What kind of Snickers salad in Spain I have built up my own traditions

I saw it on a potluck in southern Spain: a bowl of Snickers salad. Holded candy bars looked through a sea of cool whip and vanilla pudding, with spots made of green apple wanted to come as a little salad adjazent.

I stopped in my tracks. My eyes widened. This unmistakable smell of mass market candy and vanilla pudding hit me like a wave. I was simply no longer at a Thanksgiving lunch with an American topic in Andalusia-I was again in a picnic protection in the neighborhood in North Iowa.

I hadn’t seen a Snickers salad for years, and somehow it was on a military base in Spain. And although I hadn’t expected to feel emotionally in relation to A Midwestern saladIt surprised me. This bowl reminded me of the traditions with which I grew up – and I realized that I didn’t miss it until that moment.

Iowa has been at home for over 20 years, even if I haven’t lived there for some time. As a military spouse, I moved into five US states and lived overseas in Japan and Spain. My adult life was full of adventure, but consistency is difficult to get. And the longer I was away from home, the more I appreciated the calm comfort of the traditions with which I grew up.

My mother was always great in terms of traditions. Every year we went for breakfast on the first day of school and ate coffee cake on Santa Claus. We celebrated big events Greek style steak fillets at Northwestern SteakhouseDelivered baskets on the day of the corn to neighbors and demanded the same place at the lake for fireworks every fourth July. And of course she had a decades of recipe box full of Potluck-favorite-inlook my beloved Snickers salad.

The version I remember was typed on a recipe card of the old school: vanilla pudding mix, milk, cool whip, hacky Smith-apples (for autumn) and naturally chopped snickers bars. I loved it.

The exact origin of the recipe is not clear. Although my personal story with Snicker’s salad goes back to the late 1980s, Most sources suggest that it was in the 1950s or 1960s in Iowa or Minnesota, probably created by Scandinavian immigrants. When my family took part in picnic, block parties and any other potluck in the middle west, it was a popular tradition.

At that time, I did not consider these food rituals to be something special – they did just like that. But when I stood in Spain and watched this familiar Pyrex bowl, I noticed how much these simple, repeatable traditions had shaped my belonging to belonging. And how much I wanted to create something similar for my own family.

My life today does not look with the one with which I grew up. Since marriage to a Navy helicopter pilot 10 years ago, our holidays have been a patchwork from wherever we are accidental. Thanksgiving was spent in Bullet trains in Japan in Japan on the beaches in Hawaii in the Bullet trains in Hawaii. And while these holidays were funny and unforgettable, none of them came with rituals that we could count on.

Therefore, the social expat group that I connected in Spain meant so much. We were a mix of Spanish and American military spouses who meet monthly to act with food, customs and culture. They introduced us in beach bars entitled “Chiringuitos)“” And brought us to dance the Sevillanas, a number of Spanish folk dances. We brought you garden grill, bunco and a traditional American Thanksgiving food. That was the day on which the Snickers salad appeared surprisingly.

I grabbed air when I saw it and nudged a friend. “Do you know what that is?” She didn’t. “It doesn’t look like a salad,” she said a little confused. I was too excited to take care of it. I knew that a medium -sized colleague had to be among us.

When it was time to eat, I invited my plate with a turkey and fountain pen – and a spacious ball from this strange little salad. A bit, and I was 7 years old again and had the feeling that I got away for dinner with dinner.

That night I kept thinking about how I could pass some of my own traditions on to my children, even if they didn’t grow up in Iowa – or for a long time. It won’t look the same as the rituals I knew, but that’s okay. I have three boys and I think they will be more than happy to take over a tradition that includes chocolate for dinner.

Wherever the navy takes us, I pack a few traditions of the middle west in my suitcase. Some will be new. Some will come from old recipe cards. But everyone will say: “This is how we appear to each other. This is how the house tastes.”

How to make Snickers salad

Ingredients

• 1 (3.4 ounce) package -Instant -vanilla pudding
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 (8 ounce) box cool whip
• 2 (1.86 ounce) Snickers bar, cut into small pieces
• 2 Granny Smith apples, chopped
• 1 banana, cut (Do not use when the salad is sitting for so long because it doesn’t stay good)))

Directions:

1. Mix pudding and milk according to the package.
2. Stir in the cooling whip when the pudding is furnished.
3. Stir the remaining ingredients about an hour before serving.