Grandmother Bessie's Fruit Salad

Grandmother Bessie was a wonderful cook!  One of her many chores was cooking for the field hands.  Field hands were the hired laborers to help with hay season, cutting tobacco, gathering corn, etc.  Doing hard physical labor the field hands had a voracious appetite!  The field hands looked forward to dinner (in the South, dinner is the main meal of the day usually eaten around noon time).  Because she was cooking for men "who had worked up at appetite," Grandmother Bessie cooked in large portions, super size large portions. 

Grandmother Bessie's Fruit Salad was a favorite dish among the field hands, neighbors, and her family.  This dish was shared at family get togethers, church socials,  and to ailing neighbors.  This recipe is an old recipe and women in the South have been preparing this delicious salad for many, many years.  In Grandmother Bessie's lifetime, I suspect she made a few gallons of this salad.

Grandmother Bessie's Fruit Salad

1  large can pineapple chunks drained
3 medium apples diced
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup cream or less (whipped)

Sauce
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil or butter
1 tablespoon vinegar

Combine all the sauce ingredients except the vinegar in a sauce pan.  Let this mixture thicken over medium heat.  Watch closely as the mixture will easily scorch.  Let cool and add the vinegar and a dash of salt.

Pout the sauce over the fruit mixture and stir well, making sure the fruit mixture is covered and coated (fruit mixture will turn dark if not completely covered and coated).

Auntie M and Uncle Stu have invited AppleJack and me to share the Easter meal with them next Sunday. Auntie M asked if I would bring a salad to share.  Sharing Grandmother Bessie's fruit salad seems like the perfect dish to share with family and remember the many meals lovingly prepared by Grandmother Bessie.