Day 27: Fall Fruit Salad

Today's post in the series sounds innocent enough, doesn't it? Well, think again!

I grew up on fruit salad that was a mixture of fresh fruit like bananas, apples, and oranges mixed with canned fruit like peaches, pears, and fruit cocktail. No whipped topping or sugar or anything else added. Just naked fruit marinating in their own juices. But then, as an adult, I realized that I'm pretty alone in what I deem "fruit salad!" Most fruit salads I run into at pot lucks have a whipped cream-base dressing of some kind to the point that it's hard to see the fruit. Sometimes there are even marshmallows and other things added. See, that seems strange to me. Sure, they taste good, but the fruit doesn't really shine.

Now, in comes this 1944 version of fruit salad from The Alice Bradley Menu-Cook-Book: 

Apples and pears - great combo, but it's the Grape Cream Dressing that comes as a surprise! They liked to make a lot of dressings using mayo during this time period, but adding cream and grape jelly?? It's hard to imagine what this would even taste like. I wonder what the grape jelly does to the flavor of the apples and pears. Hmm!! I guess I'd have to try it.

I wanted to add in this second, bonus recipe for Persimmon Pudding from the same cookbook. I grew up in Indiana where strange fruits like pawpaws and persimmons grow wild. Oddly, I've never had either of them, which is really sad if you ask me. Persimmons are a fall fruit, so it fits in well with today's post. I think this pudding sounds really nice. I saw some persimmons at the store, so I'm going to have to give this one a try too!


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