Grape Salad

3-4 c. green grapes
3-4 c. red grapes
1 c. sour cream
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbs. vanilla
Topping:
1/3-1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. chopped pecans

Wash and dry grapes thoroughly. Mix other ingredients with mixer until smooth. Fold in grapes. Top salad with sprinkles of brown sugar and nuts. Cover and refrigerate 6-8 hours or overnight.

Pretzel Jello Salad

Ok Ladies... really... It's been over a month and no new recipes? We are seriously slacking. :)

This probably isn't a new recipe to a lot of you... But it's one of my favorites to make for when we have people over, or if I'm in charge of bringing a family a meal. It's technically a jello salad... but it's definitely good enough to be dessert! :) There's never any leftovers with this dish! :)

Pretzels (Somebody asked how many- & I don't know! :) Just enough so after you crush them, they cover the bottom of the pan... I just guess)
1 Cube Butter
1 c. Sugar, plus 4 tsp Sugar
12 oz. Cool Whip
8 oz. Softened Cream Cheese
6 oz. Strawberry Jello
16 oz. Frozen strawberries (sliced)

*Crush Pretzels in Bottom of 9x13 pan.
*Melt butter with 4 tsp. Sugar.
*Pour over pretzels and bake at 400 for 6 min.

*Cool in refrigerator (I put mine in the freezer- Make sure it's completely cooled or it melts the next layer and everything meshes together!)

*Beat softened cream cheese, cool whip, and 1 cup Sugar on med/low until smooth

*Spread over COOLED pretzels. (Make sure to seal all the edges so the jello doesn't get into the pretzels)

*Mix Jello with 2 cups Boiling water. Stir until well dissolved.
*Stir in frozen sliced strawberries.
*Let Jello partial set (3 minutes or so) then pour over cream cheese mixture.
*Put in Fridge and let set for 3-4 hours.

Pork Cafe Rio Salad

(This is a knock-off of the pork Cafe Rio salad. Frankly, it doesn't taste like it to me, but it's still SO good and the best thing to serve to company...yummy and people can leave off what they don't want. I know it's not simple, but I think it's worth it.)

You start with the Pork

3-4 lbs. Pork Loin
1 c. brown sugar
1 bottle red taco sauce
1 T. Cumin
1 Can Coke

Cook pork on low in crock pot with water covering ½ the pork for 6 hours or until able to shred. Three hours before serving, drain liquid off pork and add coke, taco sauce, brown sugar and cumin. Continue to cook for approximately 3 more hours.

Then you make the Rice

White rice
Chicken broth
Chopped Cilantro
Chopped white Onions
lime juice

You get to experiment on the portion sizes. Cook the rice in chicken broth instead of water with cilantro, onions, & lime juice.

Then you make the Tomatillo Dressing

1 pkg. Dry buttermilk Dressing (ranch)
3 Tomatillos
1 C. Mayonnaise
1 C. Buttermilk
1 C. Cilantro (chopped)
1 Garlic Clove
1/4 to ½ t. Cayenne Pepper

Put all ingredients in blender. Dressing will be runny at first, but thickens gradually.

This is the order I do this “salad”

Tortillas (how it’s served at the restaurant)***
Cheese (Monterey Jack or Cheddar)
Rice
Black Beans (warmed)
Pork
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Green Onions
Cilantro, Sour Cream, Salsa
Tomatillo Dressing
Crushed chips on top
*** You can buy uncooked tortillas at Costco that you cook fresh yourself. They are fabulous!!!

Reviving Lettuce

If your lettuce is a little limp, not crisp and crunchy like you want for a salad, you can soak it in ice water and it will revive like magic! Cut your lettuce for the salad, then put it in the salad spinner. Then fill up the spinner with cold water enough to cover the lettuce, then put in lots of ice. Let it soak for 10-15 minutes or so, and it will be nice and crisp! Then you can lift out the inner spinner bowl and dump out the water and spin your salad.

I was so glad to find this out because for some reason, the red leaf lettuce I like is kind of limp in the grocery store. Now I know it can be revived!

Chinese Chicken Salad

1 head romaine lettuce

1 head red leaf lettuce

grilled or boiled chicken (use as much as you want)

linguine noodles ( i usually use about 1/2 the package and break them in half)

pea pods (as many as you want)

chow mein noodles

you can add any other vegies you want

wash and cut up both heads of lettuce

cook linguine (instructions on package)

cut the pepper

cut ends off the pea pods (optional)

put it all together in a big bowl

dressing:

1/2 cup vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 cup vegetable oil (don't use olive oil)

  1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dry mustard 1/2 bag frozen onions

mix it all together (it usually tastes better if you let is sit in the fridge for a while before putting it on the salad, i usually try to make it the night before)

when you're ready to eat, add the dressing and the chow mein noodles ( if you add the chow mein noodles before this point they will be soggy)