F is for Fruit Salad

and Freddy Fox I’ve Got the Chicken Pox

I’m just going to say it.

You might get tired of me before you’re not.

That’s right…when I promised to be back with a vengeance, I didn’t lie.

So, in case you have forgotten...

We have a looooottttttt of catching up to do and by a loooootttttt, I mean a looooootttttt.

(I’m probably driving spell check slap crazy.)

You may or may not remember that when we last spoke (well, actually, I speak and you have to listen), I had promised that we would cook our way through the alphabet.

I resumed that plan with yesterday’s post with the letter “E” and boy, was it a good one!

So, in honor of the “F” day of cooking through the alphabet, we are going to lean on a recipe from one of the greatest cooks I have ever known, my late mother-in-law, Elsie Justice, aka Grammy.

What a beauty our Grammy was…inside and out!

Boy, could she cook…and she passed that gift right on down to both her kids, because both Sherry and Scott are great cooks.

And now her grandson, my son, thinks he’s Bobby Flay!

And her granddaughter, my niece, Laura, has turned into Ina Garten…without the home in the Hamptons, of course.

We are just a family of culinary geniuses.

The thing about Grammy, though, was her ability to take any ole ingredients in her fridge or pantry and turn them into a gourmet meal.

Think Chopped before there was a Chopped.

Wait.

Did we invent something and we didn’t know it?

Then there were her specialties like dumplings, baked corn, chicken and dressing and waffles.

I have already shared her waffle recipe with you and I love making them because they make me think about her.

Oh, and her fruit salad…I love her fruit salad, and so does anyone else that eats it.

Which is why I am sharing it with you, because number one, and most importantly, you just dump everything in a bowl.

And number two, you just dump everything in a bowl.

You can open cans out there in blog world, right?

If so, this recipe is for you!

My mom makes fruit salad with Cool Whip, kind of like a fluff, but Grammy’s version is totally fruit.

And speaking of fruit, did you know I wrote a book about getting the chicken pox featuring Freddy Fox?

I realize that the two have absolutely no correlation, but it’s all I could think of to connect Freddy Fox and Mrs. Elsie’s fruit salad.

Wait.

They both start with “F.”

I actually wrote Freddy as a way to remember when me and my two younger sisters got the chicken pox, all at the same time.

It seemed like there were millions of pox, everywhere, everywhere, and boy were we miserable.

But, in true Bitsy (my grandmother) fashion, she helped my mom nurse us all back to health.

Speaking of good health, today’s recipe is somewhat healthy being that it’s a fruit dish.

Right?

Well, except for the bananas these are fruits from a can, but it’s fruit nonetheless.

So, what do we need for this mouthwatering salad that can be served as a side dish or a dessert?

Or maybe you can be like my husband who just enjoys a good bowl of fruit while he’s watching American Idol.

But more often than not, he enjoys a Blue Bell Moo Bar.

It stinks being married to a skinny person.

But that’s not what this column is about…it’s about Grammy’s fruit salad.

And Freddy Fox.

So, here’s what you need: peach pie filling, mandarin oranges, pineapple tidbits, frozen sliced strawberries, and bananas.

That’s only 5 ingredients…so no, you didn’t read it wrong.

First, start with a can of peach pie filling.

Next, drain your mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits and add to the bowl.

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Of course, you have already thawed your frozen strawberries, so add those juice and all, to the mixture.

Finally, right before you get ready to serve it, slice your bananas and mix well.

As my culinary mentor and cooking inspiration Ina Garten says, “How easy is that?”