Bubbly Perfection Salad and Grasshopper Pie

This salad is what we used to eat at Christmas dinner in our house in Fargo, ND.  It has a smattering of fresh green veggies and little red bits, and because you can set the jello in a wreath-shaped mold, it looks seasonal and festive.  I know for a fact that this is what Santa Claus ate every year at our house.  I don't know why it was called "Perfection" salad.  Maybe because Santa would eat it.  He and many Midwesterners of our acquaintance eschewed fresh green vegetable salads, dismissing them as "grass." 

Here goes:

1 box lime, orange, lemon, or pineapple gelatin (size?  I'd say the 3 ounce.)
1 small can pineapple tidbits, drained (save the juice, see below)
1 carrot, peeled & shredded
1 T minced onion
1/2 cup finely shredded cabbage
1 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup chopped pimiento stuffed olives
1 cup hot pineapple juice (can add hot water to make 1 cup)
1 cup COLD 7Up (or water, if you don't like the idea of soda)

In a big bowl, combine hot juice with gelatin until dissolved.  Cool, then add about 1/2-1 cup COLD 7Up and stir.  Chill until almost set.  Fold in the veggies and pineapple tidbits.  Pour into the mold or a glass bowl and chill until firm.

Grasshopper Pie

                                     

 This is not to be confused with the real grasshopper concoctions available at Jose Andres's fancy Mexican restaurant, Oyamel, here in DC.  This is my Aunt Mary's favorite (my mom's, too) that is
cobbled together with crushed Hydrox cookies and 1/4 cup melted butter (mixed together and packed into a buttered 9" pie tin for the crust), and a filling of 1/4 c. green Creme de Menthe, stirred into 1 pint jar of marshmallow creme (or 23 marshmallows, melted), and 2 cups of whipped heavy cream, folded into the green mixture.  Freeze for several hours or until firm.  Remove from freezer a few minutes before serving.  Aunt Mary did love her Grasshopper pies, and she lived to be 95!! 

Bonne Appetit!, as they say on the Food Network, or bonne chance!  as we say around here.

Bonne Noel!!