Linda’s Ambrosia Salad

One of my mother’s favorite salads to make for special dinner guests, church potlucks, wedding reception potlucks and family gathering potlucks, was a jello and coolwhip ambrosia salad. The salad consisted of these famous ingredients:

1 Pkg Strawberry jello

1 Can Mixed fruit cocktail

1 Tub Coolwhip, room temp

A handful of walnuts

She would prepare the jello according to the “box” instructions, and refrigerate it just until it set. Meaning, it held together when you jiggled the bowl, but it wasn’t stiff enough to stand up a spoon. Once the jello reached this point, she stirred in the fruit cocktail, folded in the coolwhip and after smoothing the top, she broke a handful of walnuts over the top as a decoration. The ambrosia was returned to the fridge until fully set.

The beautiful thing about this salad is that when you put a spoonful in your mouth and squished it between your tongue and the roof of your mouth, you could feel the little bubbles bursting like a thick foam. You’d get an occasional piece of fruit, like a cube of mushy pear, or an annoying little maraschino cherry half, and then you’d get a nice creamy bit of pure coolwhip. I loved it, so where does “trouble” come into the picture?

Well, during my high school years, I was forever on-the-go, and lived on a little food and drank Tab all day. Remember the very early version of diet cola? Then on occasion, I would sneak into the kitchen and consume whatever was in my path, usually while everyone was asleep. So, one night the only thing I could find was this frozen tub of coolwhip, and I sat on the counter and proceeded to eat the entire tub and hid the empty container at the bottom of the garbage can. How was I to know my mom had plans for that coolwhip?

The next day as we’re all coming home from school, she rounds the 5 of us up with this wild eyed look and demands to know what happened to the coolwhip??!! We’re all standing in the kitchen (I happen to be the oldest at home), and I’m looking at my younger siblings like - Which one of you did it??? Of course they had no clue, and I wasn’t about to own up to it with this crazy, mad woman running around the house ranting about her coolwhip. I think the scene ended badly with some or all of us getting grounded or something, but I NEVER owned up to the missing coolwhip! My siblings were all accusing each other, and vehemently denying any knowledge of it, while I innocently walked away leaving them to their fighting and dirty looks. I don’t think they ever suspected me!

So, in honor of my mother who’s up there belly-laughing, and her need to mix non-dairy topping with jiggly fruit-jello, I’ve come up with an alternative that even she would like today:

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Linda’s Greek Yogurt Parfait

1 Pint f fat Fage Greek Yogurt

2 Tbsp honey

½ Cup blackberry preserves

1 Cup mixed fresh berries

½ Cup chocolate granola (bare naked is good)

Stir yogurt until smooth.

Add honey, stir, and pour into shallow bowl.

Stir blackberry preserves with a little warm water to thin it out, and gently fold into the yogurt.

Sprinkle fresh berries.

Top with granola.