Granny’s Cranberry Salad
Granny always made her dressing in a casserole dish but I decided to get fancy and try a mold. Note to self…pop the congealed “salad” back in the fridge after inverting so it doesn’t flop! Oh well, this is probably why Granny stuck with the casserole dish, to save herself the headache!
My family has always had cranberry salad with Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It’s a congealed “salad” (because...South) of cranberries and pecans. It was one of my Granny’s favorites and she would even opt for this over dessert. I can’t imagine a holiday gathering without her cranberry dressing!
While my Granny probably had a recipe written down somewhere for this, she was able to give it to me from memorization a few years ago and I have made it for Kendall’s family’s Thanksgiving dinner since. I am so glad I got this recipe from her before she passed. Now I carry on the tradition of making it for the holidays.
This is a great alternative if you don’t love traditional cranberry dressing, especially if you like nuts!
Ingredients:
12 oz. bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
2 (3 oz) packages of lemon Jell-O
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple
½ cup chopped pecans
Directions:
1. Wash and chop cranberries. Put in saucepan and add about 3/4 cup water. Cook on low until the cranberries get soft, remove from heat.
2. Add sugar to cranberries while they are hot. Stir until sugar dissolves.
3. Boil 1 cup of water, pour into 9x13 baking dish (or mold), and add Jell-O to dissolve in the water. Add juice from crushed pineapple and stir.
4. Add the cranberry/sugar mixture and crushed pineapple to the baking dish. Stir mixture, cover with saran wrap, and put in fridge.
5. Remove after 1 hour and stir in chopped pecans. Cover and place back in fridge. Remove again after 1 hour and stir a last time. Cover and return the salad to the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours to set up.
