There goes your image of me...

[rivka]

I made Jello tonight. For the first time in my life.

It's not the Jello of my youth, because it's lacking in canned "fruit cocktail." (My mother was a serious cook, and therefore never employed mini marshmallows.) It does have canned pears and banana slices, though.

It would never have occurred to me to make Jello, except that Alex suggested that she could bring some to school to share with the friends on her birthday. When I expressed surprise, she and Michael both informed me that they like Jello. I never knew. So we bought some, and then Michael got sick and it seemed that it would be a kindness to make something that would slip easily down his sore throat.

So, Jello. In our fridge. But I swear I draw the line well before Chef Boy-Ar-Dee canned ravioli.

Comments

[txobserver.livejournal.com]

The older I get, the less concerned I am with the sneers of the foodies if I make my mom's 50's recipes, especially her desserts. I don't make them too frequently because they tend to be very rich and very tempting, but my mom's rum cake (made with a good quality yellow cake mix and a package of instant pudding), her bridegroom pie (Ritz cracker crust and condensed milk in the filling), and her Pecan Pie Surprise Bars (the base is a yellow cake mix) all are outrageous and much loved if brought to a pot luck. I grew up on Air Force bases and small town Texas, where the moms/wives vied to bring the best foods, and they were all of modest means, unable to use expensive and hard to obtain ingredients.

Yes, as a California transplant in my adult life, I now have access to great produce, Asian and Hispanic ingredients, and I usually make food much more in keeping with current expectations. But for comfort and for treats, nothing beats Mom's old recipe file.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Did your mom make Jello cake? My mom would make a white cake (from a mix), prick holes all over the top, and then add water to red Jello mix, pour it over the cake, and chill it. I laugh about it now, but you know, it was really tasty. I don't think I could frost it with Cool Whip, though, which is what she used to do. I believe that minnaleigh makes this recipe with real whipped cream.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh, and her lemon cake recipe uses Jello too. Add a box of lemon Jello powder to a lemon cake mix, prick holes in the top of the baked cake, and pour over a glaze made of confectioner's sugar and lemon juice. I totally make that one.

[txobserver.livejournal.com]

Yup...she made that lemon cake, but I no longer have her recipe (want to post it?). Though she didn't make the red jello/white cake I've had it at other people's houses.

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

Yes, I always make it with real whipped cream. Usually with raspberry whipped cream, because that makes it EXTRA AWESOME!