The youngest son decided to BBQ last Sunday. At our house.
That meant that I had to fix the side dishes.
Which I don’t mind. I know I’m eating well if I do it. We invited the other kids and their families and I whipped up a shopping list, bought the food, forgot something, rushed back to the store to get the missing ingredient and started to prepare the food the night before.
Some dishes need to be made ahead. The green jello salad is one. That recipe comes from my mother. That one and her potato salad recipe are the only ones I’ve used throughout the years. Which made me think…I know. Dangerous area there.
How many of us cook the same way our mothers did, and their mothers before them? How far back does the recipe go?
My Granny had a ‘secret’ ingredient for pumpkin pie. I was a kid when she told me the ‘secret’…I was warned that it was a ‘family secret’. Cool. How awesome! I couldn’t tell anyone except my children.
So, imagine my surprise decades later when I hear her telling everyone she knows the ‘family secret’ recipe.
It makes me smile and whenever I make pumpkin pie, I add a half teaspoon of black pepper to remember my Granny by.
Now, I did a google search for an image of green jello salad, and none looked like mine does.
This is the tiny piece that was left in the plastic container. It will be gone in a few minutes, because it’s good and I’m hungry.
Green Jello Salad:
Two boxes or one large of lime Jello dissolved in two cups of boiling water.
One carton of small curd cottage cheese.
One can of crushed pineapple, drained.
Mix together and put in the fridge.
For the topping, mix 8 oz. cream cheese with 3/4 cup mayonnaise. I generally let my cream cheese sit out for an hour first to make it easier to blend in the mayonnaise. Spread on top and it’s done. You can sprinkle chopped pecans on the top if you want.
The hubby loves this and warned the kids that they could take any leftovers they liked but to leave the jello salad alone.
What is your favorite recipe that was handed down to you?
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Authors of Main Street 
Well, it’s almost my family’s recipe! Except for… oh well, as I said almost. And it was always present at Thanksgiving and other such family meals!
There are several things I make that probably aren’t even considered healthy anymore – Philadelphia Butter Cake…oh, who cares, anything that delicious is worth it!
And my Xmas cookie recipe was originally called Spring House Cookies (because the dough was kept in the spring house) and had no real measurements unless you want to call a handful a measurement. Just add four walnut-sized lumps of fresh butter. Amazingly none of those old recipes ever called for “old” butter although the pancake recipe did say soured milk. Oh yummy – not! My mom changed that to buttermilk!
🙂
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Sour milk is easy to make, just add vinegar. And grandma’s recipe for donuts had the walnut measurement too…
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I have my Grandma Nettie’s donut recipe. I cook a lot of things just like my mom, but when we had family gatherings and someone brought lime jello, it had veggies in it. I think I’d like yours better. 🙂
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I love jellied salads! My aunt makes an awesome one that has pecans and shredded carrots in it.
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Pepper, this recipe sounds yummy! I’m going to make it for Monday’s fish fry. Here’s a favorite Pistachio Pie recipe our family loves. I converted it to fit our Diabetic lives. You can switch ingredients as you like.
I’ve shared this recipe with several friends and they’ve enjoyed it so much, I thought you may find it one of your favorites too. My daugher-in-law makes a similar dessert, absolutely yummy.
This pie is great for Diabetics. One small slice, not the whole pie. Ha! I could almost eat the entire pie myself. But I never have and won’t any time in the future.
Prepare and enjoy this delicious dessert for any holiday and you can share the recipe also.
Carol’s Pistachio Pie
1 small container no sugar added Cool Whip
1 box Sugar Free Pistachio instant pudding mix
1 can (20 oz.) chilled Crushed Pineapple (No sugar added) (drained –SAVE –the juice)
1/8 cup lemon juice
1 cup small pecan pieces (these taste better if toasted lightly, then cooled before adding)
1 deep dish baked pie crusts OR 2 regular size baked crusts OR 2 Graham Cracker crusts
If you want it mounded over use 1 crust, otherwise I usually use 2 crusts, it freezes better that way.
Drain pineapple well, so you get all the juice, into a large mixing bowl, set aside pineapple. Add lemon juice to the bowl of pineapple juice. Whisk in quickly, 1 box Pistachio pudding (dry mix) until it thickens, add pecans and pineapple. Stir gently. Fold in Cool Whip. Pour into crusts. Let chill for a couple hours.
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Depends on how much Cool Whip I want to use, sometimes I use a bit more (about a cup) from another container. Not too much though or the pie isn’t flavorful enough.
For Christmas, if you want to dress it up, add a few Maraschino Cherries–well drained – on top in the shape of a tree, bell, cross, maybe a sprig of mint, etc. Or use your imagination. If you don’t eat all the pie within a couple days, you should freeze, as the crust (either one) will tend to be soggy. I let it set out about 30 min., slice what I need, then refreeze. Cover tightly with both saran wrap and foil before freezing.
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Trying 🙂
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You guys have some fun and inventive family recipes. Very Americana.
My Grandma–the one who cooked–was off the boat from Italy so all my family recipes are Italian. Plus she was illiterate so they were never written down and didn’t use precise measurements.
To get her ravioli recipe I had to stand next to her with a pad of paper one day and watch.
She started by dumping a bag of flour on the kitchen table–no bowl. That’s when my great admiration for her was cemented forever. She was a pip–and a cook who could not be duplicated!
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Homemade fresh pasta is THE BEST!!! I can only make it with my mom, which basically means that I watch her make it 🙂
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I had an Italian grandmother for a few years. I couldn’t believe all the different pastas that she used. But she never did them from scratch. I took an Italian cooking class about ten years ago and learned how to make pasta. OMG…it was delicious. There is an Italian restaurant in New Orleans, Irene’s, that makes home made pasta. So delicate, so delicious, it’s making my mouth water.
Thanks for the recipe Carol, I’ll give it a try. The hubby loves pie.
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When I got married, my paternal grandmother, gave me a recipe book of all the family (Italian) recipes. Oddly, most of my Italian cooking I actually learned from my Irish mother. 🙂 There really is nothing like passing on traditions, keeping family members alive throughout the generations!
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Pepper, your green jello salad looks like one my husband’s Granny Smith made. Same ingredients. She called it Watergate Salad. Supposedly created by someone as tribute(?) to the Watergate scandal. *g*
Then my husband’s mom made a jello Salad with any red jello and added chopped pecans, banana slices, peaches, and any other fruit you like. I make a huge bowl of it every Thanksgiving and Christmas and it’s a hit with everyone.
I think Jello salads were part of our mom and grandmom’s generations. I have church cookbooks filled with Jello salad recipes.
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The green jello salad predates the Watergate fiasco. Mom made it when I was a kid. So it must be ninety years old. LOL….just kidding, I’m not quite that old yet.
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Pepper, will you come to my house? 🙂
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Yummy! I love these salads recipes. I’m copying them after your permissions, Pepper, Carol, Joan.
All of this gave me an idea that I’ll share on the loop.
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