Pretzel Jello Salad!

My FAVORITE thanksgiving side dish.....

PRETZEL JELLO SALAD

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this, it is something that I always look forward to at thanksgiving!  I know most people are happy with turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy, but, Ive found that I hardly eat any turkey on thanksgiving. Its so funny, but I tend to load my plate up with all the yummy sides.

This one, is my all time favorite. Its kind of complicated to make, but it is SO SO SO SO SO worth the time and effort.  The picture shown is not my version of pretzel jello salad, but super close. First, you smash up salted pretzels and bake them a pyrex dish with a stick of butter. That alone is just really yummy to snack on.  Then while still hot, on top of the pretzels you put a layer of cream cheese that has been beated with sugar.......that by it self is also so good! This part is so tricky though, its hard to get the cream cheese mixture spread evenly over the pretzels without the pretzels all coming loose and incorporating themselves into the cream cheese. It just needs to be done slowly and with care. Next you put on an entire carton of cool whip over the cream cheese......might I add, its a wonder how all the ingredients dont get eaten up before they all get put togther! :) 

After the cool whip.....let cool.  Let cool means.......seriously put it in the freezer so it is super cold  for the next step.  Next step, make a batch of Jello. I use raspberry jello, and instead of using water, mix it with boiling pineapple juice. (it smells so good, its making my mouth water as im thinking about it)  Then to that mixture dump in a bag of frozen raspberries.  Because the jello is super hot at this point, it too must be cooled down. You dont want it to set, but by no means do you want it to be hot. Because the next thing to do is to pour the jello over the coolwhip.  If the jello is hot, it melts the cool whip and makes it bubble to the top of the jello and totally takes over the jello....and also gets rid of the the beautiful layers that you want to create.  So....make sure the cool whip is cool and the jello is cool!  Then just stick it in the fridge, let the jello form, and its ready to serve.  Oh man....I cant wait to eat this in the next week.  Usually im the only one who eats it in my family anyway, so I get all the leftovers to myself too!

Question: Do they make gluten free pretzels? Im sure they must.  We have a gluten free-eater, and Id like to accomodate! :)

Thanksgiving Prep!

Well, its that time of year again! I cant even believe its here already. But needless to say I am so excited! Andrew and I are hosting our very first Thanksgiving Dinner ever at our new house!  Yesterday, I took out all of our BRAND NEW china from our wedding gifts (still in their boxes), and started to clean them. I had separated them out into.....Dinner plates, salad plates, bread plates, saucer, and tea/coffee cups.  I had 9 stacks of everything (minus the cups of course).  I decided to start washing the dinner plates first....Andrew and I dont have a dish washer, so after washing them very carefully by hand, I set them in the dry rack right next to the sink. I was onto the fourth dish, and before I could even believe what happened.........the three previous plates that I had washed, had some how fell backwards over the counter, did a sumersault in the air and splashed glass shards everywhere all over my kitchen floor.  After screaming....swearing.....crying....and peeing my pants a little, I called my mom hysterical over what had just happened. Basically, I dont think she could understand anything I tried to say for the first ten minutes! Once I stopped crying......we both kinda laughed and i felt a little bit better!  I made sure to leave the kitchen alone for the next hour because, knowing that I just broke 3 of my BRAND NEW china plates, broke my heart just a little bit, and I couldnt stand looking at it. 

Once I was fine enought to face my mess, I grabbed a box, and put all of the large salvagable pieces into it, and decided instead of throwing away my precious china, I am going to make some sort of a mosaic type platter.  No sense in throwing it away right.....Ill just have my own matching plater to my china.  Not quite sure how im going to make it yet, but Im sure you will find out when I do.

I finally finished cleaning, and drying my china, making sure to NEVER use the dry rack with my china ever again.  Now my china is resting in a safe place, waiting for it to be used for our thanksgiving meal.

On another note, im so so so excited about cooking for thanksgiving!  Just thought Id make a list of all the yummies that will be on my dinner table!

Turkey (DUH....)
Mashed Potatoes
Bread Stuffing
Meat Stuffing
Orange Crescent Rolls
Pretzel Jello Salad
Green Bean Casserole
Sweet Potatoes
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Pie
Berry Pie
.....

(I feel like im forgetting something, as if thats not enough food for the 6 people that will be at my table)

Im pretty excited, I cant wait to have a housefull! Andrews mom and grandma will be flying in on sunday, as well as Dave (andrews best man), and then andrews Dad is driving from South Dakota (where hes hunting at his familys farm) and should be here Sunday or Monday.  Everyone is staying for about a week!  We are going to take them to a Texas Tech Football game on the saturday after thanksgiving! That should be a blast! :)

I shall let you know how it all goes!

Another little note, I came home today, to find Tex sitting in the middle of a chewn up BRAND NEW box of kleenex! After punishing him, and making him go outside, I proceeded to clean it up. Where I found a chewed up tv remote....with blood on it! ew....! I continue to pick up the scraps.........and found one of Tex's Molars.  Just thought that was kinda funny!

Happy Friday! (im giong to see Harry Potter tonight, and am so excited about it!)

Texans now?.....No.....Just Californians living in Texas!

Well, Im definitely new to this whole blogging world, but I thought it would be the perfect thing to capture and save funny moments of our new life here in the great city of Lubbock.

Andrew and I moved here on August 18th (a tuesday). We drove up to our new rented house (in our huge Uhaul towing my car)..... which we rented sight unseen. Needless to say we were a bit nervous, and excited at the same time.  Turns out that we were extremely lucky, our landlord is wonderful and our 2 bedroom 2 bathroom house is perfect for us! We are adjusting well and learning more and more about this city/state......Here is a list of things I have had to.....um......adjust to, and think are interesting about Lubbock.

- FOOTBALL IS EVERYTHING!
- Its flat (I really dont think you know what flat means.....unless you see it)
- The street lights are all sideways
- Storms are way more intense......thunder and lightning for hours and flooding in 30 minutes of rain...ive still gotta learn about the actual winter/snow/ice storms though.....eeeks!
- They have different speed limits listed for day driving vs night driving
- The ice cream man drives by my house EVERY day! (i have yet to go get something, but.....i intend to get a firecracker one of these days!)
-All the Queso. People brag about their queso making abilities....what is it?  Velveta cheese green chilies and salsa....sometimes added in with chili or ground beef. 
- There is a 5 car long line at all the drive through smoke shops....YUCK!
- Grocery baggers at the store always walk you out to your car, always!
-Football....again....is the world....also tailgating fits in that category too!
-Mexican food.....sadly has been very dissappointing. Not authentic, people think queso is mexican food...IT IS NOT!
- You can smoke in restaurants and bars. Its horrible.....I cant breath, and it seeps into our clothes and even my hair! blah!
-Andrew and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the country music.  Its not pop country....its what they call Red Dirt Texas Country! We love it!

Im sure there are way more things, but thats it for now. Im sure my list will get longer as the days go on.
So far we have had a blast.  Teaching our little puppy man TEX how to do tricks. He is so smart its great! He learned how to use the doggy door in 2 days.....potty training was a cinch to date he can; sit, stay, lay down, shake, HI FIVE, and spin.  He LOVES the bath tub.  When taking a shower this morning, he ran in through the shower curtain, and just sat there in the water.  Hes so funny! 

More to come....Andrew and I definitely have a busy next week. His parents/grandma/best man are coming to stay with us for a week! SO EXCITED to have a houseful for thanksgiving!