Twenty-Four Hour Layered Salad: A Nice Addition to Christmas Dinner and an Update on our Week

Well here she is….the salad I have fixed for holiday meals through the years, whether at Christmas, Easter, or Thanksgiving. Everyone seems to love it. And I will be making it again this year.

I’ve shared the recipe before on the blog, but I’ll share again for Blogmas Day 18, along with putting my little twists to the recipe.

Twenty-Four Hour Salad Recipe

• 1 medium head of lettuce (if you prefer you can use spring mix or a mix of the two, like I do – often I have enough to make the main salad and a smaller one too).
• 1 cup of chopped celery (enough to make a layer)
• 3/4 cup of chopped scallions (you can use 1/2 cup of red onion instead)
• 1 10 oz pkg of frozen green peas, separated and well drained (put in colander and run cold water over them to separate).
• 1 1/2 cups of Mayo
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, sprinkled over mayo
• Parmesan cheese – enough to cover top of bowl pretty heavily (shredded or grated – either kind works)
• 1 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 jar of 3 oz. bacon bits (or you can use real bacon of course but it’s more trouble)

In a large bowl, layer the first 4 ingredients. Coat the top with mayo, sprinkle on the sugar and cheeses and bacon bits. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. At serving time you can toss the salad (or not). Serves 10-12.

Thanks to those that watched the video this week that posted up on YouTube on Saturday. I was surprised I was able to pull it off. If you missed it you can see it in the previous entry. If you are new to the blog, I also have a vlog on YouTube under the same name, Less Hustle More Coffee. It’s quite the labor of love. And has grown some but it’s so incredibly hard to get into the suggested feeds. Still I keep trying. And I enjoy doing them. So if you want to check that out, please do. It’s a reality lifestyle vlog, akin to the blog – I just bring the blog to life basically.

We have company in town, staying with Mom. My Aunt and Uncle are in from Yulee, FL near Amelia Island. They brought their new puppy up, Cherie. And she is just adorable. She is so good and so quiet. Her eyes are so pretty and blue.

We’ve been to Mom’s a couple of times to eat and have also been out to eat with them at Famous Dave’s (I think I told you about that one). And we’ll seem them again tomorrow night for a meal out.

That is my Aunt Martha above. And here we are at Mom’s with everyone’s dogs in their laps, lol. Here’s Aunt Martha’s nails. Did I already show them?

Here’s mine below. Not near as cute. I have Santa Hats. Forgive me if I already showed these. I think I did on social media and I forget where I’ve posted what. I think I’m about half losing my mind trying to keep up with everything we have had to keep up with, and we are going full speed ahead. Then I try to throw in blogs and vlogs, Instagram posts and stories and Facebook stories. I’ve got so much going I am forgetting things, even though I’ve had time off. Honestly, I think the time off makes me relax to much and I let things go b/c I’m relaxed. Go figure.

Uncle Ken fixed salmon patties and fried green tomatoes. And today Mom fixed a roast. Everything was so good.

On my day off, I had almost an impromptu lunch with my sister in law Susan. We went to Long Horn. We gave each other the gifts for our families to open on Christmas. Was not looking like we were going to get to work that in since they live out of town now. But she was in town for the day doing some other things and visiting with some high school buddies. Our lunch was great and went by fast though. Here was my fried chicken salad. And I had enough to eat lunch on the next day (I just took home the chicken). It was a lot.

Of course I had Friday at home – well most of it. And George was home Saturday. We stayed home all of Saturday and got the house somewhat ready for the upcoming week.

I have vacuumed, mopped floors. Also it was time to change both sets of sheets on the beds and wash dog blankets and such.

Above is when Dexter was in my lap. lol And below, you see Dexter has developed a drinking problem. He loves the bottle, lol.

Tomorrow I have some more special pics to show. It’ll give me something to do for Blogmas 19. ha.

Anyway, it’s been a crazy day today. We had church and ate at Mom’s. Mom had invited us over for roast. She said she was not going to cook anymore but she did, and I think that it was too much on her. It was good of course, but she was not in the mood to do it, you can tell she was very unhappy and stressed. It’s so sad. I just wish for once she would enjoy herself. So I think we are just not going to accept an invitation anymore from her to cook. We can just bring in something or maybe cook it ourselves, but honestly it is not that easy to cook in someone else’s kitchen and not everyone has an abundance of patience for that kind of thing, so either take out or go out seems to be the answer from here on out. Assisted living looks closer than ever in my opinion.

It’s been nice having Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken there to handle her every need and wish on a whim this week. With all we are doing in trying to get Christmas pulled together I think I’d be losing it if I had to do extra doc appts and extra grocerying this week. Apparently, according to Mom, we basically don’t do a very good job of handling things since we don’t do everything just like she would have us to in taxing her around. But she often forgets that there are two other people with lives in this triangle we all find ourselves in, in trying to meet God’s will, her needs, and us work FT and try to have our own lives. I’m going down a rabbit hole here and it’s just not worth it. I’m just tired. And it’s getting late and I’m still not through with everything I’d wanted to do today as we were gone most of the day, and then did errands and grocery shopping – getting what we can for the weekend. We have to go back on Wednesday night and get the fresh stuff.

Then there is the Snow Storm coming on Thursday 1-3 inches. But who knows. It’s a fast mover I think and coming from the North. We’ll have to watch it and see, and pray because Katy and Cody are coming in that day.

So we’ve focused a lot this week on Christmas Eve meal for everyone and then on Christmas Day. I have a few things to make. More on that later. I just am not sure when I’ll have time but it’s not complicated and hopefully won’t take too long. I’ll do one of my Blogmas Days on our menu this week.

Gotta go. George is waiting on me to get through so we can watch “Dead to Me”. Oh and we also have watched all the Meghan and Harry videos on Netflix. Very interesting. I hate all that has happened to them. I feel sorry if their families are divided. I know what that is like. Although I’m happy to say things are better with me and my sister.

Over and Out. Ya’ll have a great week! What’s on your agenda this week? What’s left to do?