Foodie Friday: 1980s "Diet" Jell-O Salad

If you are a child of the seventies or eighties, you remember holiday meals always including at least one Jell-O salad. As a child, I was not a fan of Jell-O. The wiggly, jiggly, fruit-flavored rubber did not appeal to me. You might remember when "Finger Jell-O" was all the rage. It was colorful rubber that one could hold with one's hands and eat. For several years, every school, birthday, Halloween, and Christmas party I attended had "Finger Jell-O" on the menu. Although I am not a fan of Jell-O or Finger Jell-O, I love a good Jell-O salad.

My grandmother used to make a Jell-O salad that was an odd beige color and included maraschino cherries and walnuts. Often, large white lumps would be incorporated into the beige creamy mixture. I have yet to find this recipe anywhere, but as a child, I would eat several servings of this gelatinous concoction, and I loved it. I also remember a delicious green Jell-O salad that included nuts, pineapple, and marshmallows. Oh, to go back to those days. Sigh.

If you were a child of the seventies and eighties, you probably remember the diet fads that were all the rage. My mom, whom I never considered overweight, would attend weekly TOPS meetings held at Tanoma Hall. Ladies would gather, get weighed, discuss, I'm not sure what, and then usually have a snack. Honestly, I think it was more of a social thing than a serious diet program. However, I remember my mom often walking and making a diet Jell-O salad. When I look at this recipe now, it makes me giggle because it is sweet and filled with cottage cheese, orange Jell-O, and Cool Whip. Today, we avoid sugar, fat, processed food, and dairy when trying to lose weight.

Sometimes, one just craves food from their childhood. There are days that nothing hits the spot quite like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Wonder Bread. For Eric, it's fried bologna and Velveeta slices on white bread. I also crave peas and tuna over toast. I hated this meal as a child, but it is pure nostalgia today. Right now, I am craving my mom's "diet" Jell-O orange salad. Honestly, it is more dessert than diet food, but it's light, fresh, and reminds me of simpler times when things were good. This week's meals have been basic or make-it-yourself. The slightest bending or stretching is excessively unpleasant with my back being out. I have no pictures to share or comfort food to tell you about. However, I dug into my trusty Tinkerbell folder and found my mom's recipe for diet Jell-O salad, which I will share today.

1980s "Diet" Jell-O Salad

Ingredients:

-1 Can of Crushed Pineapple, Well Drained

-1 Container of Cottage Cheese

1 Small Box of Orange Jell-O

1 Container of Cool Whip

In a large bowl, mix the first three ingredients. Gently fold in the Cool Whip until well blended. Chill for at least four hours. Serve and enjoy.

It's pure nostalgia and doesn't get any easier, dear reader. This is going to be on the dessert menu tonight. My three favorite girls will be here hanging out: Jordan, Jenna, and Raylee. Although The Bean will not eat it, Jenna and Ray are pretty good about not being picky. I enjoy sharing recipes from my childhood with my favorite young people. This will put a smile on my face.

On this lovely, spring-like day, stay safe, be smart, eat the food that reminds you of your childhood, share those memories with those you care for, and keep washing your hands.

An Ounce of Prevention

This week has been “pedicure week” for the girls. We have thirty-two goats, who all have four feet. That’s a lot of feet to trim. My bib overall-wearing buddy did the pedicures over the course of two days. The Bibbed Wonder sits on a five-gallon bucket while the girls eat grain, and he trims their hooves. After hours of sitting in a hunched-over position, he is getting around almost as well as me. Farming is not for the weak.

This time of year is brutal on the goats’ feet. With consistent rainfall for the past several weeks and the melting snow, the ground is saturated, making it difficult for their feet to dry out. Although the barn is warm and dry, the girls don’t want to spend these rare sunny days inside. When their feet don’t have an opportunity to dry out properly, they develop hoof rot. Hoof rot is the bane of our existence. We have difficulty keeping hoof rot at bay during the spring and wet seasons. Hoof rot is a bacterial infection that can lead to lameness and even death if left untreated. Not only is it painful, but it is also highly contagious. Hoof rot is the devil.

The Bibbed Wonder takes preventive measures to fight hoof rot and its spread. He pours a heavy coating of lime on the barn floor near the big doors. The goats must walk through the lime to go outside. The lime helps to battle the hoof rot. Also, when he trims their feet, he has a solution that he squirts in between their toes and makes a copper sulfate poultice that he packs between them. This, too, is preventative if they have not developed hoof rot, and it treats them if they do have the beginning of an infection.

With thirty-two goats to maintain and keep track of, The Bibbed Wonder uses a color-coded marking system to decipher each goat’s needs. If they are healthy, they get a green stripe on their back using a harmless chalk-based marker. If they need hoof care, they get a pink stripe. It is the easiest way to keep track of everyone and give them the optimum care. If a goat has a pink stripe, their feet are checked and treated daily until the infection is cleared.

Treating them requires them to be brought into a stall individually each day, sometimes twice a day, to have their hooves cleaned, dried, and treated with medicine and a copper sulfate poultice. If the infection is deemed worse than the mere beginning of an infection, the goat is kept in a dry stall so as not to spread the disease. Again, hoof rot is the devil. We rarely have to keep a goat stalled because of hoof rot. Eric is an excellent farmer who prioritizes the girls’ care.

Keeping the girls safe and healthy is a top priority. One cannot slack or be lazy about hoof care, especially when the ground doesn’t have time to dry out properly. Most of the girls are very cooperative about having their feet cared for. However, at least one always puts up a fight and isn’t comfortable with having their feet lifted, cleaned, and trimmed. It is usually the young goats who are difficult and uncooperative. Fortunately, The Bibbed Wonder is the epitome of patience. He is always gentle and talks quietly to them. When he feels like he has reached the end of his patience, he walks away, takes a break, and returns to business once he feels rejuvenated. Most girls are happy to have unlimited grain in front of them and stand quietly. We really do have a lovely herd of girls.

Checking for healthy feet adds hours to the morning chores. As I sit writing to you, he is out in the pasture, checking everyone once again and bringing in the girls who show signs of infection. There is so much more to farming than just feeding and milking. However, as long as The Bibbed Wonder continues to enjoy this lifestyle, we will continue to do what we do best: care for our girls, give them the best life possible, and make great products.

On this lovely spring-like day, stay safe, be smart, remember an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and keep washing your hands.

I Am The Captain Of This Ship

Each morning, I awaken at 4:30-5:00. My morning routine is to turn on the coffee pot, let the dogs out, and then watch the news until it is time to rouse The Bean to get ready for the day. As I sat watching the news this morning, I thought to myself, why do I subject myself to this negativity first thing in the morning? Seriously, today’s headlines consisted of a couple who abused and starved their six-year-old daughter, a Chihuahua that was abandoned in the freezing cold, two shootings, a stabbing, a deadly crash, chaos on Capital Hill, the sentencing of a mother for her lack of responsibility for her son’s mental health that resulted in a school shooting where four young people lost their lives, and weather emergencies across the country. When I write that and look at it, it is exhausting. That dear reader, is what I put into my head first thing in the morning, every morning. No wonder people feel overwhelmed, pessimistic, hopeless, grumpy, and sour.

This led me to question why we do not have a choice regarding what news we receive. If one chooses to channel surf the news, one finds the same stories on each and every channel. Why is there not a “good news” channel? Why isn’t there a channel that only reports the good things happening worldwide? Wouldn’t it be lovely to begin one’s day with positivity? I would love to sit and watch news that makes me feel good and give me hope for humanity rather than sit and marinate in all that is wrong with the world while I drink my morning coffee. Indeed, there must be more people out there than just me who feel this way.

I would love to have a channel I could turn to at any given time and be flooded with all the good happening around us. I would be thoroughly invested in stories about people positively impacting their communities. Tell me stories about businesses working to improve their communities and help others. Tell me about politicians who are making a difference in a good way. Tell me about parents who are going above and beyond to make this world better for their children. Give me tales of people who are saving animals and spreading kindness. Give me stories about good samaritans, groups doing positive activities, and budding industries working to help the environment.

Perhaps we should try to sensationalize the good stories around us so they are more interesting than all the negative stories that are headline grabbers. Good news can be interesting, too. Actually, good news could be more entertaining and headline-worthy than bad news. I can think of a lot of good people I would much rather watch and listen to than serial killers, drug lords, cult leaders, and crime bosses. As I sit thinking about this, the news reflects our society. We are desensitized to the bad because we are constantly bombarded by it via the media. When one becomes desensitized, one continues to look for the thrill factor. What gives us a thrill as a society is outlandish, insane, divisive behavior. The media groom us to focus on the negative and the worst of the worst to win the ratings war. Sigh. People are exhausting.

Perhaps Hallmark should start a news channel where the only endings to the stories are good endings. The weather report will only include the positive outcome of snow, rain, flooding, and sunshine. Sunshine-megaton will show us how the sun impacts the flora in our area. That would be a nice change to Snow-megaton, where ten people froze to death. Rather than report all the crime and destruction happening in our communities, the focus will be on rebuilding and beautifying the community. The main headline could be how politicians work together to stop the next crisis rather than focus on idiots that make our country appear to be ruled by circus clowns. Tell us stories about animal rescues doing well and right by innocent creatures. Tell us stories about doctors, nurses, teachers, coaches, case workers, and business owners who are passionate about what they do and how they change lives. Give us stories about all the fantastic things our young people are doing to improve their schools, communities, and the world. Tell us stories about athletes who are doing great things off the field. There is a lot of good in this world if we just look for it.

The problem, dear reader, is we fail to look for it. Hearing a story about a ghastly, gruesome crime is more sensational. It pulls at our heartstrings to see a tiny dog abandoned in the cold, cowering in a corner. More people will tune in if the report is on the absolute worst of the worst. It’s a problem that is much bigger than you or me. It stems from greed…which, in my humble opinion, is the root of all that is bad. It’s about ratings wars, money, and power. Perhaps if we all tuned out and deflated the media moguls, things would change. I don’t have any answers. The only thing I have control over is my reaction. Once again, I am going on a news hiatus. I choose not to react, tune out, and not be part of what irritates me. It’s all I can do. I simply prefer not to participate. After all, I am the captain of this ship.

On this lovely, sunny, unseasonably warm February day, stay safe, be smart, fill your head with positive information, take control of what goes into your thoughts, and keep washing your hands.