pamela's  Sweet Potato Casserole |Great Mashed Potatoes |  Strawberry Pretzel Jell-O Salad  Tart Cranberry-Orange Relish | Butter Mints | Hors d'oeuvres | Apple - Snicker Bar Salad Knorr Spinach dip ~ Bread Bowl More "Holiday" Recipe Ideas For Thanksgiving & Christmastime    pamela's  Sweet Potato Casserole 3 --29 0z cans sweet potatoes drained and lightly mashed;  mix together: 1 C sugar, ½ C milk, 2 beaten eggs, 1/3 C butter melted, 1 tsp. Vanilla; Spray a 13 x 9 casserole with pan spray; stir the above mixture together and place in casserole pan. Topping: In another bowl: mix 1 C coconut, 1 C brown sugar, 1 C chopped pecans, 1/3 C flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup butter (very soft); make a "crumbly" mixture and sprinkle over the sweet potatoes. This can be made a couple of days in advance and then baked on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Cover and bake at 350’ for 30 minutes, uncover, bake an additional 10 minutes.  (NOTE!  If you make two of these at Thanksgiving, serve one and FREEZE one for Christmastime!  You'll be so glad you did!  It will turn out just fine---thaw and bake as above!) Strawberry Pretzel Jell-O Salad 3 C crushed pretzels 4 Tblsp powdered sugar ½ C melted butter Mix and press into the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350’. 8 oz. Pkg cream cheese (softened) 1 egg 1 C powdered sugar 1 small container Coolwhip Cream all together and spread over the cooled pretzel layer and chill. 6 oz strawberry (or raspberry) Jell-O 3 C sliced frozen strawberries. Mix well the Jell-O with 2 C boiling water. Add the frozen sliced strawberries, stir to mix well; allow to thicken some and then pour over the pretzel/cream cheese layers. Refrigerate until set and ready to serve. (12-18 servings) Great Mashed Potatoes 10  lbs  Russet Potatoes 2  eggs 1 1/2 to 2  tsp  garlic & parsley salt 1/2 Cup butter, melted 16oz. cream cheese Peel (or just wash well and leave the peelings on) and quarter potatoes. Place the potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring potatoes to a boil, reduce heat a bit and cook until tender. Drain off water.  In a large bowl, combine potatoes, cream cheese, beaten eggs, garlic parsley salt, . Mash well by hand or whip with an electric mixer.   Place in Ziploc freezer bags and refrigerate or freeze for future use. When reheating, put in a casserole dish and bake for 20-30 minutes or use a crock-pot to warm and hold potatoes warm until ready to serve (be sure to stir potatoes in oven or crock-pot occasionally during the heating/holding.   (12-18 servings)   Tart Cranberry-Orange Relish 2        packages (12 oz) fresh Cranberries  2 - 3    Oranges (or two large)  1 1/2  to 2 cups  Sugar (to your taste) Cut the unpeeled orange into eights; remove seeds and any white parts in the center.   Wash the fresh cranberries in a colander. Place about a third of the cranberries in a food processor  and process until coarsely chopped. Begin filling a bowl or Tupperware for the refrigerator.  Process the rest of the cranberries a third at a time.     Place about 1/2 to 1/3 of the oranges in food processor and proceed as above, adding the chopped orange to the cranberries.  Add the sugar.  Stir to mix well well.  Refrigerate for several hours stirring occasionally.  Then serve in a pretty serving bowl. This can be made many days in advance, but at least the day before you plan to serve it.  I often double or triple this recipe so that we can have cranberry relish for Christmastime, too.  Plus, I always like to buy several extra bags at Thanksgiving time when cranberries are fresh at the market.  They can be kept in the refrigerator for a few weeks or in the freezer to use all winter and spring in breads and scones, salads and sauces. If you want to make a jelled cranberry relish, you can take  2 packages of unflavored gelatin and sprinkle in 1/4 cup of water to let it soften.  Then, heat it in the microwave until dissolved---about 30 seconds.  Add this to 1 cup of apple or orange juice and then stir into the cranberry relish.  Refrigerate till ready to serve. Butter Mints 1/2 cup butter, soft 1 tsp. salt 2/3 cup Sweetened condensed milk 6 1/2 - 7 cups sifted (sifted before you measure it )confectioners' sugar Granulated sugar for rolling mints Cream butter and salt together until smooth. Blend in milk. Add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time until no longer too sticky. Then add food color paste and peppermint flavor. Keep the mint dough covered while you work to make small balls to press into your candy mold, roll in granulated sugar then press into mold firmly. Then pop the mint out of the mold and set in Tupperware or a tray lined with waxed paper. The mints will dry and harden a bit.     Mary's Snicker Bar Salad Six Apples Six  Snicker candy bars (refrigerated) One 12 oz. Extra Creamy Cool Whip. ( I know of a recipe that *also* uses 8 oz. softened cream cheese along with the cool whip.) Cut apples into small pieces. (No need to peel). Chop Snicker bars into small pieces. Mix apples and chopped Snicker bars together. Just before serving mix in the Cool Whip.   Hors d'oeuvres Spanakopita These are spinach mixture filled Philo dough triangles.  I use Stouffer's spinach soufflé (cooked) and some shredded parmesan cheese mixed in and then  put a spoonful of the mixture on one end of the buttered strip of Philo and will fold the end over to make a triangle and will continue folding (like folding a flag) until the strip is used up. I bake them on a sheet for about 20 minutes or so. @--;------------- Another really yummy thing to make for any kind of party is fruit pizza... Make a crust on a pizza pan and then spread sweetened cream cheese and then arrange fruit in circles.  You can mix sour cream, powdered sugar and lemon juice and drizzle the mixture over the top.  I think everyone likes this one. Some ladies like to use a tube of cookie mix---but I think it's just as easy to make this:  A crust can be made from 1 C butter, 1/2 C powdered sugar, 2 C flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Drop blops of dough allover the pizza pan and then sort of squish it down with your fingers to make it spread out and smooth. Bake for 15 minutes at 350. Cool and spread the cream cheese/sugar/vanilla over the crust and garnish with whatever group of fruits you choose:  bananas, kiwi, pineapple, peaches, mandarin oranges, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, mango, etc. @--;----------- Another thing that I think people so appreciate is having fresh crunchy vegetables and a low calorie dill & veggie dip. You can get things like carrots, celery, sugar snap peas, jicama, cucumber, radishes, red peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. @---;------------- Everyone seems to like the Knorr spinach dip in a bread bowl and fancy crackers, too.  You get a package of Knorr (dry) vegetable soup mix and on the back of the package is the recipe for spinach dip.  (you will need sour cream (can use non fat) mayonnaise (again, can use non fat), green onion, chopped water chestnuts, and the recipe calls for frozen chopped spinach---but I just buy a bunch of fresh spinach and wash it and chop it finely.  Refrigerate for a few hours.  Then get a sourdough round loaf and take out the whole center and fill it with the spinach dip and then cut the scooped out bread into chunks and arrange on a platter around the round loaf.  It's pretty good!  I've never seen any of it remain! pamela spurling ~ TheWelcomeHome