Newly Added Salad to our Tradition

When I first saw this salad, it was prepared by Christy Jordan. She shared with her blog readers a Southern salad called Congealed. It was made with lime jello and pineapple. I was hosting a couple of people from Georgia and served it for that Thanksgiving. After that delicious encounter, I played around with the recipe. We had frozen raspberries. Mixed those with raspberry Jello, then strawberries were mixed with strawberry Jello. My grandkids really loved that combo and it was requested for this Thanksgiving dinner. I do use sugar-free Jello and lite Cool Whip.
Here's my modified version of that Congealed Salad:

2 cups of chopped strawberries (yours and mine are frozen, fresh works too)
Add to these in a small cooking pot and stir while heating up. You want to produce some juice and make sure these berries are heated through. It takes 3-4 minutes at medium-high heat. Once juicy, add a large box of Jello. Stir thoroughly and make sure it's completely absorbed by the strawberries. Keep stirring.
Remove from heat and let sit about a minute. Add 2 cups of plain Greek yogurt (or 2 cups of buttermilk--both are fabulous, no taste difference). Stir thoroughly. Let sit 30 minutes. (go make yourself a great cup of coffee-you deserve it because you're making somebody happy with this salad). Now that the mixture has cooled down, place it in a serving dish and add 1- 8 ounce container of Cool Whip. Now if you know how to make whipped cream that holds its shape, use that. You'll have to carefully and slowly mix this in. It'll be a bright pink when done. It needs to chill a couple of hours before serving. ( I have diabetics in the family and despite not liking either Jello or Cool Whip, I need to try other methods. Mixing fruit with a gelatin, adding some delicious dairy and whipped cream--how can you go wrong......?
Next thing up in the kitchen-Christmas Jam.

MIncemeat

Thanks to my daughter and her newly acquired relatives, I have people to share a mincemeat pie with. Actually for Thanksgiving I'm going to make some mini mincemeat pies to share. Christmas, I'll bake a couple of normal size pies and give one away. I'm excited. It's been so long since I've found someone to enjoy this holiday dessert with. My hubster can't stand the stuff. I grew up with it and it screams "Christmas!"
Been looking for a pie plate to give away the Christmas pie. Thrift shops here I come! Making up the mixture is fun. I've already collected suet and froze it just for this occasion.
I'm going to share a very old recipe supposedly dating back to Martha Washington and it's been modified to fit more modern times. If anyone has some family recipe they just adore, please share it with me. I love this but am always willing to try others. This comes the closest to what my mother and grandmother made and what I'm used to.
Here's mine: I've substituted dries cranberries for raisins.

• 1/2 lb beef
• 1/2 lb suet
• 1/4 lb citron
• 3/4 lb candied peel
• 1 lb apple
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 1/2 lb sugar
• 1/2 lb currants
• 1 lb raisins (cranberries)
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves (I don't like cloves--allspice)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brandy (AppleJack brandy)
• 1 cup rum
• additional brandy or rum (optional)

1. Put meat, suet, citron, peel, peeled and cored apples, lemon and orange through the meat grinder. Food processor works just fine here.
2. Mix throughly with sugar, currants. rasins, spices, salt, brandy and sherry.
3. Pack into quart jars and process or freeze.
4. Every few months add a couple of tablespoons brandy, sherry or rum if the mix looks dry. 
5. Adding additional apples, sliced to the pie is always encouraged. You need more than a quart to fill a pie plate. Additional brandy or rum is slightly encouraged. After all, you must save some for you, the cook. No one else matters, just you! :)
6. If I had a picture of a luscious mincemeat pit, I'd put one here. But, dang, I'm just about to make the filling and it has to sit a few weeks, you know, to absorb the brandy and rum!