Coffee Jell-O

It is no secret that I love Jell-O, even the 50s experiments that were once referred to as “salad” that often featured seafood, mayonnaise, onions and other unappetizing ingredients. Jell-O doesn’t have to be disgusting, though! Not only can it be quite refined, the history of gelatin-based foods goes back over one hundred years. 

Here I am, about to enjoy a delightful coffee Jell-O!

This recipe for the perfect after-dinner treat / pick-me-up actually comes from a 1971 book on fondue (the cheerfully titled “Fondue on the Menu” by Beverly Kees and Donnie Flora) but coffee gelatin desserts date back to the turn of the last century. The variety here would have been served after fancy dinners; huge vats of Jell-O made with leftover coffee have been common at church pot-lucks for nearly as long.

Even Fondue cookbooks sneak in Jell-O recipes

This is an easy treat to make, and if you have a fear of the Jell-O mold / un-mold process, make each one in a cocktail glass or small ramekin instead, which gives each guest their own little pot of shimmering caffeinated goodness to enjoy with a demitasse spoon! Word to the wise: the liqueur does not get cooked out, and these will be as strong as the coffee you use.

I'm thrilled to use my new Chemex coffee maker as well as my very own coffee liqueur!

2 Tbsp (2 envelopes) unflavored gelatin

½ cup coffee liqueur

3 cups coffee

¾ cup sugar

Pinch salt

Sweetened whipped cream

In a bowl sprinkle gelatin over liqueur to soften. In a saucepan, warm the coffee and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved. Add the gelatin mixture and salt; stir and heat until all the gelatin is dissolved and the mixture is perfectly clear. Pour liquid into individual molds and chill several hours. Unmold; garnish with whipped cream. 

Grasshopper Pie x 2

Summer – it just screams pie, right? The call is too loud to disregard, clean eating efforts be damned. My excuse is, when I make a pie and take it somewhere, at least it won’t be in the house so that I am tempted to eat the whole thing. Plus, the purchasing of bizarre, mystery liqueurs to make a dessert is half the fun! Take it to a party and make other people eat it! Yeah, that’s the ticket…

There are many versions of Grasshopper Pie (including one made with ice cream which I did not try), but I naturally gravitated first to one made with Jell-O, my eternal love – that most versatile of sugary powders. I will share it with you, but I warn you – it’s not the best. It is entirely too sweet, and It has to be mixed with Cool Whip, for heaven’s sake. Yuck! Why did I think *that* would taste good? Cool Whip – something I had only heard about until I began recreating vintage recipes for this blog, something I didn’t even know where to find in the grocery store. (Tip: you find it in the freezer section. And it’s strangely weightless. And tastes of chemicals.) Still, this is the first version of the pie that I made, so here is the recipe, from 1988’s “Jell-O: Fun and Fabulous Recipes”. Yeah, some are more fabulous than others…

Looked great, but too sweet. Plus, shame on me for not making my own pie crust!

Next, I turned to a more trustworthy source, my Betty Crocker Cookbook from 1969. Thank you Betty for relying on the old stand-by, melted marshmallows, to create the filling in the pie! And remarkably, other than the marshmallows, Oreos and food coloring, this version of grasshopper pie is made with actual real ingredients – things I know! That are not highly processed! I had a good feeling about this.

First: the crushing of the Oreo cookies to make the crust. Yes, you could use chocolate wafers but I was making this pie for a party at my Dad’s, and the local store didn’t have the right kind. So, crush up Oreos (Fun! Place them in a plastic bag and go to town with a meat tenderizer! BANG!), then mix with ¼ cup melted butter, form in the pie dish and bake for 20 min, then chill.

The only thing tricky about this pie is that there are several steps and each one requires

chilling before and/or after. It doesn’t take long to put together, but the overall time will be a few hours  because of chill time. So plan to, you know, chill, between steps.

I succumbed to lure of green food coloring, essentially because it is an amusing novelty to prepare food that is green, but honestly you don’t need it – the crème de menthe provides a green tint. And speaking of food that is green, after these two pies, my next experiment was with another green pie, featuring a secret ingredient that provided the color and consistency: avocado! However, that is a story for another time. Spoiler: it is NOT something I will be making again. I’m kind of thinking of going back to fruit pies…

"The Best"? DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE. This is a lie. Sorry...

Poppy Seed Cake

Tasty even with no frosting! 

Do you ever crave a taste from childhood that you just can’t find anywhere? For me, it’s my mother’s poppy seed cake, and I found it in the adorable “Hasty Lady Cookbook” from BEST YEAR EVER IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND, 1971 – thank you, League of Women Voters of Illinois!

My favorite cookbook ever in terms of format. I love 1971!

Now I know you’re thinking, but Carrie, you’re always saying you don’t use mixes and packaged foods are gross – and you’re right. But there are times when you’ve got to eat that foot that’s in your mouth if you want to eat cake. So there you are.

Don't you love how I have the organic eggs to offset the cake mix?

This cake calls for cake mix and Jell-O pudding mix (Hah! My one processed food go-to, Jell-O! My eternal love!) and then some pantry staples, including “Butter-flavored oil” – WHAT THE HECK? I’m sorry, I don’t know what that is and I don’t want to know what that is. Let’s just go with vegetable oil, how ‘bout. Oh and cream sherry – is just a nicer quality than “cooking sherry” which, if you’ve talked to any chef, isn’t good enough to clean the toilet with anyway.

Going into the oven - soon it will smell REALLY GOOD!

Finally, this cake is nice and moist even with no glaze, though the glaze is a nice touch. If you want to make it look fancy and French-ify it, shake some powdered sugar over the top with a sieve and stick a sprig of mint or edible flower next to the cake et voila, nobody knows it came from a mix! Enjoy.

Poppy Seed Cake

1 pkg (18.5 oz) yellow cake mix

1 pkg (3.75 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

½ cup butter-flavored oil

½ cup cream sherry

1/3 cup poppy seeds

Combine all ingredients, stirring to blend. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer for 5 minutes, or 700 strokes (!!!) by hand. Scrape sides of bowl frequently.

Pour into greased 10 inch bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cool in pan for 15 minutes; turn out on wire rack. Cool

If desired, glaze with thin confectioners’ icing flavored with cream sherry.

Jell-O Pretzel Salad

I am sure you’re all SHOCKED to read yet ANOTHER post from me on Jell-O, right? Well this one is quite possibly the most important of all. Not only was it taught to me by my dear friend Kim Mejia as an indispensable element of every 4th of July, but it is one of those dishes that sounds horrible but is actually delicious. OK let’s be honest – it is rather obscene, but take one bite and you’ll grab the whole tray and a fork and run off for some Alone Time. Honest.

The other fantastic thing about this dish is that I found it in my 1986 [comedy] gem of a cookbook, “Cooking with Country Music Stars”, as given by none other than the Oak Ridge Boys! Come on, do you mean to tell me they really fixed this up and brought it to a pot luck? THAT is something I’d pay to see (note 1973 photo of them looking smooooth!) “Elvira – hey guys, get in here and help me with this cream cheese!” Umm, yeahhhhh…..

I must point out that the version Kim makes is the one I used, so compared to the one below, you make a few changes, as follows: use whole pretzels and melt an entire cup of butter over them as the first layer (no sugar needed). Bake for 10 min at 400 degrees, then cool. DO NOT add the cool whip to the sugar and cream cheese mixture – these are two separate layers under the Jell-O! Finally, just mix up the Jell-O as you would normally, no pineapple juice needed. You can add fruit, but it isn’t necessary. Finally, you won’t be able to serve this in nice little squares – just let people scoop blobs out for themselves, and forget the lettuce leaves. Like this is a salad, oh PLEASE!

Don’t forget that if this is for an Independence Day Party, you need to work the canned whipped cream into stripes over the red Jell-O base, and you can use blueberries for the blue part with the stars. Or just go crazy and spray the whipped cream everywhere. Heck, it’s a party, right?


The Oak Ridge Boys’ Pretzel Salad

2 cups crushed pretzels
¾ cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp sugar
1 8-oz package cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 8-oz carton Cool Whip
2 cups pineapple juice
2 3-oz packages strawberry Jell-O
2 10-oz packages frozen strawberries
Lettuce leaves (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix pretzels, melted butter and sugar and press firmly into 9 by 13-inch baking pan. Bake 6 to 10 minutes. Cool completely.

Blend cream cheese and sugar in bowl. Add Cool Whip. Spread mixture over cooled pretzel crust.

In saucepan, heat pineapple juice to boiling. Add Jell-O. Stir until dissolved. Add frozen berries. Stir. Pour over cheese mixture and let set in refrigerator. Cut into squares. Serve on bed of lettuce if desired.

Makes 12 servings.

Jell-O Shots (Jell-O #5)

Though I am known far and wide for my loving and varied experiments with Jell-O, I had only once made the ridiculous frat party treat known as Jell-O Shots. As far as I recall that was in 1991 for a luau at my friend Shannon’s house, where we also had a limbo contest and between the two, nobody was left standing. I also recall they were only marginally tasty, (but that didn’t stop us from pounding about a gross of them) and that you had to consume about 8 to get the equivalent of one drink, and also that your hands and cheeks became sticky with the stuff. These details aside, when I was recently asked to bring Jell-O Shots to a party, I was not one to shy away from a dare. And so I did – and we partied like it was 1991!

The basic idea with Jell-O Shots is to dissolve the Jell-O with boiling water as you normally would, but then replace the cold water with booze. If you tone that down a little, adding only about ¾ cup booze and the rest water per batch, you attain the most pleasing taste, though the shots are then quite mild. I imagine at frat parties and spring break ALL the water is replaced by booze, but that is just too revolting for me to contemplate. I do strive for class at all times, even when partying like an 80s college kid. [Carolyn Wyman’s great book from 2001: “Jell-O a Biography” reports that the Smithsonian’s food curator confirms these (not surprising) origins.]

I present two variations here: one is lime Jell-O with vodka (why I wasted good Jell-O I’ll never know, especially as I don’t like vodka and that is really all you taste) and the other is black cherry with vanilla rum (which is, happily, actually quite tasty!) and there are really almost endless combinations you could come up with, between flavored liquors and the mixing of Jell-O flavors. So folks, the next time you find yourself having a mid-life crisis, or are the subject of a dare, mix up some Jell-O Shots and party!


Jell-O Shots

3 oz Jell-O
1 cup boiling water
¾ cup rum or vodka
¼ cup cold water

Dissolve Jell-O powder in boiling water, stirring well. Add cold water and alcohol and stir again. Cool to room temperature and pour into individual mini-cups and chill until firm, about 3 hours. Makes about 16 shots.

Cherry Supreme - Jell-O #4

Though I am known for making “experimental” Jell-O creations, sometimes I just want Jell-O that is yummy. I find it is hard to go wrong if you stick to the basics: one flavor of Jell-O with fruit and marshmallows. This delightful 2 layer Jell-O Mold isn’t too sweet, has no hidden scary ingredients like onion or shrimp, and sets up fairly quickly. The cherry supreme is, in fact, supreme!

The Marshmallow-Mayonnaise Topping, however, is another story entirely. As I read the recipe in my “Joys of Jell-O Brand Gelatin Dessert” pamphlet, authored some time in the late 60s by the General Foods Kitchens, everything looked fine until I got to that part. I had to read it twice to make sure I hadn’t imagined the horror of Marshmallow Fluff mixed with Mayonnaise. No, in fact, I had not, and to add to the irony, there was even an introductory note describing other uses for said delicacy. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I did actually mix some up. (I must admit, I was thrilled to purchase the stuff, as marshmallows are one of my obsessions and I had never before owned any of it!) However, I did NOT delight in consuming it, and none of my friends would try even the teeniest taste. Did it have anything to do with the fact that the goo separated in transit? Or that it was a nasty yellow? Or perhaps it was the way the marshmallow somehow accentuated the smell of the mayonnaise… Truly sick-making. Trust me and skip that part!

Otherwise, the mold was quite tasty, despite the fact that the top part melted a bit in transit and the 2 layers then didn’t un-mold together, leading to a somewhat disappointing display that my friend Margaret likened to medical waste. I know what you must be thinking, but try the mold, alone. And if you do try the topping, don’t say I didn’t warn you!


Cherry Supreme

The Marshmallow-Mayonnaise Topping served on this cherry mold is also delicious on other salads. (note: this is a DIRECT QUOTE from the General Foods Kitchens, NOT FROM ME!!!)

1 package (3 oz) Jell-O Cherry of Black Cherry gelatin
2 Tbsp sugar
Dash of salt
1 cup boiling water
1 can (1 lb 1 oz) pitted dark sweet cherries
1 Tbsp lemon juice
½ cup whipped cream or prepared whipped toping
1 cup miniature marshmallows
Marshmallow-Mayonnaise Topping (see below)

Dissolve Jell-O Gelatin, sugar, and salt in boiling water. Drain cherries, reserving and measuring syrup – add water to make ¾ cup. Add syrup and lemon juice to gelatin. Chill until very thick. Then fold half of the cherries into 1 cup gelatin. Pour into a 1-quart mold. Chill until set, but not firm, Meanwhile, whip remaining gelatin until fluffy. Then fold in cream, remaining cherries, and marshmallows. Spoon into mold. Chill until firm. Unmold; serve with Marshmallow-Mayonnaise Topping. Makes about 4 cups, or 8 servings.

Marshmallow-Mayonnaise Topping:
Blend 1/3 cup marshmallow cream into 2/3 cup mayonnaise, stirring until smooth. Makes 1 cup.

Banana Cream Pie

Recently, my daughter came home from school with tales of a fabulous treat she had tried at school, made by one of the teachers. She began to describe the wonders of it to me, and asked if we could make one ourselves. This is the beauty of having a 6 year-old: when I told her that yes, we could make banana cream pie, she was awestruck, and we set out to make it right away.

Cream pies are so easy, you almost don’t need a recipe, but I do love to refer to something along the way just to make sure the proportions are correct, especially with something like custard – but then again, I also like to skip that altogether and use Jell-O Instant Vanilla Pudding as the filling! So quick, and really? Nobody cares that I didn’t make the custard. We did make our own crust, and my daughter gleefully crushed the Nilla Wafers herself with a re-purposed lemon-squeezer. (I find you can do amazing things with tools that are actually designed for other things. That and a zip lock bag. More things to add to the Desert Island list…)

Here, then, is the recipe for Banana Cream Pie as set out in the Bible – I mean, the 1975 edition of The Joy of Cooking. Note that in the book, they refer you back and forth to various pages and separate listings, so I have edited slightly for this preparation to make it read smoothly. Got about 20 minutes? Then you, too, can amaze your children with the Wonder of Pie!


Banana Cream Pie

Cookie Crumb Crust

Crush or grind fine, or crumb in a blender as directed until very fine: 1 ½ cups of graham crackers, zwieback, vanilla or chocolate wafers, or gingersnaps

The flavor of the filling should determine which of the above to use. Stir into the crumbs until well blended:
¼ to ½ cup sifted confectioners sugar
6 Tbsp melted butter

Reserve 2 to 3 Tbsp of the crumb mixture. Pat the rest into the pan or press out to the desired thickness. Bake in a 350 oven about 10 minutes; cool completely. When the pie is filled, scatter the reserved crumbs as a toping.

Filling

In top of double boiler combine:
2/3 cup sugar
½ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp salt

Add, stir and cook over – not in – boiling water 10 minutes or until mixture thickens:
2 cups milk

Remove from heat. Beat slightly:
3 egg yolks

Stirring well, pour half of hot mixture into eggs. When smooth, return eggs to rest of hot mixture and cook until thickened. Remove from heat and add:
2 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla

Cool slightly.

Peel and slice thinly:
2 ripe bananas

Place them in the baked pie shell. Pour the cooled filling over them

Marshmallow Pineapple-Lime Mold Salad (Jell-O #4)

I am a sucker for Jell-O. I am also a sucker for anything old, so imagine my delight when I was bequeathed the recipe card collection of a dear lady, Norma Finch (seen in photo with my dog, Rhubarb, expert canine beggar) and found it to contain NO LESS THAN 43 RECIPES for Jell-O!

Norma was an expert hostess who entertained weekly for nearly 70 years, often making elaborate dishes that were served on divine antique and mid-century platters and trays (some of which I also inherited). She carefully typed out her favorite recipes and kept them well-organized by type in her card box. She also swapped recipe cards with friends, as I discovered when sorting through them – here and there were cards written out by different hands, all signed. When I asked her son about the other ladies, he had stories about each one, often hilarious. Something about the friendships these cards represented still gives me chills, and makes me grateful to my own friends for the things we share.

Norma Finch, I am a woman after your own heart: I too have carefully written out my favorite recipes (I started doing this about age 8) and I too am happy to share them with friends. My blog entries are the modern equivalent (in my humble opinion) of your lovingly hand-typed cards, and I hope my friends value them as much as yours did. And so, in your honor, I have been going through the recipe cards and preparing one Jell-O mold every Easter.

This one was simple, without bizarre ingredients and with no surprises – that is, because I left out the mayonnaise! As I read the recipe, everything made sense and sounded good but that. Honestly: you have a perfectly good fruit and marshmallow Jell-O mold that you THEN PUT MAYO ON? There is a limit, people! (And by “people”, I mean the advertising executives of Kraft, who most obviously supplied the original recipe that Norma faithfully copied out, even including capitols on the name brands and omitting the brand “Jell-O”) So let’s be sensible and skip that part. I also skipped placing it on a bed of lettuce, favoring instead canned whipped cream and cherries to decorate the finished product, and it is quite yummy! Served on one of Norma’s own Depression Glass trays, I present Marshmallow Pineapple-Lime Mold Salad!



Marshmallow Pineapple-Lime Mold Salad

Dissolve 1 package lime gelatin dessert in 1 cup hot water. Drain the juice from 1 cup canned crushed pineapple and add water to make 1 cup of liquid. Add this liquid and 1 Tbsp lemon juice to the gelatin mixture. Chill until almost firm. Fold in the crushed pineapple and 2 cups of Kraft Miniature Marshmallows. Pour into a 1 quart mold. Chill until firm. Unmold onto a serving plate covered with lettuce. Serve with Kraft Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip Salad Dressing.

Tuna Ring (Jell-O #3)

It has long been an obsession of mine to research vintage Jell-O recipes, and when my great friend Karen started a Mid-Century Supper Club Pot Luck where participants are to re-create, in faithful detail, a vintage recipe and present it in corresponding vintage serve-ware, I though to myself: It must be Jell-O. But not just any Jell-O, because I frequently make plain Jell-O, fruit-added Jell-O, marshmallow Jell-O, even adding Jell-O to cake mix if I need a quick cake that tastes better than cake mix. But this event called for a new Jell-O experience, one that, regrettably, featured tuna fish.

Heck, if it was considered good enough to publish in a national cook book, how bad could it be? Um, bad. Fearfully bad, in fact. The sad thing is, it didn’t even look delightful, but was murky – a warning, perhaps, of what lurked inside! I took plain gelatin and added mayonnaise, chopped onions, celery and tuna fish. On purpose. And lovingly served it on a bed of lettuce. And I think I actually ate a bite! I know of one other person who did, but it was not actually a hit. But it was one of those things, you know, you just HAVE to do - once.

Sadly, not a single photograph exists of the concoction, so all I can do here is to reproduce the elegant full-color photo from the 1963 edition of Better Homes and Gardens “Lunches and Brunches”. This is a book full of fun photos of what sound like barely edible yet time-consuming recipes, all served on glorious mid-century table finery. Such contradiction! Such adventure!


Tuna Ring

1 envelope (1 Tbsp) unflavored gelatin
¼ cup cold water

1 can condensed tomato soup
1 3-ounce package cream cheese
1 cup salad dressing or mayonnaise
½ cup chopped celery
½ cup sliced stuffed green olives
¼ cup chopped green pepper
¼ cup sliced green onions
¼ cup chopped pimiento
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
2 6-ounce cans (2 cups) tuna, in chunks

Soften gelatin in cold water. Heat soup to boiling. Add gelatin; stir till dissolved. Add cream cheese, beat smooth with electric or rotary beater. Blend in salad dressing; stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into a 5-cup ring-mold; chill firm. To serve, garnish with greens (See picture page 45). Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Raspberry Roundup (Jell-O Part 2)

As many of you know, I LOVE Jell-O, so it was with delight that I received as a gift this handy-dandy 1980 General Foods “The Jell-O Gelatin Salad Selector” from my cousin Peggy. (Actually, Peggy sent me a whole box of old cookbooks from various family members, which was a real treasure-trove, and a story for another day) Give me any excuse to make Jell-O, and I’m thrilled!

The divine thing about this “pamphlet” (I’m somewhat at a loss as to what to call it, since it came to me as separated pages that may have been bound together in some way originally) is that each page begins with the type of meat dish you are planning: “Making Hamburger Tonight?” and then suggests a Jell-O salad o accompany it. If that one isn’t to your liking, just SPIN THE WHEEL and select another! And some of them even looked pretty good! No more 50s way-too-bizarre concoctions with shrimp, tuna, olives, onions, sour cream…. (as disgusting as that sounds, there are HUNDREDS of recipes for these “delights”)

I made this up happily the night before (one of the “things” about Jell-O – it is NOT spontaneous. No wonder it wasn’t popular in the 70s…) and l always love the suspense of the un-molding: will it turn out? YES it did! And it is even quite yummy – just the tart berry Jell-O mixed with applesauce. Of course it’s “great with any pork dish” – good old General Foods, they were right!


Raspberry Roundup

1 package (3 oz) Jell-O Brand Raspberry Flavor Gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 cup applesauce
1 Tbsp. vinegar

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Add applesauce and vinegar and pour into 2-cup mold. Chill until firm, about 3 hours. Unmold. Garnish as desired. Makes 4 servings.

Jell-O!!!!!

OK seriously: WHO DOESN'T LOVE JELL-O?

My family, for staters. It has been brought to my attention that I am NO LONGER welcome to grace family events with Jell-O mold creations. (Yes, this was my contribution for YEARS, and I took great pride in the variety of shapes, colors and ingredients, even if I WAS the only one ever to eat them.)

HOWEVER, some people GET IT! My dear friend Karen, for one: She is offering up a fabulous brand-new Tupperware Jell-O ring as the prize for her latest contest, and YOU can enter! See details on her blog, below:

http://97thingstodobeforeiturn97.blogspot.com/2011/02/contest-time.html

In addition to also liking Jell-O, Karen and I have many (possibly 97? Possibly more?) things in common: we both like Doritos, Starbucks, vintage clothes, The Beatles, crock pot cookery; we were born in the Same hospital (!), and we have both been asked: DO YOU WORK FOR LONELY PLANET?

So enter Karen's contest, get that Jell-O mixed up, and report back here for my second Jell-O installment, where I describe some of those Jell-O experiments in detail!