooking spray. Refrigerate 4 hours or until set.

MOM G'S CRANBERRY JELL-O® SALAD

Steps:

• Dissolve lemon gelatin in boiling water in a bowl; stir in cold water. Chill in refrigerator until partially thickened, 30 to 40 minutes.
• Chop cranberries in a food processor and mix sugar into cranberries, pulsing once or twice to combine. Let cranberry mixture stand a few minutes to let sugar dissolve. Stir cranberry mixture, pineapple, celery, and walnuts into gelatin. Pour into a gelatin mold or serving dish. Refrigerate until fully set, about 4 hours.

MOLDED CRANBERRY NUT SALAD

Steps:

• Soften unflavored gelatin in 1/2 cup water; set aside. In 3-qt. saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar and wine or cranberry juice; heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add lemon gelatin and softened unflavored gelatin; stir until dissolved. Stir in remaining water. Chill until mixture is partially set. Fold in celery and walnuts. Pour into greased 8-cup mold; cover and chill until set. Meanwhile, combine sour cream and mayonnaise; refrigerate until ready to serve. To serve, unmold gelatin and top each serving with dollop of dressing. Garnish with celery leaves.

MOM'S CRANBERRY SALAD

Steps:

• Combine water and sugar in pot and bring to a boil.
• Add cranberries. Cook until cranberries pop open.
• While mixture is hot, add strawberry Jell-o. Stir until combined.
• Add marshmallows. Stir until melted.
• Pour into bowl.
• Chill just until cool but not set. About 30 minutes. Your next step will be to add the rest of the ingredients. You want your apples, celery and pecans to be combined within the salad. You don't want them to sink to the bottom of the bowl. If the Jell-o mixture is too warm the ingredients will sink.
• Add apples, celery and pecans. Stir.
• Pour into mold or bowl. Chill until set.
• We usually fix this the night before so that it is ready to eat at Thanksgiving lunch.