Ambrosia Salad

Occasionally I’ll be reading a cookbook and see a recipe for Ambrosia Salad.  “This is not your grandma’s Ambrosia Salad!” it will proclaim, and then it will include such high class, nutritious, tasteful ingredients as leafy greens no one had ever heard of before the 1980s, fancy cheeses, exotic oils, and strange fruits.

WTF?

Sorry, folks, there’s only one ambrosia salad worth having.  If it doesn’t have mini marshmallows, why bother?  This recipe is based on one that my mother told me.  Crushed pineapple, mandarin oranges, sweetened coconut, mini marshmallows, all mixed with lemon yogurt.  Since lemon yogurt is nearly impossible to find, I use plain yogurt with a little bit of lemon jello powder.  Then you let it all sit in the fridge overnight so the marshmallows melt a little and it becomes a thick, goopy, jello-esque salad.

The result is a sickeningly sweet treat that is just perfect for Christmas morning.  And God bless us, every one.

Ambrosia Salad, based on one my mom told me how to make.

 

snickerdoodles

Another 3 dozen cookies for my cookie swap… this recipe made 3 dozen+2.  And, another pseudo-family recipe.

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Beat butter and sugar, add eggs.  Add the dry ingredients.  Chill for 20 minutes.  Roll into balls the size of a walnut, and then roll in a cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Flatten a bit with the bottom of a glass.  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

thumbprint cookies

I made these for a cookie swap I’m going to tonight.  The recipe was small: I needed to bring 3 dozen cookies, and I tripled the recipe and only had 8 extras.  But they are so, so good.

It’s an old family recipe* which I’m happy to provide here.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• ground walnuts
• raspberry jam

Mix the butter, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla in an electric mixer until yellow and fluffy.  Add the flour.  Refrigerate the dough for at least 1/2 an hour.  Roll into balls, dip in the egg white, then in the nuts, then put on the cookie sheet and poke a hole in the center.  Put in a spoonful of raspberry jam.  Bake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees.

*Okay, it’s from some 1970’s Better Homes and Gardens or someplace like that.  But it’s become an old family recipe since then.