Thanksgiving P.S.

Thanksgiving may be over, but I'm already thinking about what we'll serve (0r not!) at next year's table. Then again, I may not wait until then to make cranberry sherbet. We used to serve one passed down from our Grandma Davis made with strained cranberry sauce and whipped egg whites. However, this recipe comes to us from Sue's mother-in-law, Wanda... thank you, John, for sharing one of your Mother's special dishes.

Cranberry Sherbet

2 cups prepared cranberry sauce
Zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon and one orange
1 cup sweetened whipped cream (or Cool Whip)

Combine cranberry sauce, zest of lemon and the juice of both the lemon and orange in a medium glass or ceramic baking dish. Freeze until firm. Fold in sweetened whipped cream and return to freezer until firm.

Wanda was also kind enough to give me her prized recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cake, which she found in a 1974 issue of Sunset. I’ve omitted the 1 cup of chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts), but feel free to add them if you like.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons orange peel
2 cups zucchini, coarsely shredded
½ cup milk

Glaze
2 cups powered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside. Blend the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating mixture well. Stir in the vanilla, orange peel and zucchini. Stir in the dry ingredients and milk into the zucchini mixture.

Pour batter into greased and floured tube or bundt pan. Bake for about an hour. Cool for 15 minutes; turn cake out onto a wire rack and continue cooling.

In the meantime, beat powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract until smooth. Glaze as desired.