Turkey in green Jello sounds good.

The mid-century savory-ingredients-in-green-jello form of congealed salad did not make it to my neck of the woods, but I have eaten and enjoyed many fruity versions made by my mother and by the excellent cooks at our Baptist church, where the potluck dinners were an amazing outpouring of food that probably shortened all our lives but tasted fantastic.

There was a green one with cream cheese, crushed pineapple, and pecans that looked terrible but tasted ambrosial. My mother was a finicky chef who didn't cook ugly things, so I ate this one at church only.

Mama's best Jello salad was a cranberry confection that I enjoyed as much as I like Cindy's sauce. I made it every Thanksgiving for decades until I married Quirt, who prefers the WTF classic. It's made of cherry jello, pineapple juice, whole cranberry sauce, a chopped Granny Smith apple, and pecans.

She also made one with red Jello, Coca-Cola, cream cheese, and whole Bing cherries that I remember fondly.

My aunt made a layered confection with a crust made of crushed pretzels and a fruit layer of red jello and strawberries and probably other stuff.

But these pea-and-carrot things? I cannot fathom eating that.

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:
She also made one with red Jello, Coca-Cola, cream cheese, and whole Bing cherries that I remember fondly.

Were the cherries pitted? Gotta know!

Think I found it. Nana’s Coca Cola salad.

https://www.food.com/recipe/na...ca-cola-salad-192533

quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:
She also made one with red Jello, Coca-Cola, cream cheese, and whole Bing cherries that I remember fondly.

Were the cherries pitted? Gotta know!

Yes, because they came out of a can.

Oh, *jarred* cherries! That’s very different. Maraschino? Or really just canned Bings?

quote:

Originally posted by jodi:
Think I found it. Nana’s Coca Cola salad.

https://www.food.com/recipe/na...ca-cola-salad-192533

That's the one!

It was delicious. It didn't taste like Coke. The Coke sorta gave it a darker, zippier flavor that was nice with the cream cheese.

quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:
Oh, *jarred* cherries! That’s very different. Maraschino? Or really just canned Bings?

No, not jarred. They're canned in syrup, like canned peaches, but the syrup isn't as heavy as what you would get in cherry pie filling. The texture is somewhat like the cherries in pie filling.

Speaking of cherry pie filling, another of those old recipes used it, although it wasn't a Jello creation. It was called a salad, but it was really more like a dessert, and I loved it. It had cherry pie filling, pecans, crushed pineapple, marshmallows, and whipped cream. (Full confession, I usually used Cool Whip like the woman who gave me the recipe, but hey. It was the Eighties.)

I would pay a hundred bucks for a whole bowl of that stuff right this minute, but that may be because I've gone back to no carbs and am currently subsisting on leftover chicken and other keto-friendly junk stuff I'm supposed to be eating instead of stuff that tastes good.

Sorry, just checked Jodi's recipe. The Bing cherries are canned in juice.

So they're health food!