Go To Easter Pleaser

If you are going to a holiday with my family, one thing you need to have is a great go to dish. One that you can throw together while you are doing a million other tasks at the same time. For example, this weekend I cleaned out the fridge and washed it from the inside out, cleaned the shower, vacuumed, did two loads of laundry, baked a batch of cookies and made dinner for us and our dinner and a movie guest, and got the flower beds ready for planting. The last thing I wanted to do was make a time consuming holiday dish. Pretzel Salad was something I hadn't made for a few years and I had to go find a new recipe since mine was long gone. Even though the recipe I got did not include all of the ingredients I recalled, I tried it anyways and would only make a few modifications for next time. This dish is a combination of sweet and salty and even though J thought it would be a dessert, we served it with the meal.

What you need:

 2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cups melted butter
3 TBS white sugar
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 (8 oz) container  thawed Cool Whip
2 (10oz) packages frozen strawberries
2 (3 oz) packs strawberry Jell-O
2 cups Boiling water

Crust:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Stir together crushed pretzels, 3/4 cups melted butter and 3 TBS sugar:
Press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and backe 8-10 minutes
Let cool

Filling:
In a large bowl, cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar
Fold in Cool Whip
Spread evenly into COOLED crust

Topping:
Dissolve Jello in boiling water
Stir in frozen strawberries
Let set for a few minutes until the consistency of egg whites (about 5 min)
Spread over cream cheese mixture and refrigerate until set.

 I made an extra cup of the crust to cover my dish. I would have made double both the filling and Jello Topping if I had the time to go back out to the store. A thicker layer of both would have been great. But everyone loved it, many had seconds and I have some left in the fridge for dessert tonight!