I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE JELLO!

I hope that some of you remember a blog I posted sometime last year entitled "What Happened To The Jello"?  Well, I figured out the answer to that somewhat rhetorical question.  A few years ago, a neighbour of ours made a layered Jello dessert that was the hit of the party.  I had always had that in mind.  This year, when we were asked to bring a dessert item to a Christmas party, I thought that this might be the perfect opportunity to try and reproduce this fun and colourful (not to mention) retro food.

We decided to test out the seemingly simple, (but very difficult to execute correctly) recipe, when we attended our little neighbour's birthday party last weekend.  We did the layers in red, purple, yellow and white to suit the girly occasion.  I have to admit to some tense moments and some arguing with the Husband.  It became almost an engineering exercise in making sure the pan was level, the fridge was level, the counter top was level, the floor, the foundations of the house were level and so on and so on!  Well, the final result was slightly uneven in some places, colours bled onto other colours.  But the kids and adults loved it!

This past Saturday was the real test for our retro concoction.  We alternated between red and green with white in between to suit the festive occasion.  At first we sat in the kitchen, listening to the timer ticking away, poised and stirred and ready for the next layer to be carefully poured on.  But then we decided that a watched timer doesn't ding, so we got caught up on some of our recorded television shows during the process.

The end result was just like the picture at the top of the page.  There were oooohs and aaaaahhh and most were suitable impressed.  We felt proud of our cool creation.  It was by far the most Christmasy food item at the party.

Why have I been typing away about a simple Jello dessert?  I love the idea of taking something so simple and even child-like and turning it into something really special.  That's the way I look at vintage and retro.  We can take an amazing piece of clothing and wear it as is, or layer it with other things to really stand out in a crowd.  So what happened to the Jello?  We transformed it from lumps of colourful coal to shining and wiggly diamonds!

(Recipe is available upon request!)