My First Thanksgiving - VF

And a snowy day it was with breaks of sunshine thoughout. We had a lovely leisurely sleep-in (after our 6.41am wake-up call from Popsie!) and then set aboutfinishing the preparations for taking some food to Joe & Trish's for a 2pm lunch. The table had been set by Jac (age 4) and we feasted on turkey, corn-bread stuffing, beans, potato (a la a Smith/Florida recipe with sour cream and cheese) and vege meatballs (Mother's cheese-centred recipe which I used smoked gouda for the centres) - which being made with one of the USA vegetarian products that are a little too meat-tasting for my liking! Dessert was cinnamon ice cream with apple or pumpkin pie (of course!). We stayed until around 6pm and then headed for Canada to Kim and Steven's house. Kim is the sister of Chad, Jamie's best man. They had so many people there it was initially a little overwhelming for me as they all seemed to know us and the only person I had ever met before was Chad. We were too full from our late lunch to eat more than snacks, but the almond splinters from Pat's recipe and some white chocolate/toasted coconut balls I had made went down rather well (yes the long stringy coconut, not the NZ/Aust version!). After some rather heavy-duty questioning on the way home at the border we got home around 11.30pm.

Here is the yummy cranberry jelly we made to take to Joe & Trish's house. I can highly recommend that everyone makes it for Christmas as it is ever so much nicer than the standard cranberry jelly that one usually buys to go with turkey and that no-one eats. It comes from Tami's grandmother Esther. Let us know if you need us to send you the cran-rasp jello!

1 cup ground cranberries (I used fresh, you can use frozen, don't need to cook them)
1 cup sugar
1 pkt red cran-rasp jello
1 cup hot water
1 cup crushed pineapple - well drained
1 cup pinapple syrup (I neede to open another tin of pinapple to get enough)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped celery
Combine sugar and cranberries (I used the belender for this, but make sure there are still chunks of the berries)
Dissole jelly (Jello!) in hot water and then add the syrup
Chill until partly set
Add the rest of the ingredients (I had the celery and walnuts in approx 1/2 cm bits)
Refridgerate until completely set

It is seriously very yummy and I did not deviate from the recipe at all (quite rare for me!!)