County Home Extension Holiday Program

Every year during the last week of October and the first two weeks of November, my local county home extension program presents a workshop each week to prepare us for the holidays.  One week is dedicated to gifts from the kitchen, another is entertaining, and one for holiday dinners.  I’ve attended every year for many years, but they announced that next year will be the last year for the workshops. 

I’m so disappointed about that.  The workshops are my starting point for getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I always get new ideas for dishes and food gifts.  Of course, my favorite part of the program is, after we watch the presenters prepare their beautiful dishes or packages of homemade goodies, they put out a buffet of samples so we can actually taste the dishes and decide which ones we want to make.

Here are a few of my favorite recipes from the wonderful program.

Cranberry Salsa Turkey Wraps (Excellent)
2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 T. lime juice
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 tsp. grated fresh ginger root
3/4 cup spreadable cream cheese
6 flour tortillas (8 inch), warmed
6 lettuce leaves
In a small bowl, combine the cranberries, sugar, onions, lime juice, jalapeno and ginger.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Just before serving, spread 2 tablespoons of cream cheese over each tortilla.  Top with 3-4 tablespoons cranberry salsa, 1/2 cup turkey and a lettuce leaf: roll up. 
Cut in half to serve or cut into pinwheels for appetizers.

Sundae Cheesecake Bars
2 (8 oz) pkgs cream cheese
2 tubes cresent roll dough
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup butter butter, melted
Cinnamon sugar (1/2 cup sugar with 1 T. cinnamon)
Using 9X13 pan,m grease bottom with non-sticking cooking spray.  Unroll one package of dough and flatten to cover bottom of pan.
Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Spread over crescent roll dough.
Unroll second tube of dough and place on top of cream cheese mixture.  pour melted butter over tops of dough.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Tuscan Dip
1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 T. sour cream
1/2 cup finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped black olives
1/4 cup finely chopped red onions
Mix cream cheese and sour cream in medium bowl until well blended.
Add remaining ingredients; mix well.  Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.  Serve with wheat thins.
Yield: 1 1/2 cups or 12 servings 2 T. each.

Enjoy!

Diva Dolores