HELOISE: Whip up Heloise’s Grape Salad

Dear Readers: While doing some research in the Heloise Central files, we came across my mother’s (the original Heloise, 1919-1977) grape salad recipe. It was first printed Nov. 12, 1961! This is a family recipe that I remember my mother making.

To make Heloise’s Grape Salad, you will need:

1 small package black-cherry gelatin

1 cup hot water

1 cup grape juice

1 cup grated cabbage, grated carrots and diced celery, mixed — a total of 1 cup, not 1 cup each

Take any pint fruit jar and fill it half-full with hot water. Pour one package of gelatin in the jar and stir until dissolved. Then fill the jar nearly full with grape juice, stir and let partly set. Mix in 1 cup of vegetables.

The salad may be topped with sliced olives and pecans, or mayonnaise and a cherry. Serve on a lettuce leaf.

All you need for dessert is a dab of whipped cream on top, and it’s ready.

Heloise

Dear Heloise: Three kitchen hints that I send are these:

Alphabetize herbs and spices, and store them on revolving, double-shelved storage units.

Put a rubber band around the claw of spring-loaded tongs so that they do not tangle with other items in the kitchen drawer.

Store your plastic cutting board in the dishwasher so that it will always be sanitized, and mark one side to be used only for meat.

Barbara in California

Dear Heloise: Years ago, when my siblings and I were young, our mother made sloppy Joes by browning hamburger and chopped onion. Once done, she’d pour off the excess grease and then add a can of vegetable soup. This was her sneaky way of getting us to eat our veggies, and it worked.

To this day, I still make mine this way, and I’m in my 60s! Maybe other parents can sneak veggies to their kids the same way. Some sloppy Joes can be kind of spicy, and this isn’t.

Linda from Mesquite, Texas

Dear Heloise: This is one of my favorite hints. I buy hamburger meat in 5-pound rolls, and I cook it all, chop it up, divide it into smaller portions and freeze it. Do you know how many dinners you can make out of loose hamburger meat? Lots.

I make bigger bags for sloppy Joes and smaller ones for taco dinners or “helper”-type suppers. As a working mom, this has saved me many a night, and best of all, I only get my stove messy one time.

A Reader, via e-mail

Dear Heloise: I pulverize small red cinnamon candies in a food processor. I store it in a shaker-top spice jar with a tight-fitting lid. It is really tasty on bread and toast, but it’s fantastic on baked apples or sweet potatoes!

Molly Kennedy, Springfield, Ill.

King Features Syndicate