Recipe for Cranberry Salad

So Thanksgiving and Christmas are almost here and this is my favorite time to cook. Well, I love cooking any time of year, but this is the best. Maybe it's because I love to eat all the great food we have for the holidays :) Here's a recipe I LOVE to make. I can't handle the jellied cranberry stuff in the can...this cranberry salad is good enough to actually be a dessert. I actually have passed up dessert before to have another helping of this!

Cranberry Salad

1 bag cranberries
2 c. sugar
1 large can crushed pineapple (optional)
2 c. mini marshmallows
Cool Whip or 1/2 pt. whipping cream
1 c. chopped pecans

Grind cranberries in food processor. Add sugar and let stand overnight (I put in refrigerator). Next morning - Strain and keep juice. Strain pineapple. Add pineapple, marshmallows and Cool Whip to cranberry mixture. Mix well. If too dry add cranberry juice to the right consistency. Add pecans. Refrigerate.

I know the recipe says pineapple is optional but I wouldn't dream of leaving it out. I'll see what other yummy recipes I can post before Thanksgiving.

Halloween 2009

We had a fun-filled weekend. A boy from Kristen's 1st grade class had a Halloween party Friday night. They had games, food, a scavenger hunt, crafts, and running around just being silly. Then Saturday night she went trick-or-treating with her cousin, Landon. He was a werewolf and Kristen was a Cheetah. Lots of fun but I'm glad it's over.

Pajama day

Today is pajama day at school. It's part of red ribbon week, teaching the kids about staying drug free. Monday they wore their red ribbon t-shirts, Tuesday they had to wear green, and tomorrow they are supposed to wear their favorite sports team shirt. She isn't taking the cute little monkey to school with her, but I thought it was a cute picture to post :)

October

October is always a very busy month, but this year it seems even busier than ever. Kristen went to a friend's slumber party a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. We have six birthdays in our family in October...my dad, my mom, sister, niece, brother-in-law, and me...so every year we get together and have one big celebration. We had cake and presents and lots of fun.

Kristen's Halloween costume is ordered and hopefully it will get here in time. Shingles have been delivered and the roofers should be here tomorrow morning to start putting on a new roof. Tomorrow afternoon I see an orthopedic surgeon that my doctor referred me to for a cyst on my thumb. We've been to my nephews soccer games, been to see my niece march in the band, been to see my other nephew play hockey. Kristen has cheer and tumbling class every Thursday night and she's loving it. Busy, busy, busy!!

We got three little pumpkins and Kristen decorated them with the same kits that we used last year.

Our Pickle Jar

Do you follow my friend Amy's blog at

http://buildingtheblocks.blogspot.com/ ? I've told you about them. They were starting out with a pickle jar to start saving money for their next adoption, then someone donated all the money for their adoption. But Amy's so amazing she wanted to pass it forward and raise money to help someone else adopt. They've been eating beans and rice for dinner for the entire month of September to put the grocery savings towards the fund. I talked to Kristen about what she could do to help.

Kristen gets all my spare change and it goes into her piggy bank (and she hits Grandma and Grandpa up for their change, too). She decided she'd give all her spare change for the month of September and donate it to the Pass It Forward fund. So tonight we were going to count all the change she has saved up this month.

As we started to dump it out to count, she asked me to go get her piggy bank. I told her that what was in her piggy bank was already hers, and reminded her of what she had committed to. But you know what...she insisted that we dump all the money she already had in her piggy bank from the last few months into the pickle jar...she wanted to donate ALL of it!!

Oh yes, I am one proud mommy tonight :) And just throwing in another cute picture of her. She was in the posing mood tonight.

Recipe

I haven't shared a recipe in a while, so I thought I'd post one that I just recently tried. This came from a friend of mine who is a very good cook. And since it's football season, this is perfect. We had it a couple of weeks ago while watching our team, Oklahoma State.

Monday Night Hot Wing Dip

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 cup ranch salad dressing
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup hot pepper sauce
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the chicken breasts into a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer over medium heat until chicken is tender enough to be pulled apart with a fork. Drain and cool until cool enough to touch. Shred or chop chicken and place in a 1 to 2 quart casserole.
3. Mix the cream cheese into the chicken until well blended, then stir in the ranch dressing and hot sauce. Top with cheddar cheese.
4. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until cheese is browned and the sauce is bubbly.

I thought this was pretty good the first day, but thought it was even better when I reheated it the next day. YUM!!

Time flies...

...when you're having fun!! Well, we've been very busy ever since school started, plus we've made two trips to Texas. We had a family reunion to attend, then two weeks later we made our annual trip to the outlet mall in Allen with Maria and Anna. School is keeping us busy with homework every night, but Kristen is loving 1st grade. They had pirate day for the 1st graders a couple of weeks ago, but she wasn't too happy about dressing up :)

We did take advantage of some beautiful weather to spend some time playing at the park.

Kristen and Anna showing off their green tongues after eating some laffy taffy. Those girls are so silly!