Ahhhh Jello

I wish I had some small marshmallows, and maraschino cherries. They would have been perfect for the jello I just made. Jello; the mere word makes most young people including my children shiver in disgust and hit the highway as soon as possible. It quivers, it is clear and I have missed it. I have not made jello in 30 years, but one of the boxes for the Thanksgiving baskets got left on the counter and I couldn't resist.

I started the kettle to boil the water, got out the right princess bowl (from the 40's of course) and cleaned the little aluminum molds that helped entice an entire generation to eat something even my late basset hound wouldn't touch. (Trust me I tried. She didn't like marshmallows either)

Jello was fun! It was what was for desert most nights. And oh the combinations of things one could put into the shimmering dish. Chopped celery, raisins, mandarin oranges, minced pineapple, shredded carrots, the list is almost infinite.It could be used for a salad with the peas and carrots floating in a sea of green goo, for a fun side dish with olives and pimentos carousing with red jello. or jumpin and jivin with the myriad of fruits, nuts and sweet nothings that one could mix into it before putting it into the refrigerator to let it cool and get that gelatinous touch needed to make it wiggle.

There was, however, one dish of jello I refused to eat. It was called tomato aspic. My grandmother, a lovely gentlewoman from the South, had very fixed ideas about what was acceptable or not acceptable to eat at lunch. Chicken salad, egg salad, tuna, or a delicate sandwich with the crusts trimmed off were a yes, hamburgers or spaghetti were for truck drivers and definitely no. What was considered the queen of luncheon fare was her favorite... crab meat in tomato aspic. There was a special aluminum mold for this frightening dish. It was circular so that the tomato jello made a circle around the unsuspecting crab meat ("always leave a little shell in it dear, then they know it's fresh"). Mayonnaise was placed in the well first and then the crab meat. It was a horror to me and a disagreement my grandmother and I never resolved although I still have the aspic mold. Hmmm...I wonder what I'm doing with that.

So tonight I shall have a small cup of orange jello. No fruit cocktail handy I had to chop up some lychees to put in, I couldn't let the little fellow go naked. And I will remember a time when we had everything with butter, we dressed for dinner, and there was never enough whipped cream on top of the JELLO.

P.S So I go on the web to find a good photo of jello and I get this one. I hope you can read the writing. This confection is made with jello, yogurt and gummy bears. OMG!