Fresh Cranberry Relish

Company's coming for the Holidays. What can you make ahead to prepare? This homemade cranberry relish is a perfect accompaniment for turkey, pork, ham or for a delightful side dish. Also try it over French vanilla ice cream.

Cranberries are so versatile. Try Cranberry Conserve, page 189, in Tastes & Treasures cookbook for another delicious version.

Fresh Cranberry Relish

Ingredients:

2 small to medium red-skinned apples

1 large or 2 small oranges

3 cups firm fresh cranberries

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons Triple Sec or Grand Marnier

Directions:

Wash fruit. Quarter apples and cut into chunks. Cut oranges, with rinds intact, into chunks. Remove seeds.

Insert Steel blade into food processor bowl and chop cranberries in two batches. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Process apples and oranges, a few at a time, until finely chopped but not pureed. Empty each batch into bowl with cranberries. Add sugar, salt and liqueur. Stir to blend.

Place in covered container and refrigerate. Keep relish pressed below juices. A lovely red color develops within a few days. Keeps up to one month refrigerated.

Margarita Pie at March meeting

Birthdays aren't often celebrated with the Historical League but every once in a while we make it special. Reba and Zona have birthdays very close together so a Margarita Pie seemed in order.

Using fresh ingredients, i.e. limes, would be easy, right? Wrong. It takes a lot of limes juice to make 1/2 cup so I added fresh lemon juice. It poured easily into the pretzel crust.

This is a wonderful dessert for company because you can make it days ahead and freeze it. Decorate with lime slices and it looks very professional.

However, frozen pie does not transport well. I put the finished pie on a bed of ice to keep it cold. The Margarita Pie looked more like Margarita Pudding by the time it was served as dessert but the plate was licked clean.

MARGARITA PIE

Pretzel Crust
1 1/2 cups finely crushed pretzels
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Pie Filling
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1(14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons gold tequila
2 tablespoons Triple Sec
2 cups heavy whipping cream, whipped
Green food coloring (optional)

For the crust, pulse the pretzels and sugar in a food processor several times to combine. Add the butter in a steady stream and process until well mixed. Press over the bottom and up the side of a 9 inch pie plate sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

For the pie, combine the lime juice, condensed milk, tequila and Triple Sec in a bowl and mix well. Fold in the whipped cream. Tint with green food coloring, if you desire a deeper color. Spoon into the crust. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 4 hours or up to 1 week. Garnish with additional whipped cream and lime slices. Note: Do not use fat-free or low-fat pretzels
in the crust or the crust will not hold together when cutting. You may substitute graham crackers for the pretzels.

Serves 6 to 8