My family has exactly one tried and true Minnesotan in it; that would be my husband. He is also the only real midwestern in the family. Since the rest of us are really transplants from the South.
Proportionally I have been here the longest of my family since I was a small child the fall of 1999 when we first came this far north. However, I am still a transplant as can be seen in my high heat tolerance and how I pronounce many words.
My husband on the other hand is born and raised Minnesotan. So you can imagine our shock when we found out that he, the man who loves hotdish, had never the other tried and true Minnesota food staple. Jello salad.
Now I have seen Jello salad’s of all kinds on a pot luck table over the course of my life. Even when we would go visit family back south you would see the pink or green modeled one– you know the one with the marshmallows that was popular with the elderly who had been adults in the 1950s- on the table. Never as many as here in Minnesota, but they would be there.
I can remember whole tables of just Jello salad being out when I was little. And somehow growing up in the same state my husband had never had a Jello salad. Until my mom made one for church when she knew he’d be there.
Now like the rest of us Minnesotans he has had a Jello salad. It was one of the classic mandarin orange ones. Which he did like, mostly because he likes orange Jello and mandarin oranges. However, he did tell me afterwards that he would not count it as a salad.
