Here's an entry from my mother, Dot, who lived through the Great Depression, so she's totally awesome at staying within her budget:
"I have always prided myself in the fact that I could whip up a meal from my food supply or find a substitute for a missing ingredient.
"One time I even looked through a cookbook for a recipe that used just the staples I had on hand (I found one that was called Tuna Roll-Ups. It was made with tuna and celery wrapped up in Bisquick like a jellyroll, and then topped with gravy -- I substituted Cream of Chicken soup. It turned out great). With such experiences, I began to feel confident in my ability to "make do."
"Then came the day -- we were having guests for dinner. I believe they were the missionaries serving in our ward at that time. I had everything prepared, except for the beverage. I wanted a fruit punch to give color to the table, but did not have any on hand. No problem. I would substitute Jello and use it like Kool-Aid. I heated the water to dissolve the gelatin. It would be a delightful cherry flavor. I added the cold water and then poured up the "punch" into the crystal goblets. It all looked so pretty. I had tasted it, and it even tasted better than cherry Kool-Aid. It just needed to be a little colder, so just before sitting down, I put ice cubes in the goblets. BIG MISTAKE! After saying "grace" and starting our meal, to my horror I discovered too late, the the ice cubes had "set" the Jello!"
9 comments:
i love that story! jarred and i want to invite the missionaries over and make something nasty for them to eat (i want to see how they do eating gross food since they aren't in a foreign country). maybe i'll make the jello drink too!
I hope at that point she passed around straws and let everybody have fun making jello worms.
I've tried to drink jello before, it doesn't go down as well as you think it might.
Great story!
BECKS -- that sounds like a great idea.
GEO -- Jello worms? I've never heard of those. Sounds fun.
CW -- yeah, it seems like it would be a little thick, even without the ice-cubes in it.
It was one of my hobbies as a child—you suck up as much jello into your straw as you can before imploding the glands in your neck, and then you blow out the worms onto your plate. Makes a great noise, and your dessert/beverage lasts a lot longer. Highly entertaining. I recommend this as a FHE activity for your creative and excitable household.
Love it. Last Thanksgiving my mom was initiating a new brother-in-law into our Thanksgiving homemade roll traditions. She was trying to show him how you have to rub the oil on your hands and on the dough. He went along for a while, and then he finally said, "So does the white grape juice give it a good flavor, or what?" Her eyesight just isn't quite what it used to be . . .
GEO -- I think I'm a little creeped out by the Jello worms. I'm pretty sure that my kids would love them.
HEIDI -- that story just CRACKED ME UP! Too funny. What a cute brother-in-law. I'm sure that story gets brought up every Thanksgiving.
now that's water i can walk on! ok, i just read your post out loud to our visiting friends and we all had a snortingly good laugh!!
our food prank tradition is to make empanadas for potlucks and stuff cotton in one of them. it's really mean but good fun to watch some unsuspecting victim recover from cotton mouth. we make it up to them with a prize.
GRITTY -- I've heard of people baking cotton in cupcakes. I can't even imagine. I'm starting to gag just thinking about it! Too funny.
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