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Thanksgiving cooking with a NoCo lunch lady

Mary Vitale (with her husband Paul) was the longtime cafeteria cook at St. Thomas More parish. Photo: Vitale Family Cookbook

Though my husband and I both attended Catholic grade school in North County, our experiences with cafeteria food were drastically different. At my school, Transfiguration, lunch was similar to eating at a gas station – Landshire sandwiches “cooked” by a heat lamp and served with the Hostess dessert of your choice. At Keith’s school, St. Thomas More in Bel-Ridge, lunch was more like a home-cooked feast.

Served fresh every day by a legion of volunteer moms, the cafeteria fare at STM included meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salads, pasta, and the infamous Weiner Winks – a gooey marriage of hot dogs and American cheese.

Most of the recipes were created by Mary Louise Vitale, whose work as the school’s cafeteria cook led to 29 years as a successful catering company owner. If you lived in the Normandy area and attended any school function/wedding/party between 1970 and 1999 (when St. Thomas More closed), chances are you ate and raved about Mary Vitale’s cooking.

Mary Vitale's Weiner Winks: so wrong they're right

It’s not fancy food by any means, but man is it good! So in honor of Thanksgiving and Mary Vitale herself (who’s still kicking…and cooking), here’s a classic lunch lady recipe for all to enjoy, courtesy of Mary Vitale Catering and the Vitale Family Cookbook:

Strawberry Jello Salad

two 6oz. boxes strawberry Jello

4 cups boiling water

20 oz. frozen strawberries

4-6 medium bananas, mashed with fork

1 cup chopped pecans

16 oz. sour cream

Dissolve the Jello in the boiling water. Stir in the strawberries and bananas. Pour HALF of the mixture into a 9×13 pan and chill in the refrigerator until firm. Add the pecans to the other half of the liquid Jello mixture; set aside. Spread the sour cream over the chilled Jello in the pan. Pour the remaining Jello mixture on top. Chill overnight. Serves 24.

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