Bitter Berries
Our first hosted Thanksgiving dinner wasn’t nearly the chaotic catastrophe I had envisioned. The turkey was done with plenty of time to spare, the stuffing was delicious and inhaled. A few other dishes didn’t turn out quite like I had hoped, but nothing was disastrous.
We even managed to keep our good humor in check. For the most part. Strangely, our one argument throughout the day involved the cranberries. Not a recipe regarding fresh cranberries, because that might make a little more sense. No, my family is the simple sort who prefers the canned variety. We weren’t even adding anything extra to it. In fact, I don’t even like cranberries.
No, we argued on how to present the cranberries. And it wasn’t really an argument, it was a “this is my way” “well, I don’t like your way”, kind of thing.
Maturity, people. We own it in abundance.
J believes that once free from the can, the cylindrical cranberry gelatin should be sliced into wobbly circles. I didn’t realize this. My mom never sliced hers; she simply opened a can, put it in a bowl, smushed it up. Voila! Thanksgiving side dish staple at it’s finest. I was even laughing at how ridiculously lazy the whole thing was. That’s when I began to smush. And J began to wrinkle his nose.
You’re kidding me, right? I’m storming out of the room over cranberries? I DON’T EVEN LIKE CRANBERRIES. Stupid cranberries.
Other than that, dinner went off without a hitch. I wish we had a bigger table, but we managed. Our pleasantries returned, the food was good, conversations were loud, and the bowl of smushed cranberries was heartily devoured.
I'm Crystal. A 30-something mom to 3 young kids living in the Midwest USA. When I'm not chasing my children, I'm a freelance writer and web designer. I like to tell stories from our days and share what we enjoy...
6 Responses
on November 27 2009
wobbly circles? I’m all for the smushed up cranberries. And who cares! I don’t like cranberries, either.
.-= kirida´s latest blog post: in which I’m thankful I’m not dead =-.
on November 27th, 2009
@kirida, That’s what I said! My god, it’s all going to taste kinda gross no matter how you serve it.
on November 27 2009
I’m not a fan of cranberries either, but the sight of cut up cranberry cylindars from a can just does not sound appetizing! Ha!
Glad you pulled it off!
.-= Corinne´s latest blog post: Is it enough? =-.
on November 27 2009
Glad it was a success. I never know what to do with cranberries;)
.-= Nap Warden´s latest blog post: Happy Thanksgiving! =-.
on November 28 2009
I had to giggle — my family has always cut the cylinder of cranberry sauce into circles. One Thanksgiving, in the middle of all the organized chaos, we forgot to set it out on the table. My nephew, who was about three at the time, scanned the table, and asked with concern, “Where’s the round things?” We didn’t know at first what he was asking for, so he went on to explain, “You know, that red stuff that’s round like baloney.”
.-= semicrunchymama´s latest blog post: You Capture: Food =-.
on November 30 2009
When in doubt, blame the cranberries. That’s my rule of thumb.