Thanksgiving in a Jar

My friends do a Thanksgiving in a strange way. We divide up the Thanksgiving meal by color. That way all the normal bases for Thanksgiving are covered. I was giving green, which you might think that I would like with a garden full of green right now (kale, cabbage, tons of Asian greens). But the typical green means salad and green beans. Neither of which are growing in my garden right now. Now I'm allowed to be creative and color outside the lines, but I know that some people would be sad to not have them. So I traded for red. Typically red has been my favorite color to have since it means I make the cranberry sauce. It might not be from my garden, but in my family's tradition we have cranberry ice as a cranberry sauce. I've followed this tradition since I moved across the country for school. And I'm going to make it whether I have red or not. Last year I made it when I had orange.

Red is a decent color for me. Last week I picked some beets and radishes. So I decided to make some pickles as an appetizer. In addition to pickles made with red beets and ones made with a mix of turnips and radishes, I made some with carrots and some with kohlrabi. I didn't follow any of the linked recipes exactly except for the carrot one. But I followed the gist of them.

Then I went a bit overboard with the cranberries. I made over six pounds of cranberries into cranberry goodness.

I made my traditional cranberry ice, pickled cranberries, an orange flavored cranberry sauce that I added cinnamon and grand marnier to, and one made with apple cider and some cut up apples. I decided to can them all as if they don't get eaten I can bring them to Christmas dinner or eat them at home with chicken. I so love playing with cranberries. Not only do you get the wonderful pings when the cans seal, but you get all the cranberries popping while you cook them. And they smell so good. I'm really hoping for some left over so I can have it all winter long. But if not, there is always Christmas time to make more.

The pickled cranberries are interesting. The pickle juice is basically a shrub, so I'm debating if I should bring some vodka and soda water. I've bought a couple of bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau already. I might bring some, or might cross my fingers that someone has already brought soda water. Someone surely will bring cider (maybe, you just never know with the way we divide up the meals). It would be really good in cider too.

The real reason that I was so happy for red was because Thanksgiving is all about pies. I had some nice frozen red gooseberries for gooseberry pie. And I had some frozen rhubarb and strawberries for a strawberry rhubarb crisp. Yum.

And my butternut squash will make an appearance on Thanksgiving. I'm giving it to our orange person (last year there were two orange people, but this year only one). I'm bringing over three squash. Though sometimes it seems like people forget, but Thanksgiving is a meal that gives thanks for the year's harvest. So I like using as much as possible from the garden.