Food Friday: Oh The Things We Eat During The Holidays

I love that the Holiday season is like a time of free reign over eating pretty much everything and anything. Foods you would not eat during the rest of the year become fair game during the winter months.

So what types of things do you eat during the Holidays? I came across a series on unique holiday foods on NPR called Chompsgiving to Chew Year's: Holiday Dishes. This is a great series that shares family recipes and I highly recommend it.

From Flickr Commons
One of the reminiscence in this series is about ambrosia salad. Entitled, When Ambrosia Salad Spells Dread it tells the story of one man's repulsion to a jello dessert that in my family was officially called "Pink Stuff."

Now I must admit that I was considering making it for our Christmas luncheon. I like the stuff and I wonder what's not to like; it has dry jello folded into Cool-Whip with cottage cheese and fruit. It's not like some jello salads that I have seen recipes for that include ingredients like fish and cheese.

But to each his own. The one lesson in this is, write down those holiday recipes that are unique to your family so they can be passed down the generations.

Here is our family's recipe for the Pink Stuff though this is just one variation of the salad. I've also heard of people adding different canned fruits and even nuts.

Pink Stuff
This is a Jello dessert salad that my mom would make to serve at different holiday dinners.

1 package Strawberry Jello (You are using it in powdered form, do not prepare it)
1 tub of Cool Whip
1 contained of Cottage Cheese (small curd)
1-2 cans of mandarin oranges

Mix all the above ingredients together, mix well or the Jello crystals won’t dissolve. Once mixed, put in the refrigerator for a few hours to “set.”

You can choose to use different flavors of Jello and different fruit combinations.

Comments

  1. My family makes almost the exact same thing as your Pink Stuff. We call it ________ Delight with the blank being filled in with the holiday. And instead of mandarin oranges, we use well drained crushed pineapple. The rest is the same.

    We select Jello flavor based mostly on its color for the holiday so Lime or Strawberry for Christmas but Peach or Apricot for Easter.

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  2. Thanks for your Pink Stuff story. I love the idea of calling it ___Delight. Sounds like a Jello mold from the 1950s.

    Gena

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  3. Gena... due to my gouty arthritis and our dieting, my husband and I have adapted ______ Delight for a new era. Instead of Jello we use the 2 packets of KoolAid + 1.5cups of the scoopable Splenda. (My favorite so far is the peach/mango KoolAid.)

    The rest stays the same. It does not set up as firmly as it does with Jello, but if you don't overmix it, it does ok if kept cold until served. Cuts way back on the sugar and way back on gelatin that can affect gout in some people.

    ReplyDelete

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