Black and green olives in Jello?

(THUD)

Maybe in a nice tomato aspic?

Alrighty then... I seem to recall reading some really odd recipes like that in an old jello book. But Black AND Green Olives with Cherries just seem to be pushing the limit!

I found the below link.. thought it was funny...

Here is a link that might be useful: Jello

Is this better with or without shredded coconut?

Jim

I recognize that strange combination. My husband's mother used to make a Jello salad that had green olives & canned Bing cherries in it. I thought it was the weirdest combo in the world. But apparently it's pretty popular in his home state of Iowa. I've since seen recipes for it over the years in various church/charity cookbooks that his mom has sent me.

I found this recipe online that also includes the cream cheese you mentioned. All the recipes I've seen just called for cherry Jello, sliced green olives, canned Bing cherries, with chopped celery and/or nuts being optional.

DOUBLE DECK CHERRY SALAD

1 (Number 2 Size) can sliced pineapple
3 ounce package cherry Jello
3 ounces cream cheese
2 or 3 tablespoons cream or top milk
2½ cups Bing cherries, pitted, reserve juice
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 ounce package orange Jello
½ cup sliced stuffed olives

Add water to pineapple juice to make 1¾ cup liquid. Heat and dissolve cherry Jello in pineapple juice. Chill till partially set. Add pineapple slices cut in 1/8 inch pieces. Pour into an oiled 8 inch square pan. Chill until firm. Soften cheese with cream and spread over gelatin and chill. Drain cherries. Add lemon juice and water to juice to make 1¾ cups liquid. Heat and dissolve orange Jello in hot lemon juice liquid. Chill partially and add cherries and olives. Spread over cheese and chill until firm.

(Mrs. H. F. Cordes, Arlington, Iowa)

It's such a regional thing, but I cannot even get my mind around the idea that jello can be used in a salad. Yes, I've eaten some jello "salads" that were minorly savory, but to me, jello = dessert. An aspic can be a salad, tho.

So what parts of the country use jello in salads, besides Iowa? I grew up in Memphis and have lived in California all my adult life, and have never considered jello as salad, only a dessert.

It's the sweet and salty thing that works, I suppose.

Oh yea.....the mention of Jello almost makes me gag. Being from Iowa, growing up we had many a Jello salad.
Orange Jello with shredded carrots, pineapple, celery
Lemon Jello with the same ingredients
Orange Jello with mandarin oranges
Lime Jello with pineapple

I could look through the many church cookbooks that we have and find all kinds of Jello salad recipes and also Jello desert recipes.

But not the one that ourguys is looking for, that would have way to much ingredients for the dutch people in our town!

The city of Des Moines is the biggest user of Jell-o int he country.
I've lived here for a little over 50 years and been served a lot of jiggley "salads" and never EVER even seen one with olives and bing cherries!!
The whole mid-west is into jello salads....but Where I live is the center of it all!
When I first started with the funeral lunch thing at church, the woman who had done it previously gave me a list of What size jello salad would serve how many people...and who to call to make jello salads.....and I vowed that I would not serve any jello salad at any funeral lunch I did!
I think Jello salads were invented in the late 30's...when green lettuce was not always available in the winter. But it's really big in the mid-west!
There are a lot of awful ones out there..."perfection salad" comes to mind....which I think was lemon jello and chopped cabbage...and maybe some vinegar in the jello...
And then cherry jello and applesauce, and green jello and pear halves....and another with green jello and cottage cheese and cucumber.
But I think the worst I have had recently was when my son in law smashed his ankle....and I stayed with the kids through several surgerys and friends brought in food....it was frozen strawberries, strawberry jello, cool whip and crumbled up pretzels....and after sitting for a few hours the pretzels start to get soggy....
EWWWW!!
Linda C

Oh Linda....I remember all those salads.
Went to moms for lunch. She gave us these plastic Jello cups from the store (felt like a child again). It had strawberry jello on with berries on the top and some fake cream cheese thing on he bottom. I about gagged again, but used my grown-up manners. A few minutes later after poking around in this plastic cup, she said to me, "You dont like that do you?" Said it's Ok. She said Jello has healing to it!

Oh yuck! Is that why thy served it at funerals?

They serve it at funerals because it's easy and cheap and doesn't go limp when you prepare it and plate it ahead of time.....
That Rehersal dinner I did at the church for the couple with 5 kids and not much else but good intentions was a Jello salad meal....red jello and apple sauce and maybe something else....don't know I didn't taste it!!
But they loved it....several went back for more!!
Oh and they serve it a lot at school lunchs! Seems like mostly orange jello and canned fruit cocktail.
EWWWW!

caliloo! too funny! are you off the floor yet?
We didnt have desserts very often when I was a kid. We would get excited to see jello in the fridge. But often couldn't believe that it was for dinner and had shredded carrots or something worse in it! Who could ever do that to a dessert? It was ruined! And no matter what my Mom said I could taste the vegetables. I grew up in AZ but my Mom was from MD by way of Charleston SC and then Lynchburg VA. I guess they do funny things to jello down south too.

I just looked in a Charlotte, NC Charity League cookbook from 1955 and didn't see a recipe for olive/cherry/cream cheese/jello salad, but there were FOUR variations of recipes for the lime jello/cucumber/vinegar/mayo or sour cream jello salad that Lindac mentioned! And a few other strange ones.

Jello...Yuck. I remember all those creative Jello salads that the relatives would bring to family gatherings. Contained everything from cream cheese to fruit cocktail to pistachios to celery....
Hated them then, hate them now.

After four colonoscopies and colon surgery where I practically had to live on Jello and broth I never want to lay eyes on anything made with Jello again! LOL

But the thought of olives and cherries together with Jello just makes me wanna hurl! Sorry.

Linda

Is the original poster still with us?

The last time I had Jello, it was made with Vodka. I may have had a Jello salad as a child, but I thought it was a passing fad, sometime around the early 60s or so. I can only imagine someone making it once and then never again. I do like tomato aspic, however. A fruit salad with Jello would be okay also, but again, I've only had it as a child.

Midwestern cuisine is pretty foreign to me, particularly the Amish in Indiana, although my sister likes it.

Lars

When I was a kid, Jell-O decided to market their own veggie flavored varieties. As my mother, a great cook if opening cans counts as cooking, loved anything new, she tried these. They were so bad the dog wouldn't eat them.

I don't mind tomato aspic, and once in a while, I'll make Jell-o as an ironic snack, but in general, I'll pass.

Note below the discontinued flavors, including pickle. PICKLE!

Here is a link that might be useful: Wiki Jell-O

Yes, I'm still with you! Doesn't sound very appetizing to most of you, but did taste good. I'll try to see if the gals at the church can get it for me, and if I can, I'll post it.

Beth

Well, I'm glad Beth isn't offended by the editorials!

I have fond memories of some jello concoctions (A child of the 50's, I grew up in Indiana and Ohio). I remember perfection salad, but never asked my mother for the recipe. I could, however, eat the banana slices suspended in strawberry jello with cool whip at this point in my life and probably enjoy it.

I "vaguely" remember a Thanksgiving dinner back in the 70's with a bunch of other stray college chums and a mystical mold of jello that got us giggling like crazy - but then, maybe it was the brownies????

seagrass

Talked with the gal who made that salad today. It's a family recipe, and does indeed contain green, black olives, cream cheese cubes, cherry pie filling, in cherry jello. Very tasty, even tho it sounds odd!