topic Re: Do You Remember This? in Kitchen

Do You Remember This?

ECBG — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 21:04:52 GMT

My stepmother occasionally served a cherry jello with fruit cocktail with dinner, and they were good enough.

I was a growing teenager and hungry.

I think the "thought" at that time was "fruit is healthy" and the sugar didn't register.

I never liked lime jello, but love Key Lime pie, and lime sherbet.

Because of their popularity, Tupperware had a large mold which she used.

Re: Do You Remember This?

nana59 — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 21:11:41 GMT

@ECBG wrote:
My stepmother occasionally served a cherry jello with fruit cocktail with dinner, and they were good enough.
I was a growing teenager and hungry.

I think the "thought" at that time was "fruit is healthy" and the sugar didn't register.
I never liked lime jello, but love Key Lime pie, and lime sherbet.
Because of their popularity, Tupperware had a large mold which she used.

i still have that Tupperware mold!

Re: Do You Remember This?

Kachina624 — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 21:16:13 GMT

We had plenty of canned fruit for dessert after dinner but not with jello. I remember my grandma having a volume of Jello salad recipes that she served at her bridge parties. They seemed to be the chic thing to serve during that era.

Re: Do You Remember This?

godi — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 21:26:41 GMT

My aunt made some kind of gelatin dessert with fruit but the gelatin was white. It was so good. And yes I remember the mold too.

Re: Do You Remember This?

ECBG — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 21:31:44 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
We had plenty of canned fruit for dessert after dinner but not with jello. I remember my grandma having a volume of Jello salad recipes that she served at her bridge parties. They seemed to be the chic thing to serve during that era.

@Kachina624

Jello salads were such a "hot" thing from the 1950's (maybe 1940'S) forward.

This one with cottage cheese was a hot one. I just couldn't "take" the texture or the lime!

I saw it at picnics and stayed away!

Re: Do You Remember This?

shoesnbags — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 21:35:41 GMT

@ECBG

Yes, I remember Jello with fruit cocktail for dessert! My mom varied the jello flavors, but definitely no lime. I love key lime pie, but not lime jello - yuck. Since it was the 1950s and 60s, I think canned fruit was thought of as healthy. Jello was always dessert, never used as a salad.

Re: Do You Remember This?

Enufstuff — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 21:44:28 GMT

@ECBG In the 50's and 60's dessert was an expected part of a meal. Even if it was something simple like jello, pudding, cookies, ice cream or a dish of fruit. I baked something every week,but sometimes I did make jello with fresh or canned fruit in it. My mother gave me her copper jello molds from the 50's and

I used those sometimes and sometimes just in a bowl.

Re: Do You Remember This?

Vivian — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:05:09 GMT

Oh how I hated that stuff. Canned fruit WAS dessert, surrounded by jello or not, it was enough to make me skip dessert. I think that in the 50s and 60s, anything that was quick and easy was looked at as progress. Now we're digging out the recipes of our great grandmothers in order to create delicious desserts.

Re: Do You Remember This?

Queen of shop — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:13:24 GMT

@ECBG I still have that Tupperware Jell-o mold. It's green. Haven't used it in years. Just can't part with it though. It was my mom's. She gave it to me in the late 70's. And I sure do remember her making Jell-o and fruit cocktail.

Re: Do You Remember This?

ECBG — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:16:46 GMT

@Queen of shop wrote:
@ECBG I still have that Tupperware Jell-o mold. It's green. Haven't used it in years. Just can't part with it though. It was my mom's. She gave it to me in the late 70's. And I sure do remember her making Jell-o and fruit cocktail.

@Queen of shop

The one my stepmother used was standard clear/white.

The design on the top could be changed.

Re: Do You Remember This?

Sooner — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:21:30 GMT

We didn't have much jello growing up. I have a pretty neutral feeling about it. My husband would be so thrilled to get it during a hospital stay!

What puzzles me is how negative Americans react to a lot of foods that are actually heritage foods, foods that remind us of home, or hark back to another time. So many other cultures do the opposite.

We seem to discount that a of these items were quick, cheap, and available whereas many areas had such limited access to canned, quick or convenience foods up until the 50's and 60's, as troops had come home and wartime production moved back to consumer goods.

These were new and exciting foods, quick for a lot of women who now had jobs, and they were welcome treats in a very bland diet.

So to me, although I am not a huge fan of jello, I like seeing these things from creative cooks using products new to them. I'd build a monument to 50's food if it were up to me! It would be a monument to those women!

Re: Do You Remember This?

ECBG — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:31:32 GMT

@Sooner

Absolutely. I don't mean disrespect the ladies at all.

Jello was their exciting "new thing and a welcome change" no doubt. I'm certain they did the best they could and loved their families. These are just my memories.

No doubt as other things became available and nutrition education was more widely shared, family menus were affected.

Re: Do You Remember This?

Sooner — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:33:58 GMT

@ECBG I am sorry if it seemed I was pointing at you. Wasn't!

I just wonder why our culture has little connection to so many of the dishes that people ate back when in this country. I envy others who cherish theirs more.

Re: Do You Remember This?

RedTop — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:36:16 GMT

I LOVE jello, especially cherry! Jello was a cheap and easy dessert for the 5 of us.

When my brothers and I saw this one particular turquoise bowl in the fridge, we knew Mom had made our very favorite jello dessert with sliced bananas, fruit cocktail, and pieces of toasted coconut marshmallows in cherry or black cherry jello.

I always count on drinking jello when I prep for a colonoscopy. Jello makes me smile, and takes me back to some of the best days of my life.

Re: Do You Remember This?

ECBG — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:43:04 GMT

@Sooner wrote:
@ECBG I am sorry if it seemed I was pointing at you. Wasn't!

I just wonder why our culture has little connection to so many of the dishes that people ate back when in this country. I envy others who cherish theirs more.

@Sooner

Awwww. Totally get it now, thank you.

I really think education is the key, then there is also the MCDonalds is a family dinner" location. Remember that one? Those ladies were working, frazzled, and rescued by Crockpot!

There was a time McDonalds had a lettuce and tomato hamburger, but couldn't keep up supplies.

I realize we crave the new and exciting.

It would seem that the "best of the best" came forward.

I have a wonderful main dish casserole my grandmother started making when I was 14, probably from her bridge parties.

I wonder the percentage of young families that have family recipes?

Re: Do You Remember This?

Sooner — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:49:26 GMT

@ECBG Maybe this will encourage some people to serve dishes that have a family history or that you have a funny story about--maybe serve the dish along with a picture of the relative and a little about them.

Re: Do You Remember This?

ECBG — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 22:56:25 GMT

@Sooner wrote:
@ECBG Maybe this will encourage some people to serve dishes that have a family history or that you have a funny story about--maybe serve the dish along with a picture of the relative and a little about them.

@Sooner

I encourage you to share. My childhood was spent in the innocence of what I didn't realise. My teen years in books and coasting until I could leave.

Re: Do You Remember This?

Sooner — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 23:02:10 GMT

@ECBG My aunt made wonderful creamed corn, but I don't have a recipe. She made wonderful cookies and fried apricot pies too.

She made a squash or sweet potato (can't remember!) pie once and her husband said it was awful--couldn't eat it. She put it in the fridge a few days and casually said she'd made a pumpkin pie.

He allowed as how it was THE best pumpkin pie he ever ate! She won! And never let him live it down. Those two could always laugh at themselves. They were a joy!

Re: Do You Remember This?

JeanLouiseFinch — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:06:35 GMT

Growing up, every occasion included some kind of jello mold. Most of the times they were a seasonal version. I never understood serving with a dollop of Mayo or Miracle Whip, though. 🤮

Re: Do You Remember This?

Icegoddess — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:21:14 GMT

I never really liked the Jello with fruit in it, but I do have a recipe that has crushed pineapple and a cream cheese topping I like. My Grandmother used to make Pink Pie that was Jello, frozen strawberries, and Cool Whip in a graham cracker crust. I looooved that growing up.