A Favorite Recipe

A salad, she requested.  

Needs to feed fifteen.  

Have it at the church by noon.

Why did I volunteer to do this?

I really don't like making salads--

Preferring cut up fresh fruits and vegetables to mixtures with dressings.

Not wanting to drive to the grocery store for ingredients, 

I open the cupboard and ponder the ingredients.  

Let me see:

2 boxes of jello

     One is cherry, one is raspberry--sugar free.

     Fruit is good and most appreciate sugar free.

I mix them together, add two boiling cups of water and stir, stir, stir.  

Opening the refrigerator, I explore and find just what I need.

1/2 carton of frozen strawberries

1/2 jar of canned peaches

1 orange

While cutting up the peaches and peeling the orange, my mind flips back fifty years plus to my first 4-H demonstration--the peeling of oranges and grapefruits.  I add the pieces, along with the mushy strawberries to the jello liquid and still wonder why my good friend, Linda, laughed through the entire experience.

I examine my "salad."

Hmmm--not enough to feed fifteen.

Going back to the refrigerator, I pull out

1 apple and 2 carrots.

Feeling smart, I chop them to little bits with my Pampered Chef Food Chopper and stir them into the jello mixture.

. . . . . a little crunch in the jello should be good, and the apples and carrots provide additional color.  Somewhat meager.  However, enough to feed 15--especially those with meager appetites.  Those with bigger appetites don't usually eat jello, anyway.

 Do they?

I pull a tulip-shaped glass bowl from the cupboard, again feeling smart.

The small bottom will fill up and make the salad look larger than it really is.

Wanting to prevent red, sticky splashes on my counter top, I carry both bowls to the sink.  Tipping the tulip bowl toward the plastic mixing bowl, I transfer the liquid from the plastic bowl to the tulip bowl and watch in mild-horror as 1/4 of the mixture splashes into the sink and rushes to the drain. 

A mild expletive pops into my head, and, then, reconsidering, I decide this is a good time to not speak to myself.

I return to the cupboard and pull out

1 box of vanilla pudding (serves 4).

I mix the pudding and after the jello has solidified in the refrigerator, I frost the top with the pudding mixture knowing that four more servings have been added to my salad-- replacing the servings that disappeared down the drain and garbage disposal. 

Hmmmm... still looks just a bit skimpy.

Somewhat exasperated, I return to the refrigerator and search.

A Reddi-wip--"real cream"-- can grabs my attention. 

I shake it and squirt a decorator lump in the middle of the frosted jello salad.

Checking out the nutrition facts, I see that it has "about 37" servings per container.  

I smile.

Setting the Reddi-wip next to the jello bowl in the refrigerator, I'm ready to leave my salad at the church.  Hopefully, a time when no one else is there. 

Proverbs 17:22--A cheerful heart is good medicine . . .