Tag Archives: sisters

Berries in a Cloud Jello Dessert

This is one of the least photogenic desserts I have encountered. It’s also extremely delicious. My sister Erica served it for Thanksgiving this year, and I could hardly keep my fingers out of it.

My hand was smacked many times.

But nothing could stop me! My days of feeling hoity-toity about Jello dessert are over, man.

Here are the traces of this supremely elite dessert on  my emptied Thanksgiving plate.

Hint: it’s the red splotchy stuff at approximately 11 o’clock, wedged between the gravy (brownish stuff) and the mashed sweet potatoes (orangeish stuff).

It’s so complicated to make that Erica had to go to culinary school just to learn the building blocks. It involves things like mixing Jello powder into water. Mixing Jello liquid into Cool Whip. Pouring a bag of frozen fruit into  the Jello. These are all very delicate operations that you need specialized utensils for, such as a spoon. And a bowl or two. Have I scared you off yet?

Since I don’t have step by step photos, I have instead chosen to insert some choice shots of the three of us sisters devouring this dessert like hyenas. We descended on it with spoons, with passion, and with raging appetites. Viewer discretion is cautioned. Or viewer caution is discretioned. Cautionary discretion is viewed. Whatever.

As usual, the printable Word document link is at the bottom. Enjoy, all ye peoples!

Ingredients

(Serves 8)

2 packages black raspberry Jello

2 packages strawberry Jello (or other berry Jello)

1-8 oz container Cool Whip

1 bag frozen mixed berries

Prepare the strawberry Jello following the package instructions. Once the liquid is cool, reserve 2-3 TBS of the liquid.

Mix the frozen berries into the strawberry Jello, and pour the mixture into a Jello mould or Bundt pan.

Chill the strawberry Jello in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes to an hour.

I love how my husband is donning an apron in the background. He’s getting ready to clean up our Jello mess, a mess so huge that it will require All Hands on Deck.

Stir the 2-3 reserved TBS of Jello liquid into 1 container of Cool Whip and chill. It will become pink and delicious.

Prepare the black raspberry Jello according to the package instructions. Erica uses ice cold water to temper it. Pour it into the mould or Bundt pan on top of the chilled strawberry Jello and chill the whole shebang for several hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, fill your sink with some hot water and put the bottom of the Bundt pan in the water for a couple seconds (literally 2 seconds, without submerging). Turn it upside down on a platter, and the Jello should come out easily. Top with pink Cool Whip delight.

Soon, your lovely platter will look something like this:

It’s inevitable, so just accept it.

Click here for printable version: Berries in a Cloud Jello Dessert

Off to Oklahoma to meet the Pioneer Woman

Well, for those of you that I haven’t called while screaming hysterically or who haven’t seen my facebook update, I might as well tell you: I am going to the Pioneer Woman’s house this weekend. In fact, I will shortly be on my way to the airport, to a plane that will whisk me away to a magical place in Middle-of-Nowhere, Oklahoma. A magical place of cooking, chaps, cows, and no traffic noises.

The Pioneer Woman had a holiday baking weekend giveaway, inviting 4 lucky gals to her house to be fed, drink coffee, feed the cows, learn about baking, and sleep in.

Among those lucky gals are longtime friends Jennifer and Ann. After checking out their blogs, I can’t wait to meet them in person.

Prior to this I had never won any lottery-style thingamaging in my life . . . but I had a little itch when I entered, and even thought to myself, “man, if I win I have to make sure I can make it back by Sunday night” (for that gig at the Red Line Tap). Then I told myself “This is ridiculous. Don’t even worry about that–it’s not like you’re going to get picked! Not with those crazy odds! Heck, half of the female population in America is entering this giveaway!”

But the itch persisted.

I was comment #16,128, and I was picked. From about 40,000 entries. With only 4 winners, that was a 0.01% chance. If you’re having trouble even believing the words that I’m saying to you (I’m having trouble believing them myself), you can check out my name emblazoned for the world to see on her “holiday baking weekend winners” post.

I found out on Friday November 5th, and my first reaction was honestly to start laughing hysterically. Thankfully my boss wasn’t in the office to witness the insanity. I laughed for about 15 minutes, on and off, with tears in my eyes. I also screamed multiple times. I had to verbally instruct my own self to calm down. Then I called my sister, called my Mom, and texted my other sister (sleeping soundly in Alaska).

Ree allows everyone to bring a guest, so I’m taking my Mom with me, since Heidi will be too pregnant to fly in from Alaska, and Erica’s husband-man gets deployed that same month . . . for a year. Incidentally, this is why we’re voting for the P-Dub to do an army wives weekend. So Erica and Heidi can go.

Leading up to this weekend, I’ve been having the craziest dreams. In one of them, Ree had a heavy Eastern European accent and a smoker’s voice, and told us she was going to die of cancer by age 49. I immediately started crying, and realized that her blog would now go from a happy, cheerful place, to the diary of a dying woman.

In another dream, I kept trying to take pictures of the sunset on the ranch, but my camera’s memory card was malfunctioning and didn’t save any of my amazing photographs.

In yet another, when we arrived at the guest lodgings, there were cats, mice, and other animals everywhere, and there was a pile of cat poo in the shower. Oh, and a dead mouse had been skinned and gutted by some cowboy in the middle of the carpet. Thankfully in this dream I had the sense to bring my Mom and Erica and Heidi, and they promptly cleaned it all up for me.

I don’t want to sound like a crazy obsessed fan, but I love this woman. I love her humor, I’ve cooked (and loved) over 30 of her recipes (seriously, I’ll make you a list some day), I learned the rudiments of photography and Photoshop from her, and I’ve admired her site for over a year. In fact, it was her blog that taught me what a blog even was!

At this point, baking isn’t my forte. But after this holiday baking weekend, and after absorbing the magical skills which will undoubtedly be in the air, I should be set.

Just look at the sinfully delightful things she cooks up. I dare you not to salivate.

The cry that has been ringing in the back of my mind for weeks now betrays the fact that I am a girl, through and through:

But . . . I don’t have anything to weeeeeeeeaaaar!

I will be blogging all about the experience, make no mistake.

*both photos courtesy of thepioneerwoman.com