Sharing recipes at the holiday table

If you are taking a dish to a potluck today you better bring copies of the recipe. Invariably, someone will ask you how you made it and beg for the recipe. So be prepared to share.

In my family, the most requested recipe is Pineapple-Carrot Salad. It is a delicious concoction of orange gelatin and sour cream laced with canned pineapple and shredded carrots. It is a cool, refreshing side dish that complements traditional holiday meats.

When my daughter JJ was young, it was her job to make the salad. She hated grating the carrot and losing skin from her knuckles in the process. Her father bought her a Salad Shooter and she had the job done in minutes. Elise inherited the job when JJ left home. Now that both are grown, they have taken the recipes to California and Oklahoma where it is also a big hit. In-laws have even served it at a teacher luncheon in Kansas.

The recipe is similar to the one my mother-in-law used to make with lime gelatin and cottage cheese in the ‘60s when molded gelatin was all the rage.

The recipe for Pineapple-Carrot Salad follows if you would like to try it. You can cut down the fat content by using fat-free sour cream and use sugar-free gelatin if you prefer.

Pineapple-Carrot Salad

1 large package orange gelatin

2 cups boiling water

1 cup sour cream

1 can (13 ½ ounces) crushed pineapple

2 cups carrots, grated

½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Gradually add gelatin mixture to sour cream until well blended. Chill until mixture begins to set. Stir in pineapple, grated carrots and chopped nuts. Pour into lightly oiled 2-quart mold and chill about 4 hours.

Serves 10-12.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can’t mess it up. If you forget about the gelatin and sour cream and it sets firm, just grab a fork and mush it up a bit before adding the other ingredients. The juice from the pineapple will soften it up a bit and it will reset. Go ahead and add a little extra pineapple if the can is bigger than what the recipe calls for. It won’t hurt it. I don’t bother with the mold. I pour the gelatin mixture into a white oval casserole dish and bring it to the table that way. Do something different and turn it into your family recipe.

Whatever you serve and with whomever you share your table with, may you have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Nora N. Garza is a County Extension Agent with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Hidalgo County, a part of the Texas A&M System.