I said earlier that I'd brought phyllo triangles to my quilt group's
holiday potluck. They were a big success. Here's what other people
brought:


An artichoke dip with crackers, very creamy with cream cheese and
bottled artichoke hearts.


Garlic chicken wings and drumsticks from a Chinese take-out.


Eggplant in tomato sauce.


Broccoli with lemon essence and lemon zest.


Angel food cake.


A sort of pastry from a Brazilian bakery filled with a sort of
butterscotch sauce.


Good quality chocolate.


Red jello fruit salad.


It's that last one that got me curious about cooking styles and what
people think of as festive and special.


I grew up in the 60s. My mother wasn't considered a cook, but meals in
our house were pretty good: broiled meat, frozen vegetables (which I
didn't eat), fresh salads with bottled dressing, fruit, bread and
dessert from a good bakery, milk, and a certain amount of junk like
sugary breakfast cereals and soda. We didn't normally concoct dishes
like putting canned cream of mushroom soup on green beans or adding
packets of spice mix to salad dressing.


When I learned to cook on my own, I started with health food and
vegetarian foods and didn't realize it at the time, but that meant
learning about foods in the natural state. Canned broccoli, frozen
broccoli and a head of broccoli from the produce department are equally
vegetarian, and I was drawn to the head of raw broccoli.


In later years, I noticed that the health food/vegetarian movement went
in 2 directions. One was towards processed vegetarian: frozen t.v.
dinners with brown rice and tofu instead of sliced turkey in gravy,
veggie burgers mixes, and bottled miso-sesame salad dressing. The other
direction was towards a sort of nouvel yuppie food: free range chicken
salad, chipotle black beans with lime, corn and red peppers, kiwi tarts,
emphasis on real whipped cream, no additives. My tastes developed
towards the yuppie.


Which is why I was interested in the jello fruit salad. The one at the
pot luck was just jello and canned fruit, but I saw a demo of a jello
salad on television the other night that included lime jello,
marshmallow fluff, cream cheese, canned pineapple, whipped cream,
marischino cherries, and canned mandarin oranges. I watched with a sort
of morbid fascination, then admited that if someone brought it to a
potluck, I'd probably try it and might like it.


That led to a discussion with Jim about how, for some people, opening
packages of convenience foods and combining them is cooking. They might
have grown up in cooking traditions that involved not very plentiful
farm food, times when there wasn't much variety, when food in winter
meant a lot of bacon and cabbage. For them, it wasn't a choice between
fresh pineapple and canned in syrup, it was a choice between canned and
never having tasted pineapple before. Jell-o, which strikes me as
humorous, might have been the most excellent convenience food, a way of
serving something elegant for friends. Making it today for a holiday
potluck might be nostalgia and a best offering.


--Lia

"Julia Altshuler" > wrote in message
. ..
>I said earlier that I'd brought phyllo triangles to my quilt group's
> holiday potluck. They were a big success. Here's what other people
> brought:
>
snip
> Which is why I was interested in the jello fruit salad. The one at the
> pot luck was just jello and canned fruit, but I saw a demo of a jello
> salad on television the other night that included lime jello,
> marshmallow fluff, cream cheese, canned pineapple, whipped cream,
> marischino cherries, and canned mandarin oranges. I watched with a sort
> of morbid fascination, then admited that if someone brought it to a
> potluck, I'd probably try it and might like it.
>
>
> That led to a discussion with Jim about how, for some people, opening
> packages of convenience foods and combining them is cooking. They might
> have grown up in cooking traditions that involved not very plentiful farm
> food, times when there wasn't much variety, when food in winter meant a
> lot of bacon and cabbage. For them, it wasn't a choice between fresh
> pineapple and canned in syrup, it was a choice between canned and never
> having tasted pineapple before. Jell-o, which strikes me as humorous,
> might have been the most excellent convenience food, a way of serving
> something elegant for friends. Making it today for a holiday potluck
> might be nostalgia and a best offering.
>
>
> --Lia
>
The Jell-O salad you describe is a classic. There are a few others that are
classics also. If these salads were part of your growing up
memories/culture for festivities, what would you use to create them from
scratch? There is nothing to replace them. I remember the advent of frozen
peas in our town -- Wow! My mother was always on the cutting edge when it
came to food. Her frozen peas, chopped scallions, canned mushrooms with
butter caused a tizzy in our world. Before that I remember canned peas,
asparagus, spinach, corn, creamed corn. Don't remember store-bought canned
tomatoes or beans as my mother did those. My mother told the story of how
what a big deal it was to get an orange or banana for Christmas. Not in
addition to something, but simply an orange or banana. Tropical fruit was a
novelty. Refrigerated transport wasn't available to her small farming
community in the mid-West. It's part of our history and undoubtedly shaped
a lot of the menus that came about.
Janet

Julia Altshuler wrote:

> That led to a discussion with Jim about how, for some people, opening
> packages of convenience foods and combining them is cooking. They might
> have grown up in cooking traditions that involved not very plentiful
> farm food, times when there wasn't much variety, when food in winter
> meant a lot of bacon and cabbage. For them, it wasn't a choice between
> fresh pineapple and canned in syrup, it was a choice between canned and
> never having tasted pineapple before. Jell-o, which strikes me as
> humorous, might have been the most excellent convenience food, a way of
> serving something elegant for friends. Making it today for a holiday
> potluck might be nostalgia and a best offering.

There was an entire long thread discussion on Chowhound about something
just like this. If I recall correctly, the party hostess served a soup
everyone raved about and when one guest later asked for the recipe it
turned out to be doctored up canned ingredients. Yet everyone loved the
soup... so could that be considered "cooking" or just opening cans? It
was an interesting debate. I'm going to see if I can find the link to
the discussion....

Oh pshaw, on Sat 22 Dec 2007 08:25:48a, Julia Altshuler meant to say...

> Which is why I was interested in the jello fruit salad. The one at the
> pot luck was just jello and canned fruit, but I saw a demo of a jello
> salad on television the other night that included lime jello,
> marshmallow fluff, cream cheese, canned pineapple, whipped cream,
> marischino cherries, and canned mandarin oranges. I watched with a sort
> of morbid fascination, then admited that if someone brought it to a
> potluck, I'd probably try it and might like it.

This is a salad my mother made for years, often around the holidays. I
sometimes still make it. I always enjoyed it.

Lime Salad

2 3 oz. packages lime gelatin
1 #2 can crushed pienapple, drained, juice reserved
water
1 cup broken pecan meats
1 pint sour cream
1 cup maraschino cherries, quartered
1 cup shredded coconut

Mesure reserved pineapple juice. Add sufficient water to total 1 cup and
bring to rapid boil. Pour over gelatin and stir well until completely
dissolved.

Chiil gelatin mixture until syrupy. Beat until light and foamy. Fold in
all remaining ingredients and chill until firm. If you like a softer
coconut, it may be pre-soaked in warm water or milk, then drained before
adding.

Note: I have seen similar salad that called for cottage cheese instead of
or in addition to the sour cream. I find these disgusting! :-)



--
Wayne Boatwright

Date: Thursday, December 20th,2007

*******************************************
Countdown 'til Christmas
2dys 7hrs 49mins 56secs
*******************************************
A fool and his money rarely get
together to start with.
*******************************************

Oh pshaw, on Sat 22 Dec 2007 10:05:52a, Goomba38 meant to say...

> Julia Altshuler wrote:
>
>> That led to a discussion with Jim about how, for some people, opening
>> packages of convenience foods and combining them is cooking. They might
>> have grown up in cooking traditions that involved not very plentiful
>> farm food, times when there wasn't much variety, when food in winter
>> meant a lot of bacon and cabbage. For them, it wasn't a choice between
>> fresh pineapple and canned in syrup, it was a choice between canned and
>> never having tasted pineapple before. Jell-o, which strikes me as
>> humorous, might have been the most excellent convenience food, a way of
>> serving something elegant for friends. Making it today for a holiday
>> potluck might be nostalgia and a best offering.
>
> There was an entire long thread discussion on Chowhound about something
> just like this. If I recall correctly, the party hostess served a soup
> everyone raved about and when one guest later asked for the recipe it
> turned out to be doctored up canned ingredients. Yet everyone loved the
> soup... so could that be considered "cooking" or just opening cans? It
> was an interesting debate. I'm going to see if I can find the link to
> the discussion....
>

It it involves food and heat, it's cooking! :-)))))

--
Wayne Boatwright

Date: Thursday, December 20th,2007

*******************************************
Countdown 'til Christmas
2dys 7hrs 49mins 56secs
*******************************************
A fool and his money rarely get
together to start with.
*******************************************

I found the thread on chowhound that I mentioned in my previous reply-

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/461603

"Julia Altshuler" > wrote in message
. ..
>I said earlier that I'd brought phyllo triangles to my quilt group's
> holiday potluck. They were a big success. Here's what other people
> brought:
>
>
> An artichoke dip with crackers, very creamy with cream cheese and
> bottled artichoke hearts.
>
>
> Garlic chicken wings and drumsticks from a Chinese take-out.
>
>
> Eggplant in tomato sauce.
>
>
> Broccoli with lemon essence and lemon zest.
>
>
> Angel food cake.
>
>
> A sort of pastry from a Brazilian bakery filled with a sort of
> butterscotch sauce.
>
>
> Good quality chocolate.
>
>
> Red jello fruit salad.
>
>
> It's that last one that got me curious about cooking styles and what
> people think of as festive and special.
>
>
> I grew up in the 60s. My mother wasn't considered a cook, but meals in
> our house were pretty good: broiled meat, frozen vegetables (which I
> didn't eat), fresh salads with bottled dressing, fruit, bread and
> dessert from a good bakery, milk, and a certain amount of junk like
> sugary breakfast cereals and soda. We didn't normally concoct dishes
> like putting canned cream of mushroom soup on green beans or adding
> packets of spice mix to salad dressing.
>
>
> When I learned to cook on my own, I started with health food and
> vegetarian foods and didn't realize it at the time, but that meant
> learning about foods in the natural state. Canned broccoli, frozen
> broccoli and a head of broccoli from the produce department are equally
> vegetarian, and I was drawn to the head of raw broccoli.
>
>
> In later years, I noticed that the health food/vegetarian movement went
> in 2 directions. One was towards processed vegetarian: frozen t.v.
> dinners with brown rice and tofu instead of sliced turkey in gravy,
> veggie burgers mixes, and bottled miso-sesame salad dressing. The other
> direction was towards a sort of nouvel yuppie food: free range chicken
> salad, chipotle black beans with lime, corn and red peppers, kiwi tarts,
> emphasis on real whipped cream, no additives. My tastes developed
> towards the yuppie.
>
>
> Which is why I was interested in the jello fruit salad. The one at the
> pot luck was just jello and canned fruit, but I saw a demo of a jello
> salad on television the other night that included lime jello,
> marshmallow fluff, cream cheese, canned pineapple, whipped cream,
> marischino cherries, and canned mandarin oranges. I watched with a sort
> of morbid fascination, then admited that if someone brought it to a
> potluck, I'd probably try it and might like it.
>
>
> That led to a discussion with Jim about how, for some people, opening
> packages of convenience foods and combining them is cooking. They might
> have grown up in cooking traditions that involved not very plentiful farm
> food, times when there wasn't much variety, when food in winter meant a
> lot of bacon and cabbage. For them, it wasn't a choice between fresh
> pineapple and canned in syrup, it was a choice between canned and never
> having tasted pineapple before. Jell-o, which strikes me as humorous,
> might have been the most excellent convenience food, a way of serving
> something elegant for friends. Making it today for a holiday potluck
> might be nostalgia and a best offering.
>
>
> --Lia
>

the Dutchies in this neck of the woods wouldn't consider it a potluck
without the obligatory Pretzel Salad, which consists of crushed pretzels in
some form of red (must be red) jello. Usually topped with cool whip.
-ginny

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:02:56 -0500, "Virginia Tadrzynski"
> wrote:

> We didn't normally concoct dishes
>> like putting canned cream of mushroom soup on green beans

That was a Thanksgiving and Xmas treat for us, which is why I still
make it at Thanksgiving (the only time I eat turkey too)

>>or adding packets of spice mix to salad dressing.

Not sure what you meant by that, but Good Season's packets were the
*only* salad dressing we made outside an occasional vinaigrette. I
still abhor typical bottled dressings to this day.



--
See return address to reply by email
remove the smiley face first

sf wrote:

> Not sure what you meant by that, but Good Season's packets were the
> *only* salad dressing we made outside an occasional vinaigrette. I
> still abhor typical bottled dressings to this day.

I sometimes get the impression that people who buy a lot of those
bottled dressings just don't really like salad much and go out of their
way to cover it up. I gag when I see how much of that stuff some folks
pour onto a nice innocent salad....

Goomba38 wrote:
> I found the thread on chowhound that I mentioned in my previous reply-
>
> http://www.chowhound.com/topics/461603



That is interesting. The way I see it, cooking with fresh ingredients
from scratch is all part of a continuum. On one end is growing your own
wheat and grinding your own flour, milking your own cow and churning
your own butter, growing your own tomatoes and seeding them with a food
mill. On the other end is paying someone to open a can and heat it up
in a microwave for you.


My definition of cooking from scratch includes buying canned tomato
products and herbs that someone in a factory chopped and dried for me
and combining them myself to make sauce. I might use olive oil and red
wine that were pressed and fermented elsewhere. For me baking from
scratch means that I take butter, eggs, flour, oatmeal, sugar, chocolate
chips, raisins, and shelled walnuts, all ingredients that have been
processed to one degree or another, and combine them into cookie dough
which I bake. But opening a tube of dough and putting it on the pan
doesn't constitute baking in my book.


Lime jell-o/marshmallow fluff salad? Somewhere on the "too processed"
side of the continuum for me.


--Lia

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:02:56 -0500, "Virginia Tadrzynski"
> wrote:
>
>the Dutchies in this neck of the woods wouldn't consider it a potluck
>without the obligatory Pretzel Salad, which consists of crushed pretzels in
>some form of red (must be red) jello. Usually topped with cool whip.
>-ginny
>

yikes!

your pal, blake

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:38:32 -0500, Goomba38 >
wrote:

>I found the thread on chowhound that I mentioned in my previous reply-
>
>http://www.chowhound.com/topics/461603

if it's not cooking, what is it - hunting and gathering?

besides as some sage (ob food) once said: 'the proof of the pudding
is in the tablespoon of old bay.'

your pal,
blake

On Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:22:23 GMT, blake murphy >
wrote:

>On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:02:56 -0500, "Virginia Tadrzynski"
> wrote:
>>
>>the Dutchies in this neck of the woods wouldn't consider it a potluck
>>without the obligatory Pretzel Salad, which consists of crushed pretzels in
>>some form of red (must be red) jello. Usually topped with cool whip.
>>-ginny
>>
>
>yikes!
>
I've eaten pretzel salad. It's not as bad as it sounds, pretty tasty
in fact. I wouldn't make it myself though, but I'd certainly eat it
at a buffet.




--
See return address to reply by email
remove the smiley face first

Julia Altshuler wrote:

> Lime jell-o/marshmallow fluff salad? Somewhere on the "too processed"
> side of the continuum for me.


Not if you kill the cow to get the collagen to make the gelatin...

:-)


--
Best
Greg

Julia Altshuler wrote:

> That led to a discussion with Jim about how, for some people, opening
> packages of convenience foods and combining them is cooking. They might
> have grown up in cooking traditions that involved not very plentiful
> farm food, times when there wasn't much variety, when food in winter
> meant a lot of bacon and cabbage. For them, it wasn't a choice between
> fresh pineapple and canned in syrup, it was a choice between canned and
> never having tasted pineapple before. Jell-o, which strikes me as
> humorous, might have been the most excellent convenience food, a way of
> serving something elegant for friends. Making it today for a holiday
> potluck might be nostalgia and a best offering.

Beautifully put.

Serene