Wednesday, November 23, 2011

the bitter sweet

cranberry relish....
this is way better than any ol' canned cranberry jelly goop...
   ...what is that stuff anyways?

this has becoming a new tradition in our family...
it's a recipe from my sister-in-law's grandmother...
...my husband's, brother's wife....
she shared it with us a few years back
(can't remember now, but maybe 5 years ago?)
my mom made the recipe last year
and this is the first year I've made it...
so yummy...and so easy...
actually I should say the kids made it this year...
I was only in the kitchen for parts of the process
....the big knife process
...and the taking pictures process
girl child cutting and coring the apple
boy child peeling the orange
big knife sitting just haphazardly in the mix!

and this recipe is so simple that I actually walked them thru the recipe from the other room while I folded clothes!
lets pretend that I didn't just yell at them to stop yelling at each other

Grandma Grace Carlson's Cranberry Relish
Prepare at least 2-3 days before using so ingredients blend
1 pkg. cranberries
1 orange, peeled and seeded
1 lemon, peeled and seeded
1 apple, cut and cored, no need to peel
1 16 oz. can crushed pineapple
     (I had a 20 oz can, that I just measured out 16 oz/approx 2 cups)
1 cup sugar

Wash cranberries in colander.  Grind first four ingredients; cranberries, orange, lemon, apple. (Grandma used a meat grinder; food processor is best next option, and probably safer if your leaving the kids unsupervised your letting your kids make the recipe...). Add pineapple, with it's juice, and the sugar to the ground fruit. Let stand 1-2 hours and taste. Add more sugar if needed but keep it fairly tart.
Relish will sweeten some as it stands for a few days.
It will also darken, I was worried, I remembered it being darker, and when the kids were finished it was a pale pink, I think all the air bubbles from the food processing...it darkened up pretty fast, like within an hour...

I doubled the recipe because I think it's a nice gift to 'bottle' up and hand out to friends
lots of cranberry relish
 there was one other sm jar already gifted to the piano teacher

if you give as a gift remind them that this needs to be refrigerated.... 

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