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.