Apple Salad     Cranberry Salad

Apple Salad is a wonderful accompaniment to dressing. This is my favorite recipe and one that's been a tradition in my family since I was a child.

For the apple salad you will need:

• 5-6 large crisp juicy golden delicious apples

• 2 stalks celery (you can use celery salt)

• 1/4 cup sugar (you may need to adjust the sugar to the sweetness of the apples)

• about a cup of Hellmann's mayonnaise 

• 2 large bananas

• fruit fresh or lemon juice

• 1 cup English walnuts

• 1-2 cups miniature marshmallows

First let's talk about commercial mayonnaise. As far as I'm concerned Hellmann's is the only commercial mayonnaise worth bringing home and you need it for this recipe. If you can't get Hellmann's in your area make sure you get a good mayonnaise, NOT salad dressing. Salad dressings have a completely different taste and will ruin this recipe.

You also need to make this salad fresh just before serving. It doesn't keep well so try to make about what your family and/or guests will eat. If I serve leftovers later I make fresh apple salad for each meal. If you leave the bananas out it will keep much better but I love it with bananas. This recipe makes quite a bit so you may want to cut it down if you're cooking for a small group.

Peel, core and dice the apples in about 1" dice. Peel the banana and slice into the bowl with the apples. Add the fruit fresh or sprinkle with a little lemon juice and toss. This will help keep the bananas and apples from turning dark. 

Dice the celery into the bananas and apples. Add the broken or chopped walnuts. I usually just break them because I like them in bigger pieces. 

Add about 1-2 cups of miniature marshmallows. 

For the dressing, just sprinkle the sugar over the apple mixture, add the mayonnaise and stir until everything is evenly coated. 

Taste to make sure there is enough sugar for the sweetness of the apples. Golden Delicious apples are pretty sweet but they do vary depending on how ripe they are. 

I also make a basic cranberry salad that's very simple and delicious. You can either start with fresh cranberries or canned whole cranberry sauce but fresh cranberries are much better. 

For the cranberry salad you will need:

• a 12-ounce package of fresh cranberries

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup water

• 1 small can mandarin oranges

• 1 cup english walnuts, broken or chopped

• 1 cup miniature marshmallows

Put the cranberries in a sauce pan with the sugar and 1 cup of water. Stir and bring to a boil. Boil gently until the berries pop, about 10 minutes. Allow berry mixture to cool then add the remaining ingredients and stir. Chill and serve. 

You can cook the cranberries the day before and add the other ingredients just before serving.

That's a good tip, especially for new cooks that aren't used to doing several things at once or as proficient at timing different dishes. Do everything you can the day before. Also, when you start to put a dish together make sure you have everything you need handy, all the ingredients measured and any chopping, peeling, etc. done. 

Did you ever notice how easy it looks when the TV chefs make those exotic dishes? That's why! They aren't trying to do all of that at once. But since we don't have an assistant chef we need to plan ahead and do our own prep work before we start putting the dish together so it will be that easy for us too!

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