Cottage Cheese Salad

I don’t know what Sunday dinners were like with your family, but in my caker household, they were pretty special. My mom would put away her casserole dish, slip on an apron, boil herself a cup of Nescafé and spend the afternoon actually making a meal.

It took us awhile to understand the concept of passing different dishes around the table. Sometimes, my sisters would cry and complain that it hurt their arms. I guess that explains why caker forearms are so underdeveloped.

Usually, our Sunday meal included coleslaw (we were a creamy kind family), roast beef (sprinkled with Lipton onion soup mix), mashed padaydas (which had about as much flavour as air), canned corn and store-bought white dinner buns. Usually, there was a salad because my mom was concerned about our vitamin intake. This Orange Cottage Cheese Salad was pretty popular with us. (Hello?!? It has Cool Whip.)

There’s something about the soft, squishy bits of cottage cheese, artfully blended with the Cool Whip, that really does it for me. And talk about colour! Why, the only thing as pastel-pretty as this salad is its green sister, Watergate Salad. Never make me choose between them.

1 pound cottage cheese (see note)

1 package (3 ounces) orange JELL-O

14-ounce tin of pineapple chunks

10-ounce tin of mandarin oranges

1 tub Cool Whip

Sprinkle JELL-O over cottage cheese and stir. Drain pineapple and mandarin. Add to cottage cheese mixture. Fold in Cool Whip. Chill and serve.

Note: I just bought a big tub.

Hey! I smell turkey pies! That can only mean one thing – bazaar season is upon us. Join me for Bazaar-o-Rama starting this Friday. I travel around to bazaars throughout the month and post all the crap treasures I find. Needless to say, it’s pretty exciting.

Source: Favourite Recipes from Skudesnes Lutheran, 75th Anniversary, Saskatchewan, 1981