Cranberry Relish

Cranberry Relish is one of the staples of my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  I'm not speaking of the gelatinous mass which comes in a can.  That stuff was never brought into our home.  This relish is the perfect mixture of sweet and tart, smooth and chunky.

Since I was six years-old, I have been entrusted with the making of the relish.  I took so much pride in making it, too.  I never hesitated to let everyone know that I made the Cranberry Relish that year.

This year, I decided it was time to teach my 7 year-old niece how to make the Cranberry Relish.  I suspect she will be filled with just as much pride telling people she made it as I was nearly 30 years ago.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag cranberries
• 1 large red apple
• 1 large orange
• 1 large packet of strawberry gelatin
• 1 to 1.5 cups of sugar
• .5 cup crushed walnuts (optional)
• large plastic bowl with lid
• medium sauce pan

Now, when I made this as a wee little lass, I used an old fashioned meat grinder to chop all the bits up.  Thanks to the advent of electricity, we now have this fancy-dancy food processors to do our grinding for us.  Hooray!  Hooray for this!

Method:

• Put one handful of cranberries in the food processor at a time, until they are tiny little pieces, and dump into the large plastic bowl.  Repeat until you've processed the whole bag.  
• Cut the apple and orange into eighths, leaving the rind on the orange and the core of the apple. Remove the seeds from the apple.  YES, the rind AND the core.  You'll be okay, I promise.
• Process two slices of apples and oranges together until you have tiny pieces, and dump into the large plastic bowl.  Are you over that orange rind thing yet?  Don't worry, it'll be good, I promise.  Repeat until the apple and orange are gone.
• If you want the walnuts, this is the time to process them.  It's up to you how nutty you want it to be, but I make the nuts into pieces just about as small as the fruits.  That's just my family's preference, though.  In regards to the amount of nuts: this is something you can eyeball and take your family's preferences into mind.
• It's sugar time!  By now, you should have a mess of cranberries, apple, and orange (and possibly nuts) in the bowl.  The sugar is relative, really.  If you'd like it a little more tangy, omit some of the sugar.  If you want it sweeter, add more.  Personally, I add the sugar until it "looks" right, and then I taste it.  When it has the perfect balance of sweet and tart, it's good.  
• There's always room for gelatin.  Make the gelatin according to the directions on the package, and then pour immediately into your large plastic bowl and mix it all up.  Once you're done stirring, put the lid on the bowl and slide it into the refrigerator to chill, baby, chill.
• After an hour you need to stir it again.  This is to ensure there isn't a separation of the gelatin and the fruit.
• Let chill for at least another two to three hours, and presto!  It's done!