It's not Thanksgiving without that orange fluffy stuff - Orange Gelatin Salad

We all have a food we remember fondly from childhood. This is mine! My grandmother would always make this fluffy orange stuff, and we would always chow down on it.

But then, every once in a while, we would have a Thanksgiving dinner with somebody else's family. I would see the fluffy stuff and would get a whole bunch, only to find out it was all wrong, somebody shoved nuts in it, or hid marshmallows in it. Out of respect, I would eat it until it was all gone, but it would make me gag, and I'm sure that the look on my face was seen by whomever placed that ghastly salad on the table. Feelings were probably hurt, but gosh darnit...that is NOT the fluff you are supposed to make for Thanksgiving.

I'm sure that my rendition is slightly different than my grandmother's, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but this is how I have been making it for Thanksgiving since I started my own family.

You are going to need 2-15 oz cans of mandarin oranges (only, please, do not get Great Value, these tasted terrible this time, but they were in the salad and mixed in before I realized it), 1 box of orange gelatin (I choose the sugar-free so that it is not gritty in the salad), an 8 oz container of whipped topping (yup, the fake stuff from the freezer), and 1-16oz container of cottage cheese (whichever kind you prefer).

 

And it's as easy as that, you just plop it all in a bowl (drain the fruit first), and mix it up!

There you have some orange fluff (as I have always called it).

The cool thing about this recipe, you can change it up. You can use orange gelatin powder but put in pineapples, or a mix of pineapples, oranges, and bananas. You can use orange gelatin powder and use strawberries, or strawberries and bananas. Seriously, the combinations you can make with this are endless.

But please, whatever you do, do not hide marshmallows or strange nuts in there...

Now, I make this in the morning, as the turkey is just getting started, and I'll plop it in the fridge until the turkey is done and ready to be served. It seems to thicken up just a bit when it is refrigerated a while. I hope you enjoy!

'Til next time,

-Sue