So there is one particular category of food that I used to completely avoid: Jello salads.
Growing up, we used to eat this 1950's holdover from time to time as--all of you southerners know it's true--the salad course. How, in any way, is Jello salad a salad? My Granny would put fruit in the Jello and Cool Whip on top, which has always seemed a lot more like a dessert to me, even way back when I was eight or ten years old and started to notice it. My goodness, if you could have dessert instead of a salad at every meal, maybe the 50's were the golden years of America! Has anyone considered this?!
Okay, facetiousness aside, the fact still remains that Jello salad was not my cup of tea. Part of my problem is that I just didn't really care for Jello for many years. It probably wasn't until I was almost out of college that I started to enjoy it every so often. Actually, now that I think of it, it might have had something to do with it being the only dessert I could eat on the South Beach Diet. . . . I digress. The point is, I had no appreciation for Jello in any form for a long time, but Jello salad, in particular, was not a favorite of mine.
And I don't think I was alone. Every year, when the potluck brunch at Mom to Mom rolled around, alongside the food categories such as "bread," "salad," and "dessert," there was "Jello salad." A lot of my friends and I cracked up at this. It just seemed so comically out of place for a group of ten women to be expected to bring. My generation just doesn't make a lot of Jello salad, you know? The only friend who did not think this was such a bad thing was Sara, who evidently liked Jello salad just fine. She bore the barbs thrown at Jello salad with a smile on her face, but we didn't change her opinion at all. She was just fine with that sixty-year-old throwback.
But I will tell you something. I have been converted. After one of my babies was born, Sara brought over dinner, and Pink Salad was part of it. Yes, it was a Jello salad. And it tasted so incredibly good. It was homey and unfussy, which made it even more comforting, and it was sweet and yummy. I had seen the light.
This Christmas, my mother-in-law made an unfortunately-named Jello salad called Pink Frog. Evidently, it hails from their InterVarsity days at Rice, and it was someone's mother's recipe, so we have no idea why it is called Pink Frog. Don't let the name turn you off, though; it's great. It's fruity and light and has cottage cheese in it. Below is the 21st century lightened version. If you've always been against Jello salad, give it a try (though maybe as a dessert instead of a salad). You might be surprised.
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Pink Frog
8 oz. fat free Cool Whip
8 oz. regular Cool Whip
12 oz. low fat cottage cheese
.6 oz. box (8 servings--large box) Sugar Free Strawberry Jello
12 oz. fresh or canned fruit (blueberries are especially good)
Mix it all together and serve chilled.
8 comments:
This is my Pistchio Salad recipe only I use Pistacio pudding mix and mandarin oranges instead of the strawberry.
Grandma used to make jello salad, too. She put fruit in the strawberry jello and a layer of sour cream.
mom
*I use one regular package of pistachio pudding and one sugar free package and only put the marshmellows on top for decorations.
mom
at least they didn't refer to it as "congealed salad." that's gross.
i wish you could see the look on my face right now...
My grandmother always made orange Jello when we visited -- orange jello, mandarin oranges, sometimes pineapple. I suspect I'd find it too sweet if I ate it today, but I still think very fondly of the days when I'd open her fridge and be confronted with a huge bowl of *bright* orange jello, just for us grandkids. We made panna cotta over Christmas (unflavored gelatin, greek yogurt, cream, milk, sugar), and my sister and I both thought it was good, but that maybe we needed something orange to go with it :) Fun memories!
Liz, it is such a southern thing!
EVERY Christmas Eve we have Nana salad. It is scrumptious, but most people balk when I list the ingredients. Here they are anyway:
-Black Cherry Jello made with cola instead of the cold water
-canned black cherries
-pineapple tidbits
-walnuts
-cubes of cream cheese (may sound gross, but it's the best part!)
What does gross me out, however is the dressing. I don't know maybe because it's a "salad" it needs dressing? Inside the Jello ring is a dish of mayo. I never use it...oh, yuck!
I guess it's a different sort of southern than my Alabama relatives. they made 'nanner pudding.' SO much more appetizing!
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