Is This Really Salad?

I don't give salad a great deal of thought. But if I visualized salad I, like you, might envision something like this:Even in Europe where I personally think they apply the term salad a little loosely ( I mean a pile of corn and tomatoes without dressing- can this really be called a salad?) but even they recognize the crucial ingredient of the salad is clearly vegetables. You may add a little fruit- a dried cranberry, a mandarin orange if you will, but the basis is clearly the veggies (and let's be honest here- dressing- isn't lettuce merely the ranch dressing delivery system?).

So awhile ago the Dutch contingent (Wendy, Karna, and Jennifer) all introduced me to a whole different class of salads. Apparently amongst the Dutch and the midwest there is such a thing as a sweet salad. One salad described was so utterly preposterous that I didn't believe in its identity. But today we came face to face.

Yes, Virginia, Snickers salad really does exist. And why it is called the salad, I cannot tell you for there is neither a veggie (unless an apple counts) or dressing (unless vanilla pudding counts) to be seen. But it was in the salad section of the buffet and I'm told it is in the salad section of the church cookbook and we all know those don't lie. So the "salad" consists of pudding, a few chopped apple pieces, and Snickers. Just so you know I'm not lying here is a picture, complete with recipe (note the recipe is under the "outrageous recipe of the month" section).

Just for the record: it was delicious.