Monthly Archives: April 2015

Recipes - Salads

Grandma’s Green Salad

At any large family gathering of ours that involves a hearty meal, someone is tasked with making what my sisters and I always referred to simply as “Grandma’s Green Salad”.  It is a green salad, yes, but prepared using gelatin in a ring mold and nary a vegetable in sight. There was no way I could cut into this salad today for a photograph so I am posting a photograph of it “as is”,  before chilling in the fridge overnight.  The salad is airy with whipped cream and small bits of crushed pineapple and cream cheese for delicate flavor.

This is a simple gelatin salad to prepare with 40-50 minutes of “down time” while the gelatin is setting up halfway in the fridge. Once that is ready, you need only whip your cream and fold it into the gelatin-pineapple-cream cheese mixture and allow it to rest, covered, in the fridge overnight.  I prefer this salad with some finely chopped pecans myself, but I omitted them today as the Carlyle branch of the family likes it best without nuts.

The cream cheese and crushed pineapple add sweetness to the lime gelatin used in the recipe.  To serve, turn out onto a plate  on a bed of lettuce leaves or serve from your ring mold.  This salad always brings back sweet memories for all of us, and I hope someday it will do so for your family; there really is nothing better than our old heartfelt favorites on the table!  Happy Easter, y’all!

Grandma’s Green Salad

Ingredients

1-(3 oz.) box lime gelatin
1 cup water
1 small can crushed pineapple with juice
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 pint whipping cream
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

Directions Dissolve the package of lime gelatin in the boiling water in small sauce pot. Pour small amount of this mixture in the bottom of a glass ring mold and place in fridge to set. Transfer the remainder of the gelatin mixture to a large bowl and add the crushed pineapple and cream cheese, breaking the cream cheese into small pieces with a fork. Place this mixture in fridge also until halfway set, whip the cream then add it to the gelatin mixture.  Add pecans, if using, and fold well to blend ingredients. Scrape this mixture over the set-up gelatin mixture in your ring mold, smoothing with a spatula. Cover and chill overnight.

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Recipes - Desserts

Buttermilk Pie

There didn’t seem any better day to bake a Buttermilk Pie than April 1st (and no April Fool’s indeed!).  A spanking new calendar page, spring daffodils already in bloom, and the sweet tang of buttermilk are a perfect way to greet this beautiful month!

This pie will remind you of a southern Chess Pie with the same creamy texture.  Today I used a heaping 3 T. of flour to be sure that there was enough flour to thicken the liquids in the batter.  The buttermilk is the most distinctive taste in this pie; just a hint of tartness with the sugar complementing the buttermilk tang.

You really must make your own crust for this pie; using a store-bought crust will not give you anywhere close to the results you will get rolling out a homemade crust, flaky but sturdy enough to provide texture to the creaminess of the pie.  As always, I used 4-5 T. of ice water for my crust and worked the shortening in quickly to the flour-salt mixture using just my fingers to cut the shortening in until the dough resembled small peas.

Once your crust is ready and in your pie plate, you need only to mix up the filling.  Sprinkle the top of the pie lightly with nutmeg, and dessert is in the oven in no time.  Hello April!

Ingredients

½ cup buttermilk
1-3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 T. flour
Pinch of salt
1 stick butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 unbaked 9” pastry shell

Directions: Preheat oven to 400°. Set pastry shell aside. In large mixing bowl combine all ingredients except the nutmeg and the pastry shell and stir well with a wooden spoon to blend then use a wire whisk to incorporate the liquid ingredients more thoroughly. Pour batter in the unbaked pie shell; sprinkle the top lightly with nutmeg. Bake 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350 and bake another 45 minutes until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted comes out dry. Cool well, allowing the filling to set well before cutting into wedges.

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