Fresh Cranberry Salad / Why am I doing this blog?!?

I started doing this as a family blog about a year and a half ago. Needless to say I only got one post written and then didn't return until now! I have an obsession with cookbooks, recipe blogs and cooking! I decided that I would turn this into a food blog, with updates on my family here and there. The first recipe I want to write about is one I got from a friend in the Utah Fox Trotter Horse Association. It is a layered cranberry salad and is a gorgeous dish that ALWAYS gets rave reviews and is a highly requested recipe.

Fresh Cranberry Salad

1 bag whole cranberries (12 oz)
1 cup sugar1 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained (reserve juice)
1 apple ( peeled, cored and grated )
3/4 cup reserved pineapple juice (add water if needed to make 3/4 cup)
1 package (3 oz) Raspberry Jell-O (I have used strawberry too)
3/4 cup orange juice
1 package ( 8 oz ) cream cheese, softened
1 pint whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped Pecans or Walnuts (I have used both)

Grind cranberries in food processor
Pour sugar over cranberries and stir until melted
Boil pineapple juice and stir in Jell-O until dissolved, then add orange juice to mixture
Add Jell-O mixture to cranberries and mix well
Add grated apple and drained pineapple to cranberry mixture
Refrigerate cranberry / Jell-O mixture until thickened. (Overnight or at least 4 hours)
Whip whipping cream until it stands in peaks
Whip cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar , then mix whipped cream in to it
In a clear glass bowl, place alternate layers of cranberry mixture , whipping cream -
cream cheese mixture and chopped nuts until bowl is filled
Top with fluff of whipped cream - cream cheese and a sprinkle of nuts.