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! :)