Grandma Clark's Salad

Grandma Clark's Salad

1 bar (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 can (20oz) crushed pineapple (NOT drained)
1 box (6oz) jello (or two 3oz boxes so you can mix/match flavors)
1 jar maraschino cherries, drained, each cherry cut in half
1 cup diced celery
1 cup walnuts (shelled) [optional]
1 carton (8oz or part of a 16oz) Cool Whip (thawed)

In a medium sauce pan, bring pineapple with juice to full boil, stirring often.

Remove from heat, add jello, stir until dissolved.

Add softened cream cheese, stir until as smooth as you want it to be (
I do not mind a few chunks of cream cheese, it adds character).

Allow to cool (I usually dice the celery and cut the cherries into
halves while cooling).

Stir cherries, celery, and nuts (optional) into mixture.

Cool to room temperature.

Fold in cool whip until just mixed.  (If the mixture is hot, the cool
whip will melt, and the texture will be ruined.  Ditto for
over-stirring after the cool whip is mixed in.)

Spread into 9 x 13 cake pan.

Cover and refrigerate.

Notes:

Grandma Clark made two versions.  One was made with lime jello and red
maraschino cherries.  The other was made with red (e.g., strawberry)
jello and green (mint) cherries.  I always preferred the red
maraschino cherries, so I always made that version, but with varying
flavors of jello.

Maraschino cherries around here come in two sizes of jars, small and
medium.  I use the larger jar, but you can eyeball how many cherries
you want in your salad.  I think more is better.

I do not actually measure the celery, I just dice celery and stir it
in until it looks right to me.

Grandma Clark always used walnuts, I do not usually add nuts.  If you
do use nuts, be extra careful to not include any shell fragments.  No
one wants to bite down on a shell.

You could vary the type of nuts used.  For example, pecans would give
it a different taste and texture.

You can vary the amount of Cool Whip to vary the texture.  Less Cool
Whip gives you a denser salad.  More Cool Whip gives you more of a
"chiffon" salad.