Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes from my Grandmas

As I get older, I wish I had paid closer attention to my grandmas when we were cooking together in the kitchen. Fortunately, Thanksgiving was a relaxed time in which I had more time to pay attention to what they were making, and probably the repetition of making these same dishes together year after year helped to reinforce the recipes more than others. So, I'm sharing with you two of my favorite Thankgiving recipes from two of my favorite people- my grandmas.

The pumpkin bread recipe is from my maternal grandma and the cranberry orange relish is from my paternal grandma. The pumpkin bread serves as an excellent appetizer to have out before the big meal, and this cranberry orange relish is very tart- a different type of flavor than most cranberry relishes I've tried. We often serve a sweeter cranberry dish as well, but Thanksgiving is not the same for me without this tarter version.

PUMPKIN BREAD

15 oz can of pumpkin

1 tsp nutmeg

3 cups sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup oil

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup water

2 tsp. baking soda

3 cups flour

walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS: 

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Beat spice, oil, sugar, eggs, and salt.

3. Add pumpkin, soad, water, flour (add water separate from flour or clumping will occur- I learned this the hard way one year!)

 4. I usually add walnuts to some of the loaves and keep some of them plain.

5. Bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

The pumpkin bread is good by itself or served with cream cheese.

CRANBERRY ORANGE RELISH

2 cups cranberries (1 12-oz bag is also enough)

1 medium orange, quartered (ends removed)

¾-1 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Slice unpeeled orange into eighths and remove any seeds.
2. Place half of the cranberries and half of the orange in food processor. Pulse until evenly chopped.
3. Transfer to a bowl and repeat with the other half of orange and cranberries.
4. Stir in sugar to taste and store in refrigerator of freezer.

I like to store my cranberry relish in mason jars because it 

reminds me of how my Grandma used to store it.

 I hope you get to enjoy some family recipe favorites this Thanksgiving, too.

 Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

-Ellyn