11 hours ago, andiesenji said:Here's one I used to use. Haven't thought of it for a few years since I don't do big dinners now.
Josie Speight was a nurse I worked with for 20 years. She was a twin and had an enormous family, thought nothing of doing T-Day or other holiday dinners for FORTY. i was invited a few times.
JOSIE’S CRANBERRY GELATIN SALAD
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 (6-oz) pkg ORANGE gelatin powder
1 cup boiling water
1 (8-oz) pkg cream cheese -- softened
1/2 pint sour cream
2 cans mandarin orange segments, 11oz -- well drained
1 cup ORANGE soda You can substitute orange juice but add a rounded tablespoon of sugar.
1/2 cup pecans -- chopped
This sounds a lot closer to what I remember than anything I've found online -- thank you! I'm wondering if the recipe we made was a simplification of something like this. I had rejected the notion of cream cheese being involved because I was sure there was sour cream, but maybe they were both involved...
Funnily enough, I think the recipe my mom used was from my aunt, who was also a twin. I asked her years ago if she still had a copy and she never remembered having had the recipe in the first place!
(Edited to add: the first three ingredients are basically whole berry cranberry sauce, and if you were molding it instead of making in a dish, you'd probably have reduced the liquid. I think I'm going to try omitting the cup of soda, use lemon Jell-O, and see where it gets me...)
