Recipes from the Kansas City Star

For many years we subscribed to the Kansas City Star and Times; yes, two papers each day.  The Times was discontinued in 1990.  After all, we had been getting most of the important news events on television by then.  We didn't realize it, but all newspapers were going to start going the way of the dinosaurs.  I would read many portions of the Star religiously:  Ann Landers, Abigail Van Buren, Charles Gusewelle's column twice weekly, and the once-a-week Thursday recipe page.  I still have some of those recipes that I clipped out of the paper and glued onto recipe cards.  

My grandson's favorite dessert is Oreo Delight; I probably had that recipe for at least ten years before I ever tried it, but one Easter I finally made it.  My oldest grandson, Arick, was four years old at the time.   We had eaten dinner that day, but some of the guests were eating desserts when I went outside to the barn for some reason (I had cows and calves to tend back then).  I came back and walked in the door, and my smiling grandson, sitting on the floor with a dish in one hand and a spoon in the other, looked at me wide-eyed and said, "Gramma, I LIKE this berzert!" (His way of saying dessert.)

.  I've been making it ever since, although it's far from my favorite... gobs of Cool Whip, Oreo cookie crumbs, instant chocolate pudding... that isn't cooking!  There's also some cream cheese, and enough butter to hold the oreo crumbs together on the bottom of the pan.  But  I promise you that wherever I take it, it is the first dessert to disappear.  

As I was looking through my old yellowed recipe cards this week, I saw a recipe from the Star that I remembered making once, and only once.  Kathy, my then daughter-in-law, was staying at our house with her children when our son was in the Army.  The recipe was for Waldorf Salad, and the reason I saved it was that it didn't have mayonnaise in it.  

You see, when I was a child in Iowa and we had dinners at church, someone would always bring Waldorf salad.  I made the mistake of thinking it was a fruit-and-whipped-cream dessert and would put some on my plate.  Then I'd taste the mayonnaise and wished I could spit it out.  Back then I  had no love for mayo or Miracle Whip or mustard or ketchup; besides, who mixes mayo in with whipped cream?  So when I saw this recipe in the paper years ago, I couldn't wait to try it.  I made it one time only for some holiday dinner, and it was exactly what I thought... DELICIOUS!  The daughter-in-law liked it so much, she begged me to make it several times while she was with us, but I never did... that is, until Wednesday of this week.  I should tell you that I do like mayo and Miracle Whip in their proper places now, but I still don't want it mixed up  with whipped cream! 

I knew when I made the fruit salad that nobody but Kathy and I would probably eat any of it, with all the  other stuff around; but I wanted to find out if she even remembered it.  Yes, my former daughter-in-law spends holiday meals with us, she and Andy.  After all, her two children are always with us at holidays.  As it happens, though, she was under the weather, so she and Andy didn't come.  But the grandson tried it later, and said, "Who made this?  It's really good!"

So another good berzert is discovered.  And being in his thirties now, Arick knows how to pronounce the word dessert.