The Green Aluminum Salad Bowl

In the 1950s, aluminum became popular with housewives in the form of drinkware, serving dishes and cookware. In Watsonville and living on Green Valley Road, five miles outside of town, we were serviced by the milkman driving his milk truck twice a week.

Not only did the milkman sell regular milk, but he also had buttermilk, butter and sour cream.  But it was the cottage cheese that we young housewives sought. Oh, not for the cottage cheese itself, but for the tumbler it was packaged in.

Bright-colored aluminum ‘drinkware’ they were, magnificent greens, blues, orange and reds. So gorgeous to young housewives, that we began adding cottage cheese to everything imaginable, so that we would buy another one or two (if we could afford another 45 cents) that week from our food budget.

We scoured cookbooks for recipes that contained Jell-O and cottage cheese, and soon Jell-O with cottage cheese appeared nightly on our dinner tables. I had so many lunches with cottage cheese and pineapple, that after I had collected a set of four of those bright-colored aluminum tumblers I never ordered cottage cheese again.

But it was the green aluminum salad bowl that I coveted but couldn’t afford. When you purchased your first aluminum cottage cheese-filled tumbler, the milkman would give you a card with twelve numbers on it. And for each tumbler you purchased, he would punch the number out, and when all twelve numbers were punched, you were eligible to purchase, for $4.95, the green aluminum salad bowl. I had neither. But I did have salad bowl envy.

Our closest friends Mary and Harold lived down the road a piece, and in the ’50s on a Saturday or Sunday we would end up at one another’s houses for a cookout. Back then, nothing was really planned. Friends would simply ‘stop by.’ There was always enough food to ‘set another plate or two.’ Often our yards would be filled with kids of all ages playing together, and the adults would be sitting at picnic tables set under trees, drinking a glass of wine or beer, and Mary’s brother would bring out his guitar or banjo, and the fellows would begin singing songs, often from the old country.

After the sun had set on the yard, empty by then, Mary and I would sit and with two forks, finish the remaining salad from her green aluminum salad bowl. We would have a glass of sherry wine and often our talks would be about how much our friendship meant to each other. For 15 years, both of us shared so many confidences and tears over that aluminum bowl. And then life, as it usually does, took me in another direction.

For the next 40 years while living in Southern California our two families kept in touch, visiting each other whenever possible. Finally, hubby Norm and I moved to Ben Lomond, where we were able to reunite with Mary and Harold once again. By then, health issues had begun to take hold. Five years ago Mary left this world as we know it, followed by my hubby Norm, and last year, dear Harold joined them.

At Harold’s graveside service, his daughter Theresa reminded me of her mom and me drinking sherry wine while eating the leftover salad from that green aluminum salad bowl, which today sits on a shelf in Mary and Harold’s daughter’s home still on Green Valley Road.

Make sure water is boiling in all of the recipes below.

Simple Jell-O and Cottage Cheese (1940)

Make one 6 oz. package of any flavor of Jell-O according to directions on package. Cool and stir in one carton of Cottage Cheese. Chill and enjoy.

Raspberry Delight

Dorrie Sinnott

• Spray a gelatin mold or tube pan with PAM and set aside.
• Mix 2 cups of raspberries with ½ cup sugar and set aside.
• 10 oz. crushed pineapple
• 4 oz cream cheese
• ¼ cup whipping cream (whip and set aside)
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 6 oz. package of Raspberry Jell-O
• 2 cups mini marshmallows

Directions 

1. Mix Jell-O in 2 cups of boiling water and set aside to cool.
2. Heat crushed pineapple and juice and marshmallows and stir until melted. 
3. Add pineapple mixture to one-half (1/2) cup of the cooled Jell-O, whipping well.      
4. Mix together cream cheese and mayonnaise and add to pineapple mixture.
5. Pour mixture into the mold and chill.

In remaining 1 ½ cups of Jell-O add drained raspberries and pour over the chilled and set mixture in the mold and refrigerate until set.

Unmold onto decorative plate and serve. Really attractive.  

Pink Cloud (Pillsbury 1953)

Nancy Lambing’s Mom’s Recipe

• 3 six oz. cans of crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 large package (6 oz) Strawberry Jell-O
• ¾ cup boiling water
• 9 oz. Cool Whip, thawed

In a saucepan add crushed pineapple, boiling water and Jell-O. Stir over low heat until Jell-O is dissolved. Cool to room temperature, then fold in Cool Whip till blended. Pour into mold and refrigerate until set.

Heavenly Strawberry Cake

• Spray a 9-inch tube pan with Pam and set aside.
• 1 eight-inch Angel Food Loaf (Safeway) torn into 2 in. chunks and set aside.
• In a bowl mix together and set aside for 1 hour:
  • 2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries  thawed
  • ½ cup gran. sugar
• Mix well and set aside to cool:
  • 1 ¼ cups boiling water
  • 1 six oz. package Strawberry Jell-O
• Stir strawberries and juice into cooled Jell-O mixture
• In a chilled bowl whip 1 pint of whipping cream and fold into raspberry mixture.

Assembly

1. Pour 1/3 cup Jell-O mixture into tube pan.
2. Arrange 1/3 of cake pieces on top of mixture.
3. Add 1/3 of Jell-O mixture on top of cake continuing layering ending with Jell-O mixture. Chill covered at least four hours. Unmold and enjoy.

Colly Gruczelak, a Ben Lomond resident, loves people and loves to cook. Contact her at cz****@co*****.net .