Cranberry - Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip -- Melissa Mills

INGREDIENTS:
12 ounces fresh cranberries
4-5 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup sugar (more or less to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 1 large lemon)
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 (8 ounces each) packages cream cheese, light or regular, softened
Crackers, for serving

DIRECTIONS:
Pulse the cranberries in a food processor or blender until coarsely chopped (alternately, you can do this task by hand). Add the green onions, cilantro, jalapeno, sugar, cumin, lemon juice and salt and pulse until the ingredients are well combined and finely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a covered bowl or tupperware and refrigerate for 4 hours (or up to overnight) so the flavors have time to develop and the cranberries lose a bit of their tartness.

When ready to serve, spread the cream cheese in an even layer on a serving plate or 9-inch pie dish. Top with the cranberry-jalapeno mixture, spreading evenly over the top of the cream cheese.

Refrigerate for up to an hour before serving. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.

Lime Cilantro Ranch Dressing (Cafe Rio dressing) -- Suzanne Kingsford

This is the salad dressing recipe that was used on the pork salads at RS the other night. It's good on a Cafe Rio type salad, or any other southwest salad. I even like to use it in burritos or to dip quesadillas in. (For those of you like me that get sick of eating the same things that your kids eat for lunch - this is a great addition!)

Lime Cilantro Ranch Dressing (Cafe Rio dressing)
1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup milk
juice from one lime (or if you're lazy like me, about 2 Tbsp of lime juice from the bottle)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 cup green salsa
hot sauce to taste

Here's the hard part - throw all ingredients into a blender and blend. Add hot sauce to taste after everything has been blended. You won't need more than a few shakes unless you like things really spicy. Refrigerate for awhile to thicken. This is the closest to the Cafe Rio dressing and easiest to make ie: no chopping tomatillos. You won't be disappointed.

Coconut Syrup -- Julianne Clark

If you like coconut at all, you really need to make this syrup. Carl calls it the sweet nectar of life. It's so good, you could drink this stuff. Seriously. You might want to double the recipe.

COCONUT SYRUP

7-8 Tb. butter

3/4 c. buttermilk

1 cup sugar (I usually put in 3/4 c. to make me feel better)

1/2 tsp.

1 tsp. coconut extract

Place first 3 ingred. in saucepan on medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly, then remove from heat and add soda and flavoring. It will fizz, so give it a few minutes to settle down--the foam eventually settles. Store in the fridge--I usually heat it up a little in the microwave before using. YUM!