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...

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.

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.

Pink Party Pop Corn

From the iconic book, “Popcorn Potpourri”, (1977) by Larry Kusche (check out his snazzy trousers!) comes this bizarre and yet addictive food product: pink party popcorn. I’m not suggesting you make any of this, or if you do make it, stick to using it for modeling crafts, not consumption…

Still! Pop Corn is always fun, and having found a whole book on it (and one that features the very Hot Air Pop Corn Popper that I had growing up on the cover), I offered to make any recipe in it for Ivy. And naturally, she picked THE grossest one. No, she couldn’t pick something mellow like a nice cheddar cheese coating, or herb butter pop corn. Nor did she pick any of the somewhat creepy sounding ones like Pop Corn with Mushroom Butter, or Pop Corn with Chicken Flavored Butter. This book is filled with literally hundreds of pop corn recipes: The variety! The possibilities! And so, the one pop corn experiment thus became the Great Pop Corn Taste Test, where we tested plain pop corn with salt, the dreaded concoction below, and one that I came up with myself, where I melted a Toblerone bar and drizzled that over plain pop corn. That, strangely, was not bad! Hello, Pop Corn Party! (Later: Hello, Tums…)

To make the Pink Party Pop Corn, I was reminded of something I used to do about once a week in Junior High: make Rice Krispies Treats. The unmistakable scent of melting butter and marshmallows: mmmm… but then adding Jell-O in powder form to it… makes it a veritable sugar bomb, and also disturbingly bright. I was horrified by the stuff as I mixed it up, but then something happened, and I… HAD TO EAT IT ALL! We could barely even do a taste test, because I was so busy gobbling it up. And it turned out that Ivy, who selected that recipe, preferred the chocolate version. Either way, I still say pop corn is fun, but I know to step away from the marshmallows, lest I become a Pink Party Pop Corn addict!



Pink Party Popcorn

(actual note from the book: you can match the color of the popcorn to your decorating scheme.)

3 Tbsp butter
1 ½ cups miniature marshmallows
4 Tbsp strawberry-flavored gelatin
2 qts. popped popcorn

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Stir marshmallows into the melting bitter. Let them soften but not melt completely. Add the gelatin. Stir until butter-marshmallow mixture is evenly colored. Gelatin does not have to be dissolved. Drizzle over popcorn and mix well. Makes 2 quarts.