Nirvana in a bowl.

At a recent family/friend get-together, there was this dish.....a dish that I can only describe as incandescently delicious. If any of you are fans of fruit-type salads, y'know...a little jello, a little cool whip, etc, etc, then you MUST, MUST, ABSOLUTELY MUST! try this salad! It is so delicious to the taste!!!!

Let me go a little deeper and explain how I feel about fruit salad. About side dishes in general, really...I truly think that all that meat & main-dishy stuff is superfluous. It's all about the sides for me baby!!

Potato salad,

noodles,(these are yummy rice-stick noodles--all smokey & soy-saucy!)


macaroni salad,This happened to be "Amish"-style macaroni salad my friend Kellie made--a delicious first for me!

rolls, potatoes & gravy, STUFFING!,


big trays of fruit & cheese,
a well made green salad; Erin, you rock!(Nothin' like a tasty salad in a beautiful bowl! This one was even yummier than it looked--which is saying something!)


and of course, the fruit salad.

The sheer variety of what you can comPILE onto your plate is mind-numbing!

See what I mean....

This plate is pretty good...missing some noodles maybe....although I would still give it an "8" out of "10" because of the layering technique used.



Here's another....

Now this plate is near perfect! Notice the noodles nestled next to the macaroni salad. Very appropriate.....ditch the chicken for a nice, fat peanut butter finger, and you're there!

Anyway, back to the fruit salad! I have special feelings about fruit salads. I never met one I didn't like. And this one I LOVED!!!! Three times now I have made myself utterly sick eating this salad! (and I mean utterly sick in the best way possible.....)



I will be making it AGAIN this Fourth of July. I will double the batch because I could eat a whole batch myself. No lie. I suggest you do the same.

This recipe requires several hours to set up. It's best to make it the night before you want to serve it.

I call it:

Nirvana in a Bowl

1 small box COOK and SERVE vanilla Jello pudding mix
1 small box COOK and SERVE tapioca pudding mix (Jello brand)
1 small box whatever flavor fruit Jello you want
3 cups water
1-8 oz. Cool Whip-thawed
Fruit to match Jello flavor. Trust me, raspberry is BEST. Then orange.....

Empty the three boxes of Jello & pudding into a medium saucepan. Add three cups of water to the powder mixture. Stir and cook on medium high until the mixture begins to boil. Let boil about 1 minute. Remove from heat and place into large bowl to refrigerate. Let sit in fridge overnight. When you are ready to serve, take jello mixture and stir it to loosen it up. Stir it pretty good, but not TOO good. Then, fold in the 8 oz. Cool Whip and the fruit. How much fruit is a personal decision. I use 1 1/2-2 pints of raspberries to a double batch and it's perfect.

Seriously, people.....if you have any love at ALL for the fruitus saladus genus of food, you MUST make this ASAP. And then pass this recipe along. And don't forget who gave you the recipe that changed your life.