I Relish Cranberries & Oranges

How a "non-traditional" Southwest-inspired menu became a family Thanksgiving tradition

The year 1986 marked a pivotal point of change for my mother and me when we moved from an urban apartment in Santa Monica, CA to our own newly-built condominium in Mission Viejo, CA - a place sparklingly new, fresh, and bright. The community in which we lived was so new that the landscape outside was profuse with sagebrush and wild flowers. It was an oasis in the Southern California desert.

As we settled into our new life, we sought ways to match our identities to our new environment. My mom religiously poured through the Los Angeles Times or Sunset Magazine seeking inspired travel ideas, novel dinner menus, or transfiguring patio garden plans. I saw our move as an opportunity for an all-new existence: new clothes and a new, cool attitude with new friends in a new school.

That fall, Sunset Magazine presented a lavish spread called “American Cooking Now: Thanksgiving with a Southwestern Touch” that promised to deliver dishes of “traditional fare redolent of the sunny Southwest.”

Pages torn from Sunset Magazine with original photography by Bruce Wolf

It was a menu built to inspire. The dishes were either full of ingredients I never tried before — chorizo, pine nuts, jicama — or spun old favorites in new directions. The advertised menu for eight featured:

• Avocado, Grapefruit and Endive Salad

• Roast Turkey with Cornbread-Chorizo Dressing

• Red Chile Sauce

• Cranberry-Orange Relish

• Pureed Chick Peas with Cumin and Lime

• Brussels Sprouts with Green Chili Butter

• Jicama and Orange Salad

• Saffron Rolls

What caught our attention best was that for us it was “non-traditional” fare. Up until that point in my life, we’d most often enjoyed Thanksgiving meals with friends and chosen family, and while I have fond memories of passing around mashed potatoes, gravy, and jellied cranberry sauce, our new home felt like the right time to transition to dining at our own table with a special menu.

It took us three days to prepare all the dishes. Weary from all the preparation, we bowed our heads in gratitude and then discovered a whole new palate of flavors. Fresh cranberry-orange relish highlighted roasted turkey basted generously with cumin-infused butter; jicama brought cold, crisp bite to juicy, sweet oranges; and even the Brussels sprouts took on new dimensions of flavor. In the span of one meal, my mom and I decided that we had found a new favorite that we lovingly dubbed our “traditional, non-traditional, Southwest-inspired Thanksgiving dinner.”

Cranberry-Orange Relish

What didn’t occur to me until I was older was exactly how unique an opportunity it was for us (and more as spouses, friends, and chosen family joined our table) to create tradition. My parents immigrated to the United States as young newlyweds, and they certainly did not celebrate American-style Thanksgiving in their native South Africa. Immigration allows people the freedom to lend a new idea, new flavor, new twist to their new culture. For my mom in particular, that Thanksgiving feast was an opportunity to give me, her American-born daughter, unique memories and a new tradition in our new home.

That full traditional, non-traditional, Southwest-inspired menu graced our Thanksgiving table for many years, and 35 years later, the cranberry-orange relish still reigns supreme at my Thanksgiving table whether I’m serving a “traditional” turkey, Cornish hens, ham, or roast beef. The bright colors and flavors mark a special season full of traditions, both old and new, and the joys of discovering that there is always room for both at the table.

However you like your cranberry sauce, I hope that your Thanksgiving dinner fills your stomach and heart with joy. Happy Thanksgiving!

Orange-Cranberry Relish

This cranberry-orange relish still reigns supreme at my Thanksgiving table whether I’m serving a “traditional” turkey, Cornish hens, ham, or roast beef. The bright colors and flavors mark a special season full of traditions, both old and new, and the joys of discovering that there is always room for both at the table.

Ingredients

• 1 medium orange or tangerine, or 2 small oranges, preferably not navel

• 1 medium green/sweet apple like Granny Smith, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

• 1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries, if frozen, thawed

• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar, to taste

Instructions

1. Trim the ends from unpeeled oranges and cut into chunks, discarding any seeds.

2. Add the orange, apples and cranberries into the bowl of the food processor and pulse until the fruit it coarsely chopped.

3. Transfer to a bowl and add 1/2 cup of the sugar, taste and adjust the amount of sugar to your taste.

4. Chill in the refrigerator overnight and up to 1 week.