A few weeks ago I came across a recipe for something called “Christmas Bell Salad.” The process entailed cooking canned pears in melted cinnamon candy until the pears were red and cinnamon-flavored, and then serving the pears with dyed-green cream-cheese piped at the top to make the pear look like a bell.
I don’t usually get a lot of kicks mocking mid-century food, but I was amused and intrigued. People often send me recipes that sound weird, gross or ill-advised, but this blog has expanded my ideas about food so much that I am rarely fazed. What is it about “Christmas Bell Salad” that got to me?
I guess it just goes to show you that there’s always room for growth. I don’t get my baking chocolate or nuts from the baking aisle, so why would it be weird to use candy for its red coloring and cinnamon flavoring? A little imitation cinnamon goes a long way, after all. I certainly don’t have a bottle on hand.
More recently I found a similar concept in the 1948 “Favorite Recipes” cookbook compiled by the Naomi Circle of the Woman’s Society of Christian Service at the Marvin Memorial Methodist Church in Silver Spring. “Kris Kringle Salad” features apples cooked in a cinnamon candy syrup and served with avocado on lettuce. No dyed cream cheese is involved. I thought this sounded a little more interesting and appealing.
Continue reading “Kris Kringle Salad, Juanita B. Michael”