Strawberry Salad / Dessert

Here is an ideal recipe for holiday or everyday meals – it is easy to make, looks great and is very tasty. While the red and white color of the dish make make this a festive looking dish, it can actually be served any time of year. In my family gelatin dishes usually contain fruit and cottage cheese, yogurt or sour cream, and are always served as a salad dish. So we serve this as a salad with the meal. While there are a few exceptions, we generally do not consider things to be a dessert unless it contains chocolate. However, this is our personal taste and, if you want, you can also serve this as a light dessert.

Ingredients:

2 Three ounce or 1 six ounce package of strawberry gelatin desert mix (Jell-O or other brand)

1 Cup of boiling water

2 Ten ounce packages of sliced frozen strawberries (or one 24 oz package if ten ounce packages are not available in your area) thawed

1 20-ounce (or 1 pound, 4 ounce) can of CRUSHED pineapple

3 medium bananas, mashed

1 pint (or similar size container if not sold by liquid weight)* of sour cream, low fat or regular (NOTE: sour cream is a cultured cream and is NOT sour. It is similar to yogurt and plain yogurt could be substituted for the sour cream if you so desire).

OPTIONAL – 1 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts

Combine the strawberry gelatin and boiling water. Stir until the gelatin is fully dissolved. Then fold in the strawberries with their juice, the drained pineapple (do NOT include the pineapple juice as it will make the gelatin too watery and it won't set), bananas and nuts.

Put HALF of the mixture in a 12" x 8" x 2" glass or plastic storage pan. Can also place it in one or more decorative Jell-O molds. Place pan or jell mold in the refrigerator until it is firm (about an hour and a half – don't freeze it). Leave the remainder in bowl at room temperature and don't let it set and become firm.

When the mixture in the pan is firm, remove from the refrigerator and spread the sour cream over the firm gelatin. Spoon the remaining gelatin mixture in the bowl over the sour cream and return the pan to the refrigerator for it to set firmly.

Serve when ready and enjoy.

* NOTE – For a review of liquid measures click here.