Okay, obviously not my best photo, but I only make this once a year for Thanksgiving so there was slim pickin’s for available photos. I’m not a big fan of the canned cranberry sauce that people throw on the table at the last minute, but I also try to make big meals as easy as possible. This cranberry salad can be made days ahead of time and kept in the fridge. I have traveled with this Jell-o salad on a long car ride with an insulated cooler bag and an ice pack with little to no melting. You can add whatever you want to this salad (my grandma would add apples, celery, and walnuts or pecans which isn’t my favorite, not by a long shot). If you don’t have your mother’s Tupperware Jell-O mold from 1979 as I do, you can easily use a loaf or bundt pan

Cranberry Jell-O Salad

1 bag fresh cranberries

Sugar to taste (1/2 c. to 1 cup)

I 20 oz. can crushed pineapple

1 11 oz. can of mandarin oranges

1 package raspberry or cranberry flavored Jello (cranberry Jello is hard to find)

In a medium pot or large saucepan boil enough water to cover the cranberries (3-4 cups) with 1/2c. – 1 cup of sugar until sugar dissolves. Add cranberries and cook until cranberries begin to split open. Drain cranberries and set aside. Drain canned pineapple and reserve juice. Prepare Jello by package instructions replacing around ½ the water with reserved pineapple juice.

Pour 1/3 of Jell-O mixture into a Jell-O mold (a loaf pan also works) and arrange 1/3 the cranberries, pineapple, and oranges in the mold. Let set in the fridge for 5-10 minutes while the remaining Jell-O mixture stays warm on the stove. Repeat with the rest of the mixture and as much fruit as you like. Refrigerate for at least four hours but can be made 2 days ahead of time.