Cherry Fluff Salad

This cold sweet side dish looks like something my grandmother would make. It reminds me of an ambrosia-type dish my mother-in-law used to make. It is an old fashion cold-sweet-"salad". This one doesn't have any marshmallows...I really don't like marshmallows in salads...they get all mushy and yucky. But it does have coconut. Coconut is "iffy" for some people, but I think it makes it taste tropical and that reminds me of sunshine, and sunshine reminds me of spring...and I'm looking forward to spring!

If I had known I was going to write a food blog years ago I would have saved the names of the sources for all my recipes. But I didn't...So to whoever, or wherever I got this recipe, I'm sorry I haven't given you credit. Truthfully, I should make it clear on this blog ~ none of these recipes were invented by me. I like to "test-drive" other people's recipes and see what my taste-testers think. Sometimes I adapt recipes to suit my family's taste, but I can safely say I've never thought up a recipe all on my own.

This recipe has been a holiday favorite for my family. I won't try to fool you into thinking everyone likes it. It has coconut in it ~ that leaves out about a third of my taste testers. And I have a large contingent that prefers 7-layer jello as the cold sweet salad for our holiday gatherings. But the family members who like this side dish like it a lot!

Cherry Fluff Salad is a great side dish for a holiday meal. So often I have quite a few complex dishes to make for a holiday dinner. This dish is so easy to make, it's wonderful to have a recipe I can put together in just a few minutes!

I'll show you how it's done.

There are five main ingredients:
one can cherry pie filling
one can crushed pineapple in it's own juice
one can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
 8 ounces of Cool Whip

I also use some Maraschino cherries as garnish.

 I put the canned pie filling, pineapple, and sweetened condensed milk in a large bowl and stirred them until they were fully combined.

 I forgot to take a picture of it, but I stirred in the coconut. Then I gently folded in the Cool Whip.

 I put the fluff in a pretty bowl and garnish it with the Maraschino cherries ~ the kids used to fight over who got the cherry, so I started adding extra cherries so everyone could get one!

And that's it! See, I told you it was easy!! It really is nice to have at least one menu item that doesn't take an hour to peel, saute, boil or bake.

Does your family have a favorite holiday side dish? Is it an easy one, or a labor-intensive-labor-of-love?