Family Food Traditions

Jello. That iconic food staple of all Lutheran potlucks. "Make some Jello tonight" the ad says. After all, it is so simple - what could, in fact, be easier? It's got only two ingredients: a box of Jello and WATER. Any idiot should be able to make this successfully. Last night I proved I am the exception to this rule.

My older sister, Dona, remembers Jello a bit differently. She spent her early years in a small community with a lot of relatives from both sides of our family. She went to school each day in the company of my mom's youngest brother and sister. And Sunday "dinner" (what I would call "lunch" today was referred to then) was always at Grandma McDonagh's house after Sunday Mass. The menu never varied - meat, potatoes (and other vegetables - they had a vegetable farm then), sliced white bread and Jello. And just as invariably, the jello was lumpy. Grandma always forgot or never had time to start the process any earlier so she relied on the "quick set method"...dissolve in boiling water, add some cold water and some ice cubes. Now the remainder of the instructions for this method were to remove the ice cubes at some point but shepherding 10 kids out the door to church created sufficient distraction so that particular detail was customarily overlooked. This meant her jello had a rather unique consistency - of course as my grandpa would say "still tastes the same."

Having learned to cook from her mom, my mom continued the tradition and we often had jello for dinner (I think others might have called this "supper"). Mom always made the jello in her 9x13 aluminum cake pan (which I now possess) which imparted a slight metallic taste. Sometimes she would put fruit cocktail or other fruits in it and often, apparently in keeping with tradition, she would forget until the jello was fairly set before remembering to add the fruit. This meant that the fruit "floated" on the top - not so much a problem if she was adding canned fruit cocktail to green or yellow jello but if she was slicing bananas into strawberry jello (one of her favorites), the oxidation of the floating slices was less than appealing to a kid. My dad would say "still tastes the same" so we ate it whether we liked it or not.

Both my younger (Margo) and my sister-in-law (Rosanne) have mastered the art of jello - the concoctions they create are beautiful and tasty, sometimes layered and/or molded, using all the flavors of the rainbow. And each time we're there, my kids look to me and ask why don't we have jello at home? I never have a good answer...

Until last night. Yesterday, I decided that lime gelatin with pears just plain sounded yummy. Maybe I was thinking that it would be an okay substitute for a catholic who was denying herself a dessert on Ash Wednesday...maybe I just wanted to use up a box in my pantry. In any event, I went to the store and purchased canned pears. I was a bit late getting home from lunch and errands but I was determined NOT to make lumpy jello by "quick" method. So I dissolve the jello in the boiling water and then put it in the fridge - setting the timer so I don't forget to add the pears BEFORE the jello completely sets (I don't want any "floaters"). I was going to break away from all family traditions!

The step I neglected was adding the remaining cold water to the mixture BEFORE putting it in the fridge. When I checked it 1/2 hour later, I discovered that I had essentially made "jigglers" - the kind of jello you make for a kid to eat with their hands. I tried to stir in the fruit regardless and well let's just say grandma's lumpy jello had nothing on me! My daughter (Sarah) was visiting and she thought I could just stir in the remaining water now. My son (Chris) was skeptical and suggested I at least try to whisk it in.

It worked pretty much as you might expect, which is to say, not so much. But God love my husband, Gerry. As we sat there at dinner, he gamely tried it and pronounced it "still tastes the same."

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