One Hundred Dollars a Month

This past summer the HH and I attended a progressive dinner party held for the folks who live on our street. Appetizers were at one home, the main entrees at another, and finally dessert and punch were served at the last home. All the neighbors contributed a dish and I remember the HH and I both thinking, WOW…. we hit the jackpot moving here.  We could not have hand selected a better group of warm and welcoming neighbors if we had tried, we felt instantly at home.

At the second home we stopped at, guests were asked to contribute {it was based on house numbers} either a main dish or a salad. The HH made our favorite broccoli cashew salad to bring along.

I remember standing at the buffet table and looking at the offerings and thinking…. Hmmm, it doesn’t look like anyone has touched the grape salad. I think I’ll try it {but really, my reasoning for trying the grape salad was because I didn’t want the person who made it to feel bad because nobody was eating it!!!}.

Well now, as soon as I got back to my seat and stabbed my fork into the creamy grape salad, I couldn’t believe HOW GOOD the salad tasted. I quickly finished up the serving on my plate and then marched right back over to the buffet table and scooped a HEAPING mountain of the creamy grape salad onto my plate.

And then I shouted… WHO MADE THIS GRAPE SALAD!?

My neighbor Carole raised her hand and before you know it I was sitting next to her and getting the recipe. Although I had only waved to her husband a few times, this was the first time I had met her.

And wouldn’t you know…. after about 5 minutes of getting to know Carole, and her asking me what brought us to the town we live in now, and me telling her about the yellow house The Girl and I had driven by a few years earlier that was for sale at the time, and me then telling the HH that if we ever moved to New England we needed to check out this particular town she said…. OH, XXX {the person who had owned the yellow house} was one of my best friends. That house was built in the 1700’s and it was a tavern back in the day {A colonial tavern, used by soldiers, can you believe that!?} and then a few years ago part of it burned down… And now the new people who bought the home are fixing it up and yada yada yada…

And then I was like OH MY WORD…. I knew it. I knew we were supposed find our way here. And isn’t that funny. The house that brought us to this town, belonged to one of your best friends and now we are neighbors…. isn’t that interesting how things work out.

I found out about all of this because of a grape salad. And the funny thing was…. By the time we were ready to leave and head to the next house for dessert, nearly all of the grape salad was GONE. Gobbled up by other guests…

So this recipe, although it might not look like something you would want to dive into at first glance…. DO IT. Make this salad. Seriously. I can’t think of a better recipe to add to your Thanksgiving table this fall than this recipe for creamy grape salad. It is SO GOOD, you’ll be bringing it to pot lucks and serving it on your table for family gatherings for years.

It will be on our table this Thanksgiving, you can be sure of that! 😉

Ingredients {Double the recipe if you are serving a large crowd}
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pounds seedless grapes
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla until nice and smooth. Add the grapes and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to serve and then sprinkle with the brown sugar and nuts just before serving.