Today’s recipe is of the Jell-O salad variety. And I’m not exaggerating when I say I almost wet myself at the family’s reactions to it. I found this recipe in a cookbook my mom found me at a secondhand store just titled “Cookbook” from the Tivy Junior-Senior Parent Teachers Association in Kerrville, Texas. No idea how old this cookbook is, but one recipe references the “mechanical refrigerator”. The ingredients in this recipe run the gamete from sweet to savory:
1 package lime Jell-O
1 ½ cups hot water
½ cup pear juice
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. horseradish (which I didn’t have so I substituted Chinese Hot Mustard)
2 tsp. pears, diced
2 packages of cream cheese
1 tbsp. mayonnaise
OK, so…you dissolve the Jell-O in the hot water, add the juice, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. Then, when it’s cool and starting to set, add the cream cheese “moistened” with the mayo (stops to dry heave). Finally, add the horseradish and pears. And then you “congeal”.
I was 95% certain this would never set, I thought we were going to have lime Jell-O soup. However, after about an hour, it finally did achieve that gelatinous texture.
I saved this “dessert” for after dinner and had the whole family try it. My daughter was excited at first but immediately regretted her decision to trust me. The husband said, “It’s like someone knocked the horseradish into the dessert at the church fish fry.” And, “This Jell-O is a bowl of lies!” And, as always, the dogs still thought it was their favorite thing ever.
Final verdict: Not as heinous as I thought it would be, but still a salad full of deception.
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