For years, really, like (counts on fingers) 18 years, I have had an envelope with a little stack of recipe cards in it. I move it from time to time, not wanting to throw the cards out, but not ready to *do* something with them. You see, they were part of a dumpster-dive haul when the lady across the street from my mom got moved to assisted living, and her house was emptied and sold and torn down and replaced with a shitty McMansion. Lots of the cards are in Marian's handwriting, but some aren't and one's typed and finally today I got them scanned.
Five are for jello or jello "salads". I mean, when was the last time you had jello salad or gelatinized anything?
First up - Cucumber Jello salad. It's definitely in the "not a dessert" category, what with the onion. I'm going to guess that you have to chill it again after you stir in the sour cream and cucumber "cut in tiny chunks"?
Next, another "not a dessert" jello: Tomato jello. Raspberry jello and a can of stewed tomatoes. I mean, I think that isn't a dessert - but what the hell is it? A side dish for a roast chicken? I wonder who Louise Reiss is (or more likely, was).
Moving on, we have two things called "salad" but both skew more towards dessert for me.
Jan's Salad is black cherry jello with fruit cocktail and frozen rasperries - with the option of chopped pecans or chopped apples.
And Fruited Nectar Salad mostly kind of sounds dessert-y - with ingredients like apricot nectar, mandarin oranges, seedless grapes and chopped apple. EXCEPT she's got a note to serve it with mayonnaise...so maybe it's not dessert after all.
Finally, we have Dessert. Just that - the card is titled dessert, the name of the recipe is dessert. It sounds a little like a lemon mousse - an egg yolk custard stirred into orange jello and then folded into beaten egg whites. Honestly, it doesn't sound too terrible. If I had some orange jello in the house, I might make it.
Still to come: meat, condiments & dressings, non-jello desserts.
6 comments:
We have a Jello salad at every big holiday. Popular ones include just layers of Jello on top of one another, strawberry pretzel Jello salad, and the super delicious Jello salad made with orange Jello, mandarin oranges, and lots of cream cheese. So, hey, don't rule out Jello salads in the American midwest! Marian's cucumber Jello salad looks good to me!
OMG. My mother had a "gourmet" cookbook in the 1960's or early '70's, compiling recipes contributed by moms at a super-fancy private school. There was a horrifying amount of Jello featured! And aspic, with savory objects encased! Cool Whip, for pies (or Jello)!
There were some actual recipes for food. I just shudder at the memory of all those jello salads at every potluck gathering in that time period....
I've always enjoyed trying various gelatin-type salads. My husband also makes fun of people calling them "salads," saying we might as well put a slice of chocolate cake on a lettuce leaf and call it salad.
A local restaurant used to have an item on their menu called "molded salad," which was, of course, a gelatin salad but sadly they took it off the menu a few years ago.
I actually like a tomato aspic with some chopped veggies in it. Not exactly, jello, but hey…
Oh, last comment was from me, Debby Blankman.
Like others here, my family’s holiday table always had a jello salad. I’m surprised none of these recipes are repeats for my mother’s selections. She is now 90 and originally from the Pittsburgh area.
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