Watergate Salad

[JoeFLIPS]

Has anyone ever had this classic dessert before? So good! I haven't had this in a long time, think I'll whip some up.

Recipe: Original Watergate Salad


Ingredients
1 large (1 pound 4 ounce) can of crushed pineapple, in 100% pineapple juice, drained - reserve the juice
2 small packages of instant pistachio pudding mix
1 large (16 ounce) tub of non-dairy topping (like Cool Whip), thawed
2 cups of miniature marshmallows
1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts, optional


Drain the pineapple, but reserve the juice!! Stir together half of the pineapple juice with the pudding mix until well blended. Gently fold in the Cool Whip and carefully stir in the pineapple, marshmallows, and pecans. Add additional juice only if needed - you want this to be moist but not runny. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour or preferably overnight. Scoop into individual clear goblets and garnish with shredded sweet coconut, chopped nuts and/or Maraschino cherries, if desired.

Cook's Notes: Yes, lower sugar and lower fat puddings and Cool Whip work fine!

Pineapple Fluff: Prepare as above, except exchange vanilla pudding for the pistachio.

Orange Fluff: Prepare as above, except exchange vanilla pudding for the pistachio, tidbits for the crushed pineapple, drained and add in mandarin oranges, drained. Measure the juices and substitute orange juice in place of the drained juices to dissolve the pudding as above; add 1 teaspoon of orange extract (optional). Nuts may be used or omitted.

Other Variations: Add 3 to 4 bananas, sliced, well drained fruit cocktail or Maraschino cherries and/or mix in cottage cheese with the whipped topping.

[JCMaxwell]

Thanks for the memory.   Mom used to make this, I had forgotten it. 

[redhat]

I still make this when I have friends over for dinner.  Very midwest, we used to call this green fluff, or green stuff.

+-RH

[JoeFLIPS]

I made a big bowl of green fluff yesterday afternoon redhat. Very good! 

[Pigmeat]

I remember when my Grandpa died back in the late 70's. One of the local church ladies brought a large Tupperware container full of the stuff to the house, left it on the dining room table, then went out to the front porch to socialize with the crowd. One of my great-Uncle's who'd been out back of the house having a fortifying drink or four before meeting the masses, wanders in to the dining room and bellows out at the top of his lungs, "What in the f*** is this green stuff?!? It looks like something dog threw up!"

It was a nice day and all the windows were open. The church lady never spoke to any of us again.