The Jell-o Project: Layered Pear Cream Cheese Mold

I do love when Jell-o recipes that call for green Jell-o use the word "mold" in the recipe title.

Layered Pear Cream Cheese Mold is a recipe from my "Jell-o Brand Collection" cookbook and I'm sort of happy to say that the family loved it. And I say "sort of" because frankly, it's a bit hard to come up with a compelling report when everyone likes the Jell-o salad.

Robert said it was probably his favorite Jell-o salad to date and even had seconds. I'm beginning to suspect he's been reading the blog posts and is trying to make up for past vagueness. Which, I suppose is very sweet of him.

Jonah and Isaac ate all their Jell-o in order to get a can of ginger ale for dessert. (I used ginger ale in the Jell-o) Jonah ate his happily, while Isaac looked as if at any moment he was going to hurl. He also complained heartily about the nuts.

Ethan ate his Jell-o all up too, but not without four solid minutes of unimaginative face-making which included his tongue sticking out one direction, then altering the look so that the tongue stuck out the other direction. (The Academy was not impressed.)

Layered Pear Cream Cheese Mold

1 16 oz can pear halves, undrained
1 8 serving package of green Jell-o
1 1/2 cups cold ginger ale or water
2 TB lemon juice
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Reserve pear juice and add water to bring it up to 1 1/2 cups. Dissolve Jell-o in boiled liquid and add cold ginger ale or water. Reserve 2 1/2 cups of Jell-o at room temp and put the rest into a 5 cup mold. Let chill for 30 minutes, then add 1/2 cup diced pears. Mix softened cream cheese into the remaining Jell-o (I used an immersion blender). Let the cream cheese mixture cool in fridge for about 30 minutes then and add in remaining pears and nuts (oh yes, do not forget the nuts.) Spoon the mixture over the first layer and continue to refrigerate until firm. Unmold and garnish as desired.

The Jell-o Project: Uninspired

This is Creamy Fruited Mold. It's any flavor Jell-o (strawberry), 1 cup of any diced fruit (except fresh pineapple, obvs.) and 1 1/2 cups of cool whip (plus the obligatory hot and cold water.)

This turned out WAY different than the picture in my "Jell-o Brand Collection" cookbook, which was my first disappointment. The second disappointment was that this Jell-o was boring.

It was so boring, every single person in my family loved it. Not a complaint from anyone.

Okay, Isaac did think some of the diced fruit was a little too big. But he ate over 80% of the Jell-o anyway.

I'm done with safe Jell-o. It's time to make things interesting again.

Lately . . .

Robert on phone: Hi, I'm coming home for dinner.
Me: Okay, well, we had dinner an hour ago and I'm leaving for Relief Society in 10 minutes.
Robert: Oh.
Me: Okay. So, I guess I'll see you at 2am when I wake up to go to the bathroom?
Robert: Yeah, okay.

It's not that I can't check in on Robert when I get home from Relief Society. It's just that he will be busy working and won't have much more than a minute or so for talking. Usually I get out the important stuff in a quick, verbal list like this:

1. The checks came today
2. I got those granola bars you like from Costco
3. We are going to Vancouver after church on Sunday and bringing mixed nuts.

And that's about it. Most of the time I forget something more important like:

4. Your dad called, or
5. Everything went great at the dermatologist today

And then I fall asleep reading a book in bed and Robert wanders in sometime around who-know's-what o'clock. I see him when I roll over and wake up around 2am, and then he leaves before I get up.

So that's life lately. And that leaves me to do things like science fairs and baseball games and piano lessons and scouts. I could go on, but as I mentioned to Robert in our phone conversation, I have to leave for Relief Society now.

The Jell-o Project: Mimosa Mold

Spring is in the air and Jell-o was on sale for a dollar a box. If that isn't the formula for Jell-o inspiration, I don't know what is.

Oh, wait, what about this?

It's a book of all my Jell-o Project blog posts to date. Robert was pretty excited when he saw my book and suggested I get it published. "I just did," I told him, holding up my evidence. "There was a print run of one." (Seriously though, if anyone wants to publish it for reals, call me!)

So, I pulled out Jell-o Collection, my newest and only Jell-o recipe book, and decided to make Mimosa Mold. 

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 (8 serving size) package of sparkling white grape or lemon Jell-o

2 cups cold seltzer or club soda

1 can mandarin oranges

1 cup sliced strawberries

Directions: Stir boiling water into gelatin in large bowl at least 2 minutes or until completely dissolved. Refrigerate 15 minutes. Gently stir in seltzer. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until slightly thickened. Gently stir about 15 seconds. Stir in oranges and strawberries. Pour into molds. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Unmold and garnish as desired.

The reactions to the second installment of The Jell-o Project were positive.

Ethan was the least enthusiastic, but found a way to suck away all the Jell-o while leaving the fruit behind. His method didn't even require a spoon. (That's right girl's. He's 14) He was ecstatic. 

Isaac mostly ate his Jell-o salad, but said he didn't like it. "But I ate one of each fruit," he offered.

Robert said, "This is really good," which is more than I could have ever expected him to say and it thrilled me to no end. He even pondered how he might bring some to work for lunch, but gave up on the idea after he couldn't find a suitable container.

Jonah. Oh sweet, sweet Jonah. He was the one who offered the prayer on our meal tonight, part of which--and I'm not making this up--included the phrase, "Thank-you Heavenly Father, that Mom made Jell-o for dinner tonight." After eating the Jell-o he declared, "Mom, this is delicious."

I have to admit, it was yummy. The club soda really added a fun kick and the fresh strawberries and mandarins were delicious. I thought the very fact that they were NOT crushed pineapple would have elicited more of a favorable response from Ethan, but even though he will eat a regular fruit salad with cut up strawberries and mandarin oranges, he would not eat the fruit surrounded by the club soda spiked Jell-o.

It doesn't matter.

I'm back!

Twinkie Mom

I've wanted to make homemade Twinkies for a while, and today I had a little time on my hands, so I went for it. I found this recipe online and luckily they had great instructions for making individual baking vessels. (And yes, I did realize this was a moment of crazy--making little baking vessels out of aluminum foil--but it's not like I was making my own goldfish crackers.)

Here's the finished product. You might notice that one Twinkie doesn't quite fit on the plate. So sad. I had to eat it. As for the rest of the family, I'm making them wait for dessert to try a Twinkie for themselves. 

One downside, the recipe made about twice as much cream filling as we needed, so now I have a good amount of extra cream that seems just too good to toss. What to do?

On a side note, I was listening to a Radiolab podcast about Fritz Haber while making these yummy cakes. But, I'm wondering if from now on, Twinkies will forever be associated with chemical warfare in World War I. 

In Which I Begin to Feel Like Dr. Frankenstein

I've never read the book, but am nevertheless, understanding the great terror that comes from creating a monster. Because like Dr. Frankenstein, I've created a monster. Well, three monsters to be specific.

I knew I was creating monsters when I showed my boys this video. It's eleven minutes long, but a sweet, fun story about a little boy. Watch it.*


Caine's Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Now watch my boys' response, which is under a minute:

That was Friday. Today is Sunday and boxes are disappearing. First it was the recycling bin that was raided. Then it was my drawers. I'm finding stacks of zip lock bags sans box, next to the boxless roll of Saran Wrap.

They are wielding Xact-o knives and running through rolls of tape like it was Kleenex during cold and flu season.

There are bits of cardboard everywhere and I'm starting to suspect they missed the part of Cain's video where he cleans up.

It's getting to the point where I can't beat them. But I don't plan on joining them. I plan on curling up in my room and reading a book.

*Cain hangs out at his dad's used auto parts store and creates a complex cardboard arcade. He spends his days waiting for customers who never come. Until one day . . . 

Work

Someone asked me a few weeks back if I worked.

"I'm just a stay-at-home mom," I replied. And while I know we stay-at-home-moms are not supposed to say "just," I said it anyway. Because sometimes, that's how I feel. I think it's well established that being a full-time mom is a big, thankless job. Can you imagine a job that would require you to care for sick people when you, yourself are sick?

A moment after I answered this person's question, however, I realized that I actually do work. For money. It's just not a lot of money, but I do things. I rattled off a few of those things, and later that day, I realized I'd left a few off the list.

Then this morning, when I realized a deadline was coming up, I realized one more thing I do.

So, mostly for myself, I'm listing them here so I will remember all the jobs I have (besides mother, of course, which is the hardest and most rewarding of all my jobs.)

Job Title Pending - I work for reliefsocietygifts.com taking orders, doing data entry, customer service, packing and shipping and keeping records updated.

Proofreader - I proofread Vancouver Family Magazine monthly.

Writer - I write a monthly book review column for Vancouver Family Magazine.

Tutor - I tutor several students in writing.

Freelance Writer - I sometimes write articles for magazines, like The New Era, and Vancouver Family Magazine.

There are also several unpaid, non-mom jobs I do:

Young Women's Presidency 2nd Counselor - I work with the 12 and 13 year old girls at church and help them learn leadership skills and also develop spiritually. We work together on goal setting, and once a week we have an activity that I help plan and carry out. I attend leadership and planning meetings regularly.

Art Literacy Volunteer - I receive training on a different artist four times a school year, then present an informational slide show to two classes and lead them in an art project.

Out of all these jobs, being a stay-at-home mom is my favorite and I'm very blessed to be able to have that job.