They actually have this in the cafeteria in my office building sometimes, as a side option to go with your sandwich.
I may have gotten it once or twice. So terrible… but the nostalgia!
I think I know what you mean, and it’s called “Green Goddess Salad” (or “Green Garbage” at our house), and the green is from pistachio pudding powder. It consists of whipped cream, crushed pineapple, maraschino cherries, pistachio pudding powder, marshmallows, walnuts, and I’m not sure what all else.
Oh man, I used to love that shit, though I preferred it without the marshmallows and walnuts. I don’t think I could eat very much of it anymore, especially if it was made with Cool Whip rather than real whipped cream, which of course it always was. Made with CW, I mean.
That green shit is sometimes called “Watergate salad” and the green is lime jello powder. I’ve seen it at supermarket salad bars. I actually kinda like stuff.
One word for this thread,“Crudites”.
Oh come on now, this isn’t the Pit! There’s no need to use that kind of language round here 
This, yes, this was it!
And, would you look at that! Two of the seven ingredients are fruit in this ‘fruit salad’. How healthful! (If maraschino cherries count as a fruit…)
Why they named this stuff ‘Green Goddess Salad’ and ‘Ambrosia’ and not ‘Green Shit’ and ‘Shit’, I’ll never know…
I’ve seen fruit salads with dressings as well as plain. Often the ones with dressings have a poppyseed dressing or something lemon based. I’ve never seen one with mayo. That sounds fucking disgusting.
Never had a Waldorf salad?
I think Ambrosia tends to have more actual fruit in it, and could conceivably be made with real whipped cream if one so desired. Green Garbage (yes, we really called it that) is not only lacking in actual fruit, but is almost entirely artificial, except perhaps for the pineapple. And the walnuts if you’re into that. It may have had something else in that qualified as “fruit”, but I can’t remember any if so.
I’m flashing back to childhood Thanksgivings now…
The recipe I’ve used for Watergate salad uses pistachio pudding for flavor and its green color.
Funny. As kids, we used to FANTASIZE about an all-sugar lunch
Funny. As kids, just about all of us FANTASIZED about an all-sugar lunch
Since this got bumped, I’ll react to something that’s been bothering me for over a decade:
. Hopefully we’ve progressed as a species since the Twenty-teens…
.
I once said “I’m busy working. If you want me to contribute, I’ll bring Circus Peanuts.” They did, so I did.
And fun was had. By the few that actually liked them, the people who made a coworker eat one on a dare, and those that just made fun of them.
So, every potluck, I had to bring them (why, yes, I did serve them in an elegant bowl).
I have many complaints about potlucks (e.g. it’s annoying to transport a cooked dish from place to place, the food ends up being lukewarm, good food runs out very quickly and lousy food lasts forever), but my main complaint is that they don’t really make sense mathematically. Ten people each bring enough food for ten people to share? What a waste of money and effort for what is often a mediocre meal.
I hate potlucks with a passion. Someone on this board – maybe in the very thread, which I’m too lazy to search through right now – once said something about potlucks being small-scale educational demonstrations of the tragedy of the commons and I think that is quite accurate.
With that in mind I think a bowl of circus peanuts would be a perfect way to contribute while simultaneously showing my disdain for the concept.
Never mind
That’s why my work group had a supply of real serving utensils (and a real knife for cutting cake) on hand. We had maybe 3 or 4 potlucks a year, so it wasn’t a horrible imposition. We had a United Nations group makeup, so the food was always good and interesting. I especially remember one older Indian guy who was so proud of his wife’s samosas (they were good!), that he just beemed everytime someone would pay them a compliment.
Not a potluck but we’ll get food delivered in every couple months. It’s typically a few pizzas, a bowl of salad, perhaps a tray of pasta, some cookies. After struggling with the horrible disposable serving utensils from the pizza place time and again, I finally bought some stuff from the dollar store and donated it to our breakroom. We got to use them for the first time a couple weeks ago - SO MUCH BETTER. A pizza cutter*, assorted tongs including the type for salad, some spatulas. I don’t even mind washing them.
*The pizza arrives cut but I usually help put away leftovers and, since we leave it out for a few hours, it’s room temperature by then and the cheese had welded shut. Since we do square party cut here, it was a pain to pull the 3 inch pieces from each other.
My employer pays for any meals we have during mandatory socializing functions. I don’t think I’ve been to a work sponsored potluck for more than twenty years now, and the last time it was at a place I hated with coworkers I didn’t like. Miserable. Prior to COVID, we had an annual holiday meeting where we reserved a private space at a nice restaurant. I have a few coworkers who are particularly picky and wouldn’t have any interest in a potluck.