cranberries | The World Holidays and Traditions Reader

Cranberries popping (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For those of you who are having diabetic friends or family to your home for the Thanksgiving holiday dinner, or if you are a diabetic yourself and trying to cut down on sugar consumption, here is a nice cranberry sauce recipe that you might find useful. Instead of using gelatin or a cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce up, I’ve substituted a sugar-free marmalade or jelly that does the trick and lends the sauce a nice flavor. You could try substituting a different light flavored jelly for the sugar-free marmalade I use here for a unique taste.

GAIL’S CRANBERRY-ORANGE SAUCE—

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 dry white sugar substitute (Splenda or other cup for cup substitute)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar-free orange marmalade or jelly (or apricot, lemon or strawberry is good, too)
1 twelve (12 oz.) ounce package ‘fresh’ cranberries

In a 1 1/2 quart saucepan, mix sugar and water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil, then add the cranberries. Bring mixture back to a boil and simmer on reduce heat. Cook on low simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until cranberries pop and are softened. Liquid should be reddened. Add marmalade or jelly and simmer slowly for approximately 4 minute, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens and takes on a sheen. For a thicker sauce, add a bit more jelly to taste. Remove pan from heat. Cool sauce completely to room temperature.

Place in container and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups. Recipe can be doubled.

This is just a little snippet for you before I start cooking my thanksgiving desserts. I expect to be too busy to add much in the way of wisdom and light between all the fussing, cleaning, cooking and fidgeting that we’ll be doing before our Thanksgiving repast.

“I hear the tread of
pioneers of nations yet to be,
The first low wash of waves where soon
shall roll a human sea”

—WHITTIER

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL.

A stuffed turkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As promised, here is Aunt Julie Martins’ turkey stuffing recipe that was handed down for generations. It is a very simple stuffing and one that does not present too much of a challenge for the everyday cook. You can vary some of the add-in ingredients to suit your taste and mix them up for different flavor combinations.

YOU’LL NEED:

1 1/2 long loaves of white bread (Giant loaf or sandwich bread, fresh)
1 large onion
2 sticks melted butter or margarine
1 to 2 cups chicken or turkey broth ( or enough to moisten stuffing; homemade stock can be used)
2 Tablespoon dried sage
1 Tablespoon dried rosemary leaves
2 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 Tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1 1/2 cup raisins (or dried cranberries, light or dark raisins, snipped dried apricot)
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Put washed, dried and dressed turkey on rack in roasting pan. To prepare stuffing, tear bread into bite size, irregular shaped pieces and place in a stock pot, very large metal bowl or another roasting pan. Add the large finely chopped onion. Season stuffing with sage, rosemary, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Add salt and pepper and mix together well. Put in your choice of cranberries, raisins or dried apricot. Add chopped nuts. To this add just enough butter or margarine to moisten. Add a small amount of broth to this to moisten it just slightly more. Remember that the liquid from the turkey will permeate the dressing, giving it more volume. Stuff turkey with dressing. If you have extra mixture, stuff neck cavity by loosening skin to form a pocket.
Cook as directed in previous post for Real Roast Turkey. After cooling turkey, remove stuffing immediately. Do not store finished turkey with stuffing inside. The internal temperature of stuffing should read 165 degrees on a meat thermometer.

I hope you enjoy this turkey stuffing. We’ve been making it this way in my family for over 100 years. It’s very simple and straightforward. This is very good to use in turkey sandwiches after the holiday is over.