The Coffman Spinning C Fiber at Fineview Acres

A sweet friend sent this Christmas card to me in an email and I thought it was just beautiful, I hope you will enjoy it too!
I pray that you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!


I promised to share a couple of recipes for cranberry salad....these actually came from Colleen, a neighbor and friend that  so graciously shared these recipes at a church Christmas dinner.  It is delicious...Colleen gave me permission to share these with you.

First Recipe email from Colleen Liebhart(wonderful story with this recipe)

The following is the old family recipe I told you about at church.  I have a call in to a lady (Mary Carol's Aunt Kathy) to check on her similar recipe that I have had that was so good that is close to the recipe I used for the church dinner.  I will send it later.

Family Heritage Cranberry Salad  (aka: Mom's Cranberry Salad!)

3 small boxes lemon jello (I used 2 orange and 1 cranberry jello the last time I made it)

1/2 cup sugar

3 cups hot water - 2 cups cold water (5 total cups)

2 oranges, ground whole

1 pkg whole uncooked ground cranberries (3 cups approx)

2 cups  finely chopped celery

1 cup chopped pecans

Dissolve Jello and sugar in hot water and let cool.  Add cold water and then add the rest of the ingredients. Add chopped and ground ingredients

Note: As the cranberries are picked earlier and I think possibly less red than they were in the 60's..I think the cranberry flavor does not come through as well. This salad seems to get less "red" as the years progressed as to why I would consider a different jello flavor.  I prefer the other jello flavors but all is good. Other jello flavors may not require the extra sugar.  For example raspberry seems to be much sweeter than lemon. I have used cran/raspberry jello as well as at least one of the boxes.  This recipe does not contain cinnamon but it could be added.  I use a food processor but the old grinder does a better job and more like my mom's.  Mom would grind the orange and cranberry ahead of time and refrigerate a day or two ahead.

I called my sister today and had a visit about the cranberry salad.  Thanks for making me think more about this recipe today. She says this recipe is from the 50's and maybe the 40's. It was and still is an important dish at the family holiday table that my sister still provides.  When I made it one Thanksgiving with the food processor and changed the jello flavors...I lost the responsibility to make the salad!  I still make the Red Velvet Cake with the orginal frosting at every Christmas Dinner even though I take a short cut on the cake..but never change the orginal butter, flour and granulated sugar frosting! 

  

Colleen's 2nd email to me...Cranberry Salad number 2

Here is a delicious recipe from Mary Carol's family which was originally received from Ester Turner in case your husband would know who that might be.  I like this one a bit better than my mothers and I think the difference is the pineapple.  I forgot to mention that the first salad would fit into a 9x 13 glass dish. The following recipe is much smaller in quantity. I don't usually go overboard when sharing recipes, but this has been a current interest for me at this time but I am a person that enjoys reading cookbooks like others read books.

 Cranberry Salad  from Mary Liebhart/Ester Turner New Boston

1 orange (not rind)

1 quart cranberries

1 cup sugar

Grind orange and cranberries and mix in sugar and let stand overnight.

1 small pkg of orange jello dissolved in 1 cup hot water

1 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup nuts

1 small can pineapple, drained

Mix jello and let stand but not set.  Mix celery, nuts, pineapple, and cranberry mixture into jello

Refrigerate

This is the recipe that I prepared for the past Sunday which is also a good and easier version when you don't have time to grind the fruit.  Note:  My salad was a bit soft and I used a partial large can and either got too much pineapple and juice or too much orange juice.  You might evaluate this and measure the pineapple juice that drained and the amount of orange juice drained to watch the proportions.  I don't know if you really need the extra sugar with the raspberry jello.  Enjoy the recipes!

This is the 3rd recipe (Colleen brought this salad to the church dinner and it was delicious.)

Cranberry Salad

2 - 3 oz pkgs raspberry jello

2 Tbsp sugar

1 cup boiling water

15 1/2oz crushed pineapple, do not drain 

16 oz can whole cranberry sauce

rind of one orange, grated fine

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Dissolve jello and sugar in boiling water.  Add pineapple, cranberry sauce, and orange rind.  After grating rind, squeeze a handful of juice from the orange into the mixture.  Add pecans and refrigerate.  

I hope you enjoy these wonderful cranberry salads from a talented and interesting friend, Colleen.   ENJOY!

I sold 27 ewes yesterday to a new good home.   I have written on my blog a couple of times that I needed to downsize my flock and I have been in prayer about this.  God blessed me with the flock  but I am only the shepard.  I have always prayed  for God to guide me and direct me in all my comings and goings with this flock and fiber.  Over the years I have been developing a breeding program to produce wonderful fiber for spinning and felting.  I feel like I have had much success over the years but my flock was getting too large and I just could not spend time with my honey and my family,  go to work, take care of sheep and cows, process the wool and sell it and  have time to work with all the fiber in my studio.  

So God sent a nice  family that just purchased a farm in this area and they want to have a large flock of sheep and maybe get into the fiber business too.  I have already started praying for them and I have been talking to God and I pray that my ewes will bless them over and over again.   

I kept 14 of my pet ewes so I will still have fiber:  Mini, Gerty, Birdy and her baby , Baby Bonnie, Tizzy, Isabel, Big Bertha, Liam, Sam, White Knight, Teddy, John and and a couple of the older girls that won't be reproducing anymore.
  When Jason and Nolle get ready to share their fiber, I will share information with all my sweet fiber customers.