Blueberry Jell-O Salad

One of the first recipes I found for this blog was from a web site called Mom's Best Recipes. Shirley has almost 1400 recipes on her blog - from soup to nuts, as the old saying goes.

She has nicely allowed me to post one of her recipes (click on the name of her site and it will take you to all of her blueberry recipes). This reminds me of a recipe from the Church Supper Cookbook. Homey comfort food.


Blueberry Jell-O Salad (by Shirley McNevich)

1 - 6oz. box black cherry Jell-O
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 - 16oz. can Dole crushed pineapple (drained)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 - 16oz. sour cream
1 - 8oz. Philadelphia cream cheese (softened)
1 cup chopped pecans (toasted)

Prepare Jell-O according to box directions. When Jell-O is cool to the touch, refrigerate about 90 minutes or until it starts to gel. Remove from refrigerator and add blueberries and drained crushed pineapple--stir to mix. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9" glass baking dish. Refrigerate overnight. The next day use a greased cookie sheet with a lip--spread chopped pecans evenly in a single layer on the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow them to cool--set aside. After pecans are cooled use a mixer--add white sugar, cream cheese--beat. Add sour cream--beat. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over the top of the cold Jell-O mixture in the baking dish. After pecans are cooled, sprinkle them over the top of the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve. Keep refrigerated.

Blueberry Jello Salad

The blueberries are blooming! I'll try & get out to take some pictures of them in the next day or so - they have very pretty little bell shaped flowers. Hopefully the bees are busy too - without bees, there would be no berries (or apples, or cherries etc. etc. etc.) Blueberry honey is very good - just a very faint fruity fragrance to it.

I found the following recipe in "The Church Supper Cookbook" It is a collection of over 375 great potluck recipes from families and churches across the country. It was originally published in 1980 as "The Yankee Church Supper Cookbook" and was edited by David Joachim. It has a lot of those recipes like Four Bean Salad that you can't find in cookbooks today (trust me, I have a LOT of cookbooks and one day I looked & looked for that recipe - finally found it in a homemade cookbook from the UU church in Bellingham - aptly named "The Garden of Eatin") - anyhow, there are a half dozen blueberry recipes in this cookbook, so I'll share some of them with you in the coming weeks. I haven't made this recipe, but it looks awfully good. (of course you have to remember I come from a little town in Eastern Washington and a Scandanavian background - no potluck was complete without at least 3 or 4 jello salads)

I would think that you could save out a little of the gelatin mixture and mix it in with the cream cheese mixture for a very lovely shade of lavendar. Wouldn't that be pretty?

BLUEBERRY SALAD Serves 8-10

2 ea (3 oz each) packages black raspberry gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 ea (20 oz) can crushed pineapple
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries
½ cup water

8 oz. package cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup chopped walnuts

Mix gelatin with a little bit of cold water for 3-5 minutes, then add boiling water and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Add pineapple (with juice) and fresh blueberries with the half cup of water. Pour into a 9” x 13” pan and chill until set. Beat together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla, and spread over the gelatin and fruit mixture. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Refrigerate until time to serve.

From “The Church Supper Cookbook” Edited by David Joachim copy write 1980
Marcia Fletcher, St Anne’s Episcopal Church, Calais, Maine