I tried a new recipe tonight – one for a fruit salad. It turned out okay, but reminded me of a funny story.
Not long after Lee and I got married, I got brave and wanted to try a recipe from one of the new recipe books we’d gotten as a wedding gift. I wanted to make something I’d never tried before, but something that looked easy.
Page 372 – “Tropical Fruit Fool. Fruit fools are always popular, and this lightly tangy version will be no exception…”
Despite their evident popularity, I’d never heard of a fruit fool before. And why do they call it a “fool?” I would soon discover the answer.

First of all, the ingredients were ridiculously expensive. I didn’t know that until I got to the store, because I’d never before bought papaya, passion fruit, or mango. They’re pricey, but I went ahead and bought them along with several other tropical fruits, because I was determined. And, I thought, if it’s expensive, it has to taste good, right?
Back at home, I started trying to make my fruit fool. It was more difficult than I had envisioned. I was supposed to use custard. The only kind I could find was a boxed kind you cook on the stove. I burned it. Horribly. I substituted pudding, hoping it wouldn’t make a big difference. Cutting and peeling and de-seeding all the fruit was more complicated than I’d imagined too.
Finally, it was all done, except the “chill in the refrigerator” part. I waited the appropriate 20 minutes, then summoned Lee and with some fanfare pulled the dish out of the refrigerator. It looked kind of funny.
It tasted kind of funny too. Not ha-ha funny. Lee put on his game face and tried to like it, but a few bites into it, neither of us could deny. The fruit fool made a fool of me.
The cookbook is called complete quick and easy cooking. A bunch of BS as far as I’m concerned. It was the most expensive inedible fruit fool in history.
Now, anytime I try a new recipe, one of us will bring up the tragedy of the fruit fool. It gives us a good laugh, but I think Lee is still secretly a little scared I’ll blow our paychecks on failed recipes.
So the fruit salad I made today was okay. Not terribly exciting, but not bad. But you better believe it was made with Kroger brand fruit in a can. Much more economical and much less foolish.