‘Summer foods that did not come from a farm stand’
Some of you have read my Ode to Corn, and no doubt share my fondness for what can be enjoyed pretty much straight from the garden. (Or, in my case, the farm stand.) But there was a whole other category of deliciousness to be savored during summers where and when I grew up. And that was the food made by Great Aunts and dished out at Family Reunions.
My favorite of these was a dish called Glorified Rice. Here it is, in all its (sorry, I can’t help myself) glory:
I picked this photo because I have these dishes
Now, the Wikipedia entry for Glorified Rice is pretty hilarious, on a couple of levels. For one, the dish is described as a ‘dessert/salad’. For another, one of its sources was a website called lutheransonline.com, which I clicked (of course) and found is now defunct. Probably all the Lutherans grew up and moved to New York.
But more about these family reunions. They were always held in the summer, mainly so they could be outside. These were the days of Big Families, people. (No way these reunions would fit into a dining room or kitchen. Or a normal back yard, for that matter.) One of my earliest memories is of going to something called the P-A-L (Peterson/Anderson, and Lindstrom?) Reunion, held in Belvedere Park. (There was a swinging bridge that terrified me, but that’s another story.)
We kids ran around while the grownups sat at picnic tables and ‘caught up’. And we all consumed tons of the aforementioned Glorified Rice, served as a ‘salad’, natch. Plus loads of other ‘salads’ like thinly-sliced cukes in sour cream — not yogurt — and many varieties of Jello Salad. (Each Great Aunt had her specialty.)
Speaking of which, it was years till I realized that ‘salad’ could be anything other than jello with mysterious bits suspended in it. It was amazing how many variations there were on the jello-with-bits-salad theme: orange jello with shredded carrots and pineapple, red jello with fruit cocktail, green jello with celery and cottage cheese were classics, and all fairly tasty.
But sometimes a Great Aunt would go sort of jello-crazy and basically put whatever she had left over in the fridge into the ‘salad’. I was once served jello with onions and cabbage. Honest. And it was about as tasty as you’d imagine. I think this particular Great Aunt thought it would be okay since the jello was green.
(The photo at the top of this post features a passel of Henrys and one of the salad-producing Great Aunts. She’s in the back, wearing glasses and a hairnet. She was called ‘Aunt Net’, and I was a grownup before I realized this was actually short for ‘Annette’.)
But back to tasty memories. I can’t write an ode to non-farmstand summer foods without mentioning my favorite summer dessert: Jello Cake. One of the wonderful things about Jello Cake was that there was absolutely nothing natural about it. Everything in it was fake — and delicious. Basically, it consisted of your favorite cake mix, baked in a sheet pan, poked with a fork while still warm and drizzled with a complementary flavor of Jello (made with half the water). You put this in the fridge till the Jello firmed up. Then you served it slathered with Cool Whip instead of frosting. Don’t scoff. This was good. If you’re into recipes, I found it on the Kraft website (formerly General Foods; an amusing story about which can be found here, and enjoyed while you’re waiting for your Jello Cake to set.)
Sadly, Jello Cake was invented too late to have been served at those family reunions. (Or we wouldn’t have had room for all that Glorified Rice.) But it was a Summer Staple at my mom’s. My favorite version was the vanilla cake with orange Jello. It tasted kind of like a Creamsicle. No doubt that’s what we’re sampling in this classic summer kitchen shot:
Whatever we’re having, it’s mighty tasty. Note Scrabble board clutched in my non-finger-licking hand. Scrabble was our favorite indoor sport, summer or winter
Speaking of kitchens, I should get downstairs and putter around in mine. Or grab my zillionth cup of coffee. (That’s another thing about Lutherans: there was always coffee in the kitchen, no matter what time of day. True, you could see the bottom of the cup through this ‘coffee’. But still.)
Stay cool, and enjoy your week filled with summer goodness, whether it’s from the factory or the farm stand. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you my favorite farm stand story. I was waiting to buy some heirloom tomatoes at mine (remember when they were just called ‘tomatoes’?) when a woman ahead of me held up a bunch of bananas and asked ‘Are these local?’ I almost spilled my gooseberries.
Why we didn’t have a favorite farm stand: we had a favorite dad with a garden instead
Amagansett, New York. July 2015
Love personal stories like these and hearing about your relatives; and can’t imagine jello with cabbage! Yuck! Thanks for the post! –Paige Bainbridge (www.paigebainbridge.com)
So glad you enjoy my stories, dear Paige — because I’ve got a jillion of ’em! Thank you so much for visiting. I promise never ever to serve you jello salad with cabbage xoxo
I don’t think I’ve ever had jello. I’ve had jelly. I’m sure food takes much fresher and nicer from the farm stand. We used to grow veg then we realised the kids needed the garden so turned it over. We do get fresh veg of my dad though.
Good thing you have a fresh-veg-growing parent. I miss my Dad (and his veg) but I am lucky to be near a pretty darn-tootin’ good farm stand. Thanks for stopping by!
The kids picked potatoes yesterday morning and enjoyed it.. fresh veg does taste nicer.
I heard of jello salad for the first time on TV show The Middle! Love this.
Ah, yes. One of the advantages of living where you do is that you have to learn about jello salad from TV! Thank you for reading xoxo
And we then translate jello to jelly which is the US is a type of jam!! I blogged this before?
I’d like to see you eat some American “jelly” with raw cabbage in it (yuck!)
Sorry Alice. Just no. ?????
Does anyone have a recipe for Glorified Rice? I suppose it isn’t hard. I could make it up. This blog made me hungry for it.
Hey Ann! Thanks for reading. I just checked my blog post, and yes (!) there IS a recipe for Glorified Rice in there. (I was pretty sure I included it, but I wrote this piece a few summers ago so wanted to make sure). You just click on the words ‘Glorified Rice’ in this sentence in the piece: “My favorite of these was a dish called Glorified Rice.”
Love Scrabble. Hate Jello–can’t do the wiggly! But my fave summer salad is the one with peas and cheddar cheese, ranch dressing and bacon–basically a heart attack disguised as a salad. Well, better go get ready for our Labor Day Weekend guests. Enjoy your weekend! Great post!
Yum! I remember that crazy salad! Wish I could remember what the heck it was called (?) But your name is better than whatever it was they actually called it: ‘Heart Attack Disguised As A Salad’ it is! Have ‘fun’ with your weekend guests. They don’t call it ‘Labor’ Day for nothing xo
This sounds a lot like my family growing up, I too grew up in a Midwestern Lutheran family. So Lutheran in fact, that my grandfather helped build their church. He had to be called down from the steeple for his own wedding! The church didn’t even have electricity yet, so they were married by candle light.
There was ALWAYS coffee at my grandparents house, and all of my great aunts made crazy jello “salads’ as well.
Good memories here 🙂
Maybe we’re long-lost cousins, Cherie! So glad you enjoyed this — and could relate! The story about your grandfather building the church and getting married by candlelight? Wow. Maybe you should do a post on that? I’d read it, for sure!
I have that in my “idea book” as a possible post. I may need to dust it off and work on it a bit. Well, all I know is that I think I am related to everyone with the last name of Leatherman and that was a prolific breeding group of Lutherans that spread all through the Midwest, LOL
Cool! Yes, keep that one in your idea book, for sure. I can hardly wait to read it! As for me, I’m from a batch of Swedish Lutherans: Peterson, Carlson, Anderson. Like that. Rockford, Illinois phonebook FULL of Petersons.
Ah yes, I am from a branch of German Lutherans. Fun stuff!
I think you might like my Mom’s blancmange recipe – though it sounds gross written down.
You need a chocolate flan base and then fill this with lime flavoured jelly (jello?) made up with milk so that it’s opaque not clear.
It a lot nicer than it sounds.
You slay me, Ms. Plot! I’m thinking that blancmange certainly must taste better than it sounds (!) But hey, I’d give it a whirl. Just let me go find my flan pan…
It’s the whole lime and chocolate thing. If I remember right she used to grate lime zest on top and possibly piped cream round the edge. Very mid century ?
I actually really like the flavors of lime and chocolate — and I bet they actually would taste great together! Speaking of green and dark brown, remember Grasshopper Pie? My sister’s husband makes it every year as their special Christmas dessert!
I’ve heard of it, but I’m not sure I have tried it.
Goes off to remind herself on Google…
Ooooh, I used to love jello cake when I was a kid except my mum made little individual ones and covered them in coconut (and they were called something different which I’ve forgotten)!
Oh my! Those DO sound delish. If you remember what they were called, please share! (The name, not necessarily the Jello Cakes. I know that would be hard to do!)
Got to make some of that onion n cabbage jello salad for my wife’s next family reunion
Hilarious idea! Remind me not to go with (!)
I have heard of these recipes, Alice – kind of legends of their time. You don’t see these foods much anymore. I don’t miss the jello salads but that jello cake is still popular, I think.
Yes, those recipes were a fact of my growing-up life way back when. I honestly miss Glorified Rice, though I can’t imagine anyone making it now. The calories! The artery-clogging potential! But I certainly don’t miss those very creative gelled-leftovers jello ‘salads’. Oh — and yes, that jello cake still gets made. In fact, I made one last time my sister was here. Vanilla cake with raspberry jello. Only I used real whipped cream, not Cool-Whip. It tasted better, but wasn’t as memory-iffic, if you get my drift.
Alice, we used to eat peas and mayo as a side dish. I’m not sure anybody else did. We also eat chocolate wafer cake with whipped cream in between the wafers. That was good! The peas were too, come to think of it.
Oh my goodness! Peas and mayo sounds very good indeed. I think we may have had that chocolate wafer cake, it’s prompting a sensory memory. Did you also have molasses cookies? They were soft-ish and drizzled with white icing (if there was time before we kids grabbed them off the cookie sheet).
Nothing like family reunions to keep you humble.
Indeed! So true! Though I’d give my best Jello Salad recipe to go one this summer (!)