The Joys of Jell-O: Raspberry Chantilly

While I was on Labor Day holiday back in Pittsburgh, my mum hosted a dinner for one of my oldest and dearest friends, Dillon, and her new husband, Chris. My mum did the normal Labor Day fare: ribs, macaroni salad, etc. But since the newlyweds are fans of Dinner is Served! I had to bring a little retro action to the party and make something extra-special.

But what is extra-special? Well, I have a big, ol’ jiggly soft spot in my heart for gelatin (who doesn’t?), and I hadn’t used it in a while, so it was a no-brainer that I’d have to break out a Jell-O mold.

I give you, from my 1962 edition of The Joys of Jell-O…

Raspberry Chantilly!

I chose this because the name just sounded fancy and there was a “surprise addition” with the peach jam and all. I love surprise additions!

Well, and on top of that the recipe called for Dream Whip. Now, all of the 1960s Joys of Jell-O recipes call for Dream Whip, but I had never used it. If God had intended me to make whipped cream, he would not have invented Reddi Whip and Cool Whip.

But since this was a fancy pants dessert I decided to go full-on DiS! and make the Dream Whip. Now, check this out: my mum couldn’t find Dream Whip at the hoity-toity Giant Eagle Market District (I am not throwing shade–the Market District is one of the best places on Earth). But you know who DID have Dream Whip?

SAFEWAY.

The goddamned Safeway. Well, neither supermarket had straight-on peach jam so we settled on some peach-mango preserves. I guess peach jam fell out of favor sometime between 1962 and the present.

After the raspberry gelatin chilled until it was “very thick,” I whipped it with the mixer. And then I made the Dream Whip (milk/vanilla extract/Dream Whip magic powder) and whipped that with the mixer. And then both were folded together with the jam.

So far so good. But the jam–sorry, I mean preserves–was very chunky. Very globular. I folded it in, but it didn’t mix in evenly. It stayed in one big blob.

Into the mold it went. I opted for the bunch of grapes mold because that looked most like a raspberry to me.

After dinner was the moment of truth. The unmolding…

Which was a bitch. The chantilly did not want to come out.

This is me when my Jell-O won’t un-mold. Which is every single time.

I am a sad, sad girl. But at least my Batman shirt is boss.

Voila! Ah, that’s better. But it’s definitely weird looking. The “grapes” don’t look like grapes. More like some skin condition that needs a salve. Check out those giant chunks of peach-mango preserves.

Overall the chantilly tasted pretty good. Although awfully sweet. The preserve chunks weren’t bad, just weird. But blobs of jiggliness are pretty much a given in most Jell-O situations, so I have no clue why I thought it was odd.

And I learned that Dream Whip tastes like vanilla soft serve. Which means that I can’t have it my house for fear that I will have another Fluff situation.

Dillon and Chris were so excited to be in the presence of real, honest-to-goodness DiS! cards that Dillon had us pose with them. With duckface. She said it was as though I was  rising out of the recipe cards. Like the birth of Venus. But with less water and nudity.

Which I then found absolutely hilarious. My friends are weird.

Just a heads up–this week’s Wiener Wednesday will be preempted for the Church Lady Cookbook Casserole Challenge with some of my fellow bloggers. It’s like the Knoxapocalypse Jell-O Challenge I did back in February when I was assigned the Jellied Veal.

Prepare yourselves for a lot of condensed canned soups and noodles.