Cranberry sauce with turkey is great. The red berries add a festive splash of colour to a plate of turkey at any time. But you can dress up even your cranberry sauce for special times like Christmas. My mother-in-law always did. So here’s how she made cranberry jello squares that were just that extra bit pretty for Christmas.
Cranberry Jello Salad
2 small boxes raspberry Jello, dissolved slowly with 3 cups boiling water in a large bowl. Let cool.
In another bowl, wash and pick over 2 pkgs fresh cranberries. Chop or process, but leave them chunky.
Add 1 large orange, chopped, peel and all.
Also 2 small cans of crushed pineapple, juice and all. (Chill or freeze about an hour beforehand, so it helps cool the Jello.)
Add 1/2 cup or more chopped nuts.Add the fruit and nuts mixture to the Jello, which should have cooled considerably but not jelled yet.
Pour the fruit Jello mixture into one large flat cake pan or two smaller ones. (I use two and thus split storage problem.)
Refrigerate until fully set.
To serve, cut in squares. On a side plate, put a small leaf of romaine lettuce or other greens to make a small bed. Put a square of jellied cranberry sauce on top of that. Add a dab of mayonnaise on top.
Marji Smock Stewart
Now, I confess: I just open a can of whole berry sauce and plop it in a pretty glass bowl. Break it up so it loses the can shape, and add a pretty spoon to it. That says “festive” enough for me.
But I know that those small details that people add often are what stick in your mind. I have to think a bit to remember the specifics of the rest of Marji’s Christmas dinners. Turkey of course. What else? Two kinds of dressing, ham, candied sweet potatoes, vegetable casseroles. All delicious, of course. However, I remember best those little squares of cranberry jello on their little plates. A finishing touch of elegance on her table.
So if your dinner preparations give you the time, try this way of serving the cranberry sauce. Or suggest it if someone wants to bring something.
