Throw Back Thursday Salad/Dessert Recipes

Those of you who are on Facebook know that Thursdays are TBT -throw back Thursdays -where folks post pictures from the past. Today I was looking through a church cookbook and came across a couple of recipes that are also in the "throw back" category! They were quite popular "in their day" and still taste good! You might enjoy a recipe throw back! ( And, yes, I am aware that some of my readers are young enough that they've never heard of these recipes! )

The first one could be served as a dessert or a salad. Many years ago, salads were loaded with fruit and mayonnaise, cream cheese and/or Cool Whip.  They were heavy and sweet and by today's standards are better suited as dessert. I remember eating pineapple salads that consisted of a piece of lettuce on a plate topped with a slice of canned pineapple topped with a dollop of mayonnaise and a sprinkle of shredded cheese. One local restaurant where we occasionally ate Sunday dinner served the same salad but tinted the mayonnaise so that it was a gosh awful color between pink and purple! Those were the days!!

Dump Salad or Dessert
1 (20-oz.) can cherry pie filling
1 (20-oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 (10-oz.) carton Cool Whip
1 cup chopped pecans

Dump everything in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Cover and chill for 4 or 5 hours.

Confession: I could eat this stuff with a spoon!

Here is the famous pretzel crust strawberry salad/dessert. If you ever went to Rock Eagle 4-H Camp in Georgia, you've eaten this salad! I used to call it the lunchroom ladies' special because they were the only ones who could make it. Someone gave me a cookbook compiled by lunchroom ladies and it contains some great recipes. Here is the recipe, see if you can make it as good as theirs!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad
2 cups crushed pretzels
1/4 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 (8-oz) container Cool Whip
1 small pkg strawberry Jello
2 cups boiling water
2 (10-oz) pkgs frozen strawberries, thawed

Combine pretzels, sugar and butter. Press into a 9x13-inch baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and Cool Whip. Pour over crust and refrigerate.
Dissolve Jello in boiling water. Add thawed strawberries. Refrigerate mixture until consistency of egg whites, slightly congealed. Pour over cream cheese layer. Chill until set ( several hours or overnight).

Tip: You can make this without the strawberries.