Fruit Dip & Grape Salad

We had a church baptism service today, followed by a potluck picnic.  This is the dish that I brought to share.  It is great for a picnic because it can sit out for awhile without spoiling, makes a large batch, and is even rather kid-friendly.  And delicious.  Did I mention delicious?

Back in my lifeguarding days, every summer we would have a "staff picnic"  which was basically a potluck after work, then we would do all of the things at the pool that we wouldn't allow patrons to do... running on the deck, pushing people in, jumping from the slide tower.  It was good times.  One year I asked my mom what I should bring and she said "make that grape salad Aunt Betty brought to the Fourth of July picnic."  So I did.  The party wasn't until after work, so the salad was sitting in the fridge until then.  About the middle of my shift, I was on duty in the chair that I think we called "main" and my manager came hustling out of the guard office over to me.  She couldn't run (it would set a bad example for the kids...we did all of that stuff after work,  remember?), but she was bookin' it as fast as she could.

"Steph! Steph... did you  bring that grape salad in the fridge?"

"Yes."

"I snitched a little bit, and it is SO GOOD."

There you have it, kids.  Good enough that my manager would almost run to me and confess that she had snitched some and insist I give her the recipe.

So let's get on with it, shall we?

Here's what you need:

Grapes (green and red), brown sugar, almonds (or whatever nut suits your fancy), softened cream cheese, and our good friend Cool Whip.


The poor lighting is a result of my procrastination.  I started making this salad at 10 o'clock last night.  A mere 12 hours before the service started.  Thank you for bearing with me.

Start by washing your grapes so they have plenty of time to dry before you put them in.

Put the cream cheese and brown sugar in a bowl.  This bowl is huge because I am mixing and serving the whole she-bang in it.

Mix the cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth and creamy.  Now, if you wanted, you could stop right here and use this as a fruit dip.  A like so:

But we're going to charge forward.

Fold in the cool whip.  Please note: you could also stop right here and use this as a fruit dip.  Since nothing else is in here, this is your best chance at getting it blended, but remember that the more you stir cool whip the flatter it gets.  And we are going to stir more later when we add the grapes and nuts.

Speaking of the nuts, they need to be toasted.  Here's how I do it.

Warm up a pan.

Place the nuts in the pan.

Stir the nuts while they toast and watch them carefully, because they burn quickly.  You want to stop when they are just start starting to brown.

True to form, I "over-toasted" them.

Now, back to the grapes.

Just start plucking them off the vine and putting them in the bowl with the creamy stuff.  Make sure they are pretty dry.  I rubbed them down lightly with paper towels.  Then stir them in and see where you are.

This was about halfway through the grapes.  If you like it fluffy and are just feeding your family, you can stop here, but I needed to feed a crowd so I kept going.  Plus, if we have grapes just sitting around here they don't really get eaten, so we may as well throw them in.

Gently fold them in.

There we go!  That's better.  The nuts should be about cool by now, because I have been picking grapes forever.

Fold them in, and you're done!

Here's the recipe(s)

Fruit Dip I

8 oz cream cheese

1/2- 3/4 c lightly packed brown sugar

Mix until creamy.

Fruit Dip II

Fold 8 oz container of cool whip into Fruit Dip I.

Grape Salad

Fold 2-3 pounds mixed grapes and 1/4-1/2 c toasted nuts into Fruit Dip II.

Notes: This would probably be an extremely appropriate use for something like candied pecans instead of the almonds.  Also, don't you think cinnamon and a little bit of nutmeg would be tasty if you mixed it in at the Fruit Dip 1 stage?