by Ellen Blake

Celebrating Chanukah Thanksgiving Weekend

This year Chanukah starts at nightfall on November 28th. That means we light the first candle on Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend. Are you ready? 

I don’t mind the holiday coming early, but it does change up our Thanksgiving traditions a bit. We usually make enough food to have plenty of leftovers that last throughout the long weekend. In fact, the leftovers seem to taste better than the original meal!

It makes sense this year to incorporate some of our favorite holiday foods into our weekend menu. Some people tell me they plan to make pumpkin latkes, but that doesn’t sound appetizing to me. However, adding cranberries when I make my applesauce for our traditional latkes seems like a delicious compromise and one that adequately represents both holidays. Here’s my mom’s recipe:

Cranberry Applesauce

Ingredients

5-6 delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut into one-inch chunks

1 cup fresh cranberries

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp water

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

cinnamon sticks for garnish

Directions

Combine apples, cranberries, brown sugar, water, cinnamon and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the apples and cranberries are tender

Remove from heat and stir lemon juice into cranberry mixture. Mash the cranberry/apple mixture with a wooden spoon. Sauce will be chunky and delicious!

Divide into small bowls, garnish with cinnamon sticks, serve and enjoy!