♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #243
What is your favorite fruit dish? Can you share a recipe for it?
Do you include food in your stories?
While we’re talking about food, pumpkin, yea or nay?
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I’m writing my answer to this question just after making my first batch of Butternut Squash & Roasted Red Pepper soup. I make a lot of things without a recipe, but if that sounds good to you, know that I will share a recipe for it at a future date, right here on this blog, under the Culinary K section. It’s a simple but delicious recipe that marries the taste of summer in red peppers with the sweetness of fall squash.
Food is something I absolutely love, probably a bit too much. Since having my daughter, my weight did not decrease. Breastfeeding had required a lot of food to keep producing the milk for the year, and those habits didn’t leave when the milk did. My bloodwork results at my last check up scared me. I knew I had to make some changes, and I’ve been coming to terms with food throughout this quarantine. I’ve lost just over thirty pounds, with just a few more to reach my goal weight.
Writing life is sedentary life. It’s real easy to slip down that slope, especially when you’re a working parent with little time. But, let’s get back to the topic!
Peppers may be a fruit, but this isn’t my favorite fruit dish. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I adore pie, applesauce, fruit salad, fresh fruit, and so on. Fruit is an absolute pleasure. Those typical recipes aside, there is a dish that came to mind right away: my grandmother’s fruit cocktail. The dish was served only on Thanksgiving Day. Thus, it held a special place as one epic treat–especially when I hated most of the dinner as a child. The fruit gave me something to eat and be satisfied. Of course it’s still with the family even though grandma has passed on. Today, my mother makes it to enhance a nice fancy breakfast, but it does make a showing in gran’s honor on the day.
It’s super easy to make. What you’ll need:
Grandma Ada’s Fruit Cocktail
2 cans Fruit Cocktail in light syrup (drained),
1 package Sliced Frozen Strawberries (with sugar in a tub–so you get the juice),
1 (jar or can) drained Grapefruit segments (you may substitute 2 fresh fruits, but have your patience and fruit spoon handy).
Mix together, and that’s it! You can serve it in fluted dishes to dress it up for fancy breakfasts and appetizers. Add a touch of champagne to up the ante. The sugar content is a bit high so keep servings to about 2/3s cup. Your pancreas will appreciate it.
While I’m sitting here, I’m growing pumpkins outside. They’re one of my favorite things in the whole world–to eat, carve, decorate with, and now grow. I’m going to steam and store them to use for Fionn’s cookies and other recipes over the coming months. I have a growing girl to feed!
Hop over to the other author blogs to see what recipes they have for you! Click on the links below.
I haven’t eaten that combination before. I’m definitely intrigued!
I hope you’ll try it. Let me know your thoughts.
I associate fruit cocktail with Sunday tea times as a child. There would be salmon and cucumber sandwiches, and then fruit cocktail and ice cream. I’d get any leftover sandwiches to take to school the next day.
How were those sandwiches? Was it a smoked salmon? or like a tuna salad type thing?
This is a lovely post, It’s nice that you have kept your grandmother’s fruit cocktail traditional going.
Thanks, Roberta! I am a big fan of keeping anything that makes us happy and keeps family who have passed in some way with us.
My mother made what I suppose would be her mother-in-law’s Waldorf salad. Apples, pecans, fresh whipped cream…who knows what else. It was delicious. She died in the late 80’s so that was the end of that. Miss it on Thanksgiving, one of the only times a year that we’d see it.
Congrats on the weight loss. I need to follow that cue.
I bet you can find a recipe easily, and relive that. It’s amazing how something so simple can make you so happy. Thanks! I am busting my hump here trying to get healthy again. Hope I’ve caught the issue and time and won’t need medication for the rest of my life.
The squash and pepper soup sounds good just by the name! I’ll be waiting for the recipe.
🙂 Thank you! I’ll hopefully have it up in the next couple of months.
My daughter gifted me with a butternut squash and pepper curry. She left the type of peppers open to my taste (she likes four and five alarm hot and I prefer something savory, but respectful of the sinuses). It’s delicious when I make it with red peppers. Your fruit cocktail sounds delicious.
Yeah, I don’t like hot either. It obscures the flavor too much for me. Definitely give that fruit a try, if you can.