7-Up Salad

   The holidays are over, so it's finally time to get back in the kitchen.

   This time around I tackled the easiest dish yet - and one that took me back to my childhood.

    One of the dishes that my Grandmother Hill made often was a Jello salad, which she just called a 7-Up Salad. 

   I actually found two different recipes in the collection. This one:

    And this one:

   There are some minor differences between the two, but since I need all the help I can get, I went with the first one - it went into more detail.

   I couldn't find a large box of Lemon Jello at the store, so I picked up two small ones (narrowly avoiding the mistake of buying Lemon Jello Pudding).

   The directions are very simple - I boiled two cups of water and mixed it with the Jello, and set it aside to cool.

   My lovely wife Jeanette helped me dig out our electric mixer (turns out we did have one after all. Who knew?). The most challenging part of the recipe was whipping the cream cheese (I probably should have waited until it was room temperature), but the mixer made it a lot easier.

   I mixed in the Jello, added the sugar and vanilla (at this point I had to start using a whisk (at Jeanette's recommendation) because the mixer, even at the lowest setting, sent the mix flying.

   I added sugar and vanilla, then the crushed pineapple (adding the juice, too) and a cup of crushed pecans. (Why pecans? Why not?)

   The final ingredient was 1 3/4 cup of 7-Up (which made the whole mixture bubble delightfully as it was added).

   The last big decision was: what pan to put it in? Jeanette was urging me to use a smaller Tupperware dish, but I wanted to go Old School with a large pan (I remember it being thin when served, cut into neat little squares).

   The instructions suggest adding green food coloring (which I think my Grandmother did often), but I decided to go with the natural color. Also, I forgot to buy the food coloring.

   I covered it and put it in the refrigerator overnight, and here's how it looked the next morning:

    Interesting that the nuts "floated" to the top, even though they were mixed just as thoroughly as the rest of the ingredients.

   Here's a slice, which is about the size and consistency that I remembered:

   And the taste? It was wonderful!

   More than any of the recipes I've made so far, this one took me back immediately to that kitchen in Nitro - the lemon and pineapple and cream cheese make for a smooth, tasty treat.

   And the recipe is so simple, even I couldn't mess it up!