Green Stuff

I am a member of a large family.  I love my family and I love our get togethers.  Holidays are usually the excuse for the get togethers.  Over thirty people cramming into a small space with smiles plastered all over their joyful faces.  The chit chat and catching up conversations all leading up to the climax: the meal.  Most get togethers are potluck.  Everyone is assigned a dish they will contribute to the overall meal.  We make them at home and then set them out on a large table we will later graze over for hours.  With a table full of turkey, ham, freshly baked breads, salads of all sorts, deviled eggs and olives, to name a few, there are so many choices that we can fill our plates with and come back to again and again. 

But only one dish designates my family from other families as our traditional dish.  The one dish that we all want, we all crave and we all know must be on the table at every gathering or overall disappointment will abound.  The “Green Stuff”.  It’s a simple dish to make.  One packet of Lime Jello-O, one container of cottage cheese, one container of Cool-Whip, some canned fruit and bananas.  That’s it.  Nothing really special about it.  Only that if it’s not on the table, many people will complain and someone will offer to make a trip to the grocery store all in hopes of restoring order to the now disappointed crowd.

I’m not sure where the tradition of the green stuff began.  I know that every single family dinner since I was a child has been accompanied by green stuff.  It’s the first dish to be emptied.  The one that everyone wants.  My mother’s family craves the deviled eggs and they are the first to go.  I have noticed this at other family’s dinner too.  Deviled eggs are cherished and people will go to great lengths to count how many each person has eaten to make sure the playing field is fair.  But in my Dad’s family, the green stuff bowl is enormous and there is always enough for everyone.  It’s our family’s crack.  The must have.  If it’s not on the table, Santa won’t come, the fireworks can’t be lit and the turkey will be ravaged by the next door neighbor’s dogs. 

It is so prized that it has to be made correctly. Making the green stuff incorrectly and you face scorn.  For years it was a dish that only my Grandma, Clara, would make.  She made it perfectly time and time again.  It was set up to the correct consistency each and every time.  About ten years ago, I thought I would be helpful and offer to make it.  This was my first go around with it and I wanted it to be perfect.  I spoke to my Grandma about it and was ready to go.  As I stood in the grocery store in front of all the Jello-O flavors, it hit me.  I was going to make it my own.  It was the Fourth of July and what better than to be patriotic and make it blue?  Only I didn’t realize that making it blue meant changing the flavor to blue raspberry instead of lime.  The key ingredient.  Proud as I was of my patriotic blue stuff, it was almost immediately scorned.  I was asked over and over again why it was blue.  Where was the green stuff?  My bowl was returned to me still half full.  I would never again make that mistake.  Green stuff is green and if you want to be in the good graces of your family, keep it real and keep it green.

Over the years I have made green stuff for friends.  It’s not the hit that it is with my family.  Maybe it’s an acquired taste.  Maybe it’s because Palmblad children are fed green stuff before they can even eat solid foods.  Green stuff is Palmblad and without it, we wouldn’t be Palmblads, we would just be a bunch of people gathering around a table.