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You might be a Minnesotan if you put Cool Whip in your salad. About 30 years ago, my cousin introduced our family to Snickers salad. Unashamedly, it has been a holiday staple ever since. We make it with Cool Whip, diced Snickers, and red and green apples. It is so simple and so good.
When I was living in Colorado, I became friends with a woman who was the wife of an Air Force officer. She invited me to the Easter dinner that she was hosting for several other veterans, service members, and their families. None of us were from Colorado, so the host asked everyone to bring a dish that represented our home states.
I brought two salads; cranberry wild rice salad and Snickers salad. When I got there, I put my salads at the end of the table with the other salads. Not long after, I saw my friend pick up my Snickers salad and put it over on the dessert table.
I informed her that Snickers salad is not a dessert, but a salad, and that we put it on our plates along with the main meal. With a look of shock on her face, she said she would just put it in the refrigerator until we were ready to eat. That salad never made its way back out to the table, but I decided not to mention it.
The next day she called me and apologized for forgetting to put it back on the table. I am still not convinced that she truly forgot, but either way, she is forgiven. Not everyone had the privilege of growing up with the gastronomical excellence of a Cool Whip salad.
I make a few different versions, including potica salad. Potica is another holiday staple in our family. I originally came up with this recipe when I wanted to repurpose some leftover potica. I also had a big bag of Honeycrisp apples on hand and the idea just came to me.
For Easter, we usually serve ham. Since a lot of people enjoy topping their walnut potica with a slice of ham and eating it like an open-faced sandwich, I thought it would be fun to incorporate the flavors of potica into the ham itself.
The potica in both photos was purchased from Jerelyn Montgomery of Babbitt. If you would like to order some locally made potica for Easter, give Jerelyn a call at (218) 290-2677.
