The holidays are in full swing. I have a few recipes that I only use this time of year. I wanted to share them with you. They are all easy and delicious. You can make these recipes any time of year though.

Cranberry Salad

  • 32oz. Cranberries
  • ½ cup Sugar
  • 1 can Crushed Pineapple, drained
  • 1 pkg. Mini Marshmallows
  • 1 small carton Whipping Cream
  • Several tablespoons Sugar

One day ahead:
Grind cranberries using a food processor (into small chunks). Place in a container and add the sugar. Mix together. Put lid on container and place in fridge for 3 hours. Take back out and drain cranberries. Add pineapple and marshmallows. Mix together and put lid back on. Place in fridge overnight.

Day of:
Make whipped cream. Whip the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add a few tablespoons of sugar to taste (not too sweet). Whip until stiff peaks form. Fold into the cranberry mixture. Let sit in fridge for 1 hour before serving.

Cookie Pie

  • 1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust (or homemade)
  • 1 pkg. Chocolate Chip Cookies (or 2 dozen homemade cookies)
  • 1-½ cups milk
  • 1 container of Cool Whip (or homemade whipped cream)
  • 1 pkg. Vanilla Pudding

One day ahead:
Open pie crust. Add pudding to the Cool Whip and mix well. Place milk in a wide mouth bowl or dish. Dip cookies individually in the milk. Do this quickly as to not saturate the cookie to make it mushy. Do this for as many cookies will fit into the bottom comfortably. Add a layer of the Cool Whip to cover the cookies. Repeat this process for as many layers as you can make. Save one or two cookies to crumble on top of pie. Refrigerate overnight.

I use these recipes for every holiday get together. They are always gone with no leftovers. They are truly delicious and so easy to make. The best part is you can get your kids to help and count it as math (measuring the ingredients), home ec, and science (watching the ingredients change texture, etc.). It works for us and I feel good about skipping formal learning when I do a lot of cooking or baking because my kids help and learn at the same time.