Thanksgiving cranberry fruit salad

Hello dear ones. Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving at our house without homemade fruit salad. It is something I look so forward to.

I love cranberries and decided to add them this year to our family recipe, but somehow it didn’t taste the way I expected when I did a test run. So I thought, okay, find a recipe that you know works. I found one at Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures.

Cranberry Fruit Salad

INGREDIENTS
1 – [ 16 oz. package ] frozen cranberries (or fresh)
1 cup water
½ cup organic maple syrup (+/-) *
1 teaspoon allspice *
2 teaspoons cinnamon *
¼ teaspoon clove *
1 gala apple, peeled, chopped into small pieces (or similarly flavored apple) *
1 cup (+/-) mandarin oranges, fresh or canned – liquid drained (no sugar added) *
1 cup (+/-) pineapple tidbits, fresh or canned – liquid drained (no sugar added) *
1 cup (+/-) walnuts, toasted and chopped

Alternative Ingredients:
Pecans, toasted and chopped (in place of walnuts)
Pear, peeled, chopped into small pieces (in place of the apple)

Go here for how to put the whole thing together. Please note: You will have to scroll for a very long time before you get to the recipe, so don’t give up. It’s there. The site is monetized but not to the degree I bailed out like I usually do. Over monetized sites make me feel crazy, as you know.

I am serving this cranberry fruit salad along with my Granny’s traditional fruit salad which has coconut and mini marshmallows. Yummmm! I get my vegan marshmallows at Dandies, a super company. Thrive Market has them. You can get them on Amazon too. Stock up cause there’s loads you can do with them.

Why’s Thankgiving so late?

Does it seem to you like Thanksgiving should be this week? I was wondering about it and did a little search to find out if it’s just me, or if there’s something up that passed me by. I found an article by Country Living, Here’s Why Thanksgiving Is So Late This Year.

Country Living says:

“As it turns out, there’s a reason the holiday is arriving a little on the tardier side—and it’s downright historic. In fact, the story dates all the way back to 1939 when Franklin Roosevelt decided to shake up the tradition a bit in the name of capitalism.

“Thanksgiving had been celebrated on the last Thursday of the month since the time of Abraham Lincoln. But, according to TIME, during 1939, the calendar had been unusual, as the month started on a Wednesday, so there were five Thursdays as opposed to four.

“To restore some order, Roosevelt moved the national holiday to the second-to-last Thursday of the month (a change that many were unhappy with). Instead of focusing on the negative, Roosevelt attempted to justify his decision with a pro-shopping response: merchants would now have a holiday further from Christmas to allow for more shopping time. In a way, this birthed the consumer craze known as Black Friday nearly 80 years ago.

“The following year (1940), the change stuck as the second-to-last Thursday (Nov. 21) was declared the official Thanksgiving Day. In 1941, he reportedly admitted that the switch was a mistake, but because the calendars were already printed with the third Thursday as Thanksgiving Day, it was too late to go back.

“As 1941 ended, Roosevelt made the final permanent change, as he signed a bill making Thanksgiving Day fall on the fourth Thursday of November, regardless of if it is the last Thursday of the month or not.

” . . . this year, the month of November begins on a Friday, which means the fourth Thursday of the month falls on Nov. 28—it’s the first time Thanksgiving has been this late since 2013.”

Did you know all of this went on? I had no idea. It never crossed my mind. Do you remember it being late like this in 2013? I don’t. Not sure what that is a sign of.

Anyway, I doublechecked this year’s date one more time for my husband who is totally off balance because of it!

According to Calendarpedia.com, Thanksgiving is for sure on November 28th this year. Thanksgiving won’t be on the 28th again until 2024, or 1837 days from this year’s. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if turkey was totally off the menu by then? I can dream.

Vegan Pumpkin Crumble

Oh, if you are looking for some new or extra recipe ideas, especially if you are newly vegan, Monkey and Me have loads of suggestions, like the one pictured above. Click to see their recipe.

Here’s more from them. You can make your whole vegan Thanksgiving dinner with these options!