Top Secret Cranberry Sauce

Every year my Nona makes the cranberry sauce for the Holidays. This year though, we won’t be celebrating Thanksgiving together. So I called her up and asked her for her cranberry recipe. She didn’t want to give it to me. It was a secret. Seriously. I had to ask her for over five minutes to tell me. She told me the recipe was handed down to her by her mother-in-law almost 50 years ago and if I was going to post it on that thing called the Internet I better give her credit. Yes, she is quite the character!!

What a gorgeous woman inside and out – Lola Trimmer

This is my Nona, Lola Trimmer’s Top Secret Cranberry Sauce Recipe… please don’t tell anybody! Shhhhh

Ingredients:

• 1 lb fresh cranberries, grinded
• 1.5 cups seedless grapes, quartered
• 1.5 cups boiling water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 small box Jell-O, she likes cherry sugar free
• 1 can Mandarin oranges

Don’t the grapes look so pretty!

Boil the water in a saucepan and then dissolve the sugar and Jell-O in it. Use the final container (my Nona says you should use the pretty one!) that will hold your cranberry sauce. To grind the cranberries, put them in the food processor and pulse them until they chopped up, but not pureed. Add the grinded cranberries, and the quartered grapes to it and mix well. Pour the Jell-O water mixture over the top of the cranberry mixture and stir well. Saran wrap the container and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours.

Drain the oranges and pat dry. Once the cranberry sauce is firm, place the oranges on the top in a creative pattern – she suggested a smiley face I am going to add fresh raspberries to mine. This recipe is super simple, but oh so delicious.

The cranberries in this pic still need to be decorated – trying to decide on what I want to do. Decisions, decisions.

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Kahlua Fudge, Pumpkin Fudge, and a Pumpkin Roll

Christmas is two days away and I just decided to go and visit my family. Funds are a bit tight this year so I thought, what does everyone love that I can make ~ fudge and pumpkin bread! Well, I made my famous pumpkin bread at Thanksgiving and wanted to try something a bit different this time, thus a pumpkin roll. I love fudge, but I wanted a different twist on the traditional chocolate or peanut butter. I made Kahlua Fudge (I admit I love alcohol) and pumpkin fudge. They are cooling in the fridge and I can’t wait to taste them and to take them to my three Christmas dinners. I know I know, I wasn’t going anywhere this morning and now I am going to three! Crazy family I tell ya! I hope you enjoy these recipes.

Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 Tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 Tsp baking powder
2 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tsp ginger
1/2 Tsp nutmeg
1/2 Tsp salt

Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 Tbsp butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 Tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar, beating with an electric mixer until thick and light yellow in color. Add pumpkin and lemon juice, mixing until well blended.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Add this dry mixture to the egg mixture, mixing well. Spread batter into waxed-paper lined 10×15-inch pan. Spray waxed paper with cooking spray.

Bake at 350 ° for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool for 15 minutes. Place cake on clean towel sprinkled liberally with powdered sugar. Cool 10 minutes longer. From 10-inch side, roll cake up in towel. Set aside.

While cake is cooling in towel, prepare the filling. Beat together cream cheese and butter. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla then blend until smooth.

Unroll cake. Evenly spread filling over cake. Roll up cake (without the towel). Wrap in plastic wrap. Cover and chill at least 1 hour. Slice before serving then keep the leftover slices refrigerated. This pumpkin roll freezes well.

Kahlua Creamy Fudge Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups sugar
1 7 oz jar marshmallow creme
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup Kahlua
1/4 Tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate pieces
1 cup milk chocolate pieces
2/3 cup chopped nuts, optional
1 Tsp vanilla

Directions

Line 8″ square baking pan with foil. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine sugar, marshmallow creme, milk, butter, Kahlua, and salt. Bring to a rapid boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add all the chocolate, stirring until melted. Add nuts and vanilla.

Turn into prepared pan. Refrigerate until firm. To serve, cut in squares. Makes about 2 3/4 pounds.

Pumpkin Fudge Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 Tsp vanilla
1/4 Tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup butter
1/4 Tsp ginger
1/4 Tsp cinnamon
1/4 Tsp nutmeg

Directions

In a 2-quart saucepan, cook together sugar, pumpkin, cornstarch, spices, and milk until it the mixture reaches 235F on a candy thermometer. Add the vanilla and butter then beat until creamy.

Spread evenly into 8-inch square baking pan lined with foil. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan, remove foil, and cut into squares.

Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

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