Friday Friend Recipe #198 -- Raspberry Jello

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #198

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

My Raspberry Jello

and you know all the whys and wherefores of this countdown, right? Homemade cookbook, friends contributed, Handyman said I couldn't/wouldn't do it, I'll show him, yadda yadda yadda....

...and the rest is cookbook history!

Seriously?

I should go to jail for putting this recipe in the 

Friday Friend Cookbook!!

I can't even...

I can't even tell you why. 

Why?

I have no idea!  But Jell-O? Really?  And this was turned in by me.

Well, what's done in done and Raspberry Jell-O is in the Cookbook, so now we go forward. 

I do like Jell-O with raspberries in it---and a  little bit of Cool-Whip on top.  When I was young my mom would make this and them whip it all together before she set it on the dinner table.  We had a kind of Jell-O-raspberry parfait. 

And if me putting Jell-O in the cookbook wasn't insult enough--I actually gave a recipe on how to do it!!

Raspberry Jell-O

Debbie Stone

Winnemucca, Nevada

1 pkg raspberry Jell-O

1 pkg loosely frozen raspberries

Prepare Jell-O  with 1 cup hot and 3/4 cup cold water.  Add frozen berries.  Let set in clear bowl and top with layer of whip cream or Cool-Whip.

(also good with sugar free Jell-O)

so glad I clarified that it's good with sugar free Jell-O. 

Once again... I should go to jail for putting JELLO in the FF Cookbook!

Oh look!  I was in jail!

We had a girls weekend in Boise, Idaho a couple of years ago 

(Shelly has a house there and the Boise Friends of the Library were having a huge book sale!)  and,

well... we went to prison.

We toured the old Boise State Penitentiary! 

In jail with April and Shelly at the old Idaho State Penitentiary!

We might have been thrown in jail for loafing. I bet that was it.

When was the last time you 'loafed'?

Well, let me tell you---it's not worth it.  Don't fall into this life of crime like I did!  You'll end up thinking Jell-O  is a worth while recipe for a cookbook!

(those are my glasses on top of my head.  I did not have a big streak of gray hair/roots. At that time)

 Shelly actually

had dual crimes!

(she's like that---rebellious and, well... wild!)

The Old Idaho State Penitentiary is well worth the time to tour.  It was very interesting and kind of creepy.  I'll leave the creepy pictures out for now--but there was an old Death Row cell block as well as the Gallows and Gallows viewing area.

Besides the prison, we also went to the Boise Friends of the Library book sale and to the Farmers Market and to church at the Cathedral of the Rockies--wow, we really are wild.

Wild book reading, market going, church going inmates!

That's how we Jell-O eaters roll!

And that my friends is recipe #198

Raspberry Jell-O! 

Sorry.  But then again, not sorry.  Jell-O is good.  And refreshing-- and as you know it's also good using sugar free Jell-O, so it can be a low calorie treat! (that was sarcasm)

Who the hell puts Jell-O in a cookbook?

Me, that's who!

Friday Friend Recipe #164 - Red Topped Salad

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook: I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county). At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 18 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions, exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts, had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

AND, we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

I was looking at the cookbook the other night and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog."
The Handyman--who knows me better than I know myself (this happened to be a question on the Friday Friend forum once---does your spouse/partner know you better than you know yourself?)--said,  "you'll never, EVER do that."
WELL---maybe I'll show him!  Maybe I will.

Which brings me to this... recipe #164

My Mom's (actually my grandma's)

Red Topped Salad

My grandma made this Jello for holidays and then my mom made this Jello for holidays.  I have not carried on the tradition, until this past Easter when I made it for the FF Cookbook Countdown.

I made everyone taste it, but I was the only one who liked it.

I knew that would happen as

Jello salad with celery and nuts is an acquired taste.

Red Top Salad

Bev Hambelton

Kennewick, Washington

1/2 lb of marshmallows

1 pkg lime jello

1 9oz softened cream cheese

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 t salt

1 cup finely chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1 9oz can crushed pineapple

1 cup whipped cream

1 pkg cherry jello

Dissolve marshmallows and lime jello in 1 cup boiling water; cool.  Beat cr cheese, salt and mayo till light and fluffy. Stir in celery, nuts and pineapple.  Add lime jello & fold in whipped cream.  Place in  9x12 pan and chill till firm. Dissolve cherry jello according to directions on the box. Chill till slightly thickened.  Pour over firm layer and chill till cherry jello is firm.

My mom couldn't swim.

She never learned how and was horribly afraid of the water.

That's why she stuck my brother and I in swimming lessons each summer until she was certain we knew what we were doing ( in the 1960's early '70s that meant graduating up until we could jump off the high dive!), then she and my dad put a swimming pool in the back yard, where she would work on her tan every summer---all summer. Never swam, but sat out by the pool for hours.

Notice the contrast of my mom's tan shoulders vs my white ones in the photo below.

Now, remember, this was back before we knew how bad the sun was for us, so my parents would have 'tanning' contests to see who could get the best tan. No sun screen, no protective anything.  Maybe some baby oil or Coppertone tanning butter--those were the days!

They did this their whole lives--lived for the sun--then bore a daughter who would rather sit under a shade tree and read a book.

Sun worshipers, their whole lives...

I have meandered.

Where was I?  Oh yes, my mom couldn't swim.  Never got into the deep end of her own swimming pool! My dad swam, my brother and I swam,  and while my mom loved the sun and being by water, she never got over her fear of it.

That is---until my parents would go to Hawaii.

Then she became someone we didn't quite know.

Someone who got into the ocean and parasailed and snorkeled and.... well... I just don't know who this woman was!!

My dad joined in the fun!

 Gang signs!!

My parents  (sigh)

I told you--I don't know who they became!

Truly she was so afraid of the water!

Once when the Handyman and I first started dating, he and I were at a function and came back to my house (I lived with my parents until the day I got married), he was a bit tipsy, picked my mom up and threw her into the pool.  (she had a swimming suit on and other people were in the pool, he had no idea--it looked like a pool party to him) as she was flying thru the air she yelled  "I can't swim" and so he jumped into the pool with all his clothes on and saved her life.

That and my dad was in the pool already.

It's surprising that they loved him so much.

Go figure.

I don't no what Hawaii did to her, but I'm glad it did.

She had fun.

And this makes Recipe #164 in the books.

Only 130 left to go!