Larry was a friend of Miss Cindy’s. He gave me the name for the Blind Pig and The Acorn and he gave me the recipe for this fruit salad.
It’s basically a recipe for Ambrosia, a recipe many folks associate with Christmas, but it’s the perfect dessert for hot summer days.
Larry’s Fruit Salad
- 2 cans pineapple chunks
- 1 can mandarin oranges
- 1 pint sour cream
- 1/4 bag sweetened shredded coconut
- 1/3 to 1/2 bag miniature marshmallows
- optional – 1 cup of nuts
Drain fruit.
Mix fruit and all other ingredients together and let chill overnight or as long as you can wait to taste it!
Tipper
His has been our family recipe since as long as I can remember! 50+ years! Super yummy! We always double it for holidays!
We call it Ambrosia in the south. Our Dad always called anything that looked like that “fluff” – like “orange fluff” or “green fluff” whatever color it was, so I often think of it the same. Our Aunt Marge makes the best “green fluff” i.e. Pistachio Ambrosia I’ve ever tasted. I’ve asked for the recipe repeatedly, but haven’t managed to get it yet. Maybe one day.
When I make mine, I use Cool Whip or vanilla yogurt instead of sour cream, and I toast the shredded coconut before adding it. That almost makes it taste like you toasted the marshmallows which is a special yummy treat.
Have a great week ya’all, be safe and blessed.
God bless.
RB
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This is a late post – but tell Ed to try green grapes. My mother always added green grapes (or red) to her ambrosia and usually pecans as well.
Hi Tipper and all, I use to make a recipe similar to that you posted… A twist I put on it over the years to “make it my own” is that I use diced mangoes, apple, pineapple, segmented orange slices, and cilantro…all mixed with some lime juice and to kick it up a bit…red pepper flakes… I have some in the fridge right now…!! Mmmmm!!!
I have an unnatural aversion to certain yellow fruits and vegetables. Pineapple is one of them. I can eat them (they don’t make me sick) but I don’t enjoy them, I’ve tried. I guess I’m just a freak! When I looked at the first picture I thought it looked like something I might like but the second told me different. I have been trying all day to think of a substitute for pineapple.
Thank you for another wonderful recipe, it looks so good! Congratulations to Wesley!
Pam
scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com
This is very similar to my recipe for ambrosia! You’re right! It’s super in summer (as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas!). And “Blind Pig and the Acorn” was a perfectly fitting name for this wonderful blog!
Tipper,
Larry might have given you the name Blind Pig and the Acorn, but you have taken care and nurtured this blog wisely. I don’t know of anyone who gets up as early, puts your whole heart into it for a daily e-mail reading, and has so many that enjoys reading about Appalachia.
Larry’s Fruit Salad really hits the spot. I never thought about the mandarin oranges to help make up this salad, but I use everything else, and it’s very good…Ken
Forgot to mention….the recipe we (family) use has never been found in a book…it is a family recipe handed down by mothers and grandmothers in my husbands family…amounts of fruit combinations vary from aunt to aunt and cousin to cousin, also the type and amount of brandy added….but always served cold….
It is definitely a “southern thang”! ha
Thanks…
Tipper,
Congratulations to Wesley….I love this fruit salad recipe, mine is the same or at least very similar..
However,
my Ambrosia is very different…Ambrosia is considered both food and drink. Sometimes in writings combined as nectar and food of the gods according to Homeric poems. It is known as the color of ichor….golden! It was also was used as a fragrance of the immortals…I think I talked of Ambrosia that our family made before….
Mine is made days before so the flavors of the fruit come together with the bit of peach brandy, (3 T. to a gallon of chopped fruits and their liquids….(no bananas)… in an intoxicating sweet flavor that Is served alone with cake or over a slice of Million Dollar pound cake….Love the stuff at Christmas….
Thanks Tipper,
PS…We are still in drought…praying for predicted rain today…Garden is suffering, wilting and cucumbers are curling due to lack of water…we can water much….we never have run out of water, but do conserve our well water…watering after dark as much as we can so it cools the soil as well and doesn’t evaporate as much.
One of the ladies in our club brings Ambrosia to the meetings every month. She is 80 something years old and said she has made it for her Christmas dinner for as long as she can remember. It tastes just as good in July as it does in December.
Congrats to Wesley! I read a quote this morning that might apply to Wesley and this book. “Read the best books first, as you might not have time to read them all.”
Hooray! Than you very much! I am Very much looking forward to reading the book! What a great way to begin the week! Thanks, again for a terrific blog on a very worthwhile topic!
The Appalachian history is core to our true American spirit and values.
This is certainly the weather for that recipe. Add a sprinkling of lime and/or lemon zest or some shreds of fresh mint to make it a little more of a taste sensation. It would be a good recipe for July 4th on Monday. Add in some lemonade and cole slaw and it would be a summer picnic.
We actually had a few minutes of gentle rain this morning just at daylight. So nice to listen to it. It has been so long since we had any. Very tough times here for plants.
We called that fruit salad “five cup salad” and it was yummy. Congrats to Wesley!
Your right, Tipper, that’s a very good salad. Larry was a good cook, he made wonderful spaghetti sauce too. He was also a good idea man. I remember when he made a list of possible names for your blog. He put a lot of thought into generating that list and all his ideas were good and very different from mine and I consider myself a good idea person. LOL!
I really love this ‘salad’, I always think of it as a dessert. Probably why I like it so much. And yes, we have it at
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. And a few other times as the whim hits us.
Congratulations to Wesley!
I can’t believe I’ve never tried making ambrosia. Never saw it til I was an adult, and now I occasionally have it as a treat from a salad bar. Adding the ingredients to my shopping list today – thanks Tipper!