Welcome to this week’s Mid-Century Menu! This week we are delving into an area we haven’t played in much in the Mid-Century Menu: Desserts. Not pies or cakes, but Jello-based desserts. Mostly the Jello here is filled with onions and celery, and hardly ever turns into anything even remotely dessert-like.
Well, today we are going to turn it all around with Sweet Endings From Dream Whip Whipped Topping Mix, which was published in 1974.
And yes, they DO still make Dream Whip. My mom didn’t believe me when I told her.
“No! They still make Dream Whip?”
“Yep.”
“No!”
“Yes, Mom.”
“No!”
“YES!”
Sweet Endings is actually filled with a bunch of good ideas, and surprisingly NOTHING disgusting. I was shocked. They even had the recipe for Dream Cake (which is just adding Dream Whip to cake mix, but hey, who’s complaining?) that you can still find, unchanged, on packages of Dream Whip today.
“No! They still make Dream Whip today?”
“YES!”
See?? Not totally disgusting. It is even kinda cute! In a Slimer kind of way…
I don’t know what to do with myself. Normally by now the whole recipe has taken a one-way trip down the crapper.
Instead, we have graham cracker crust!
Dream Whip, all whipped.
“No!”
“Yes!”
After a few minutes, I gave up trying to “fold” the Dream Whip and cream cheese mixture together. It just wasn’t working. So, I broke out a whisk and gave it a quick whirl. It didn’t deflate much at all, so I recommend using a whisk to combine if you make this!
Wow…looking pretty good! Not Slimer-like at all!
See, I knew I had the hang of this mid-century cooking thing. I mean, Jello and I, we are like THISCLOSE after all that we have been through. I mean it. Really.
Ohhhhhhh…that’s not right. Not right at all.
See, this is what I get for being cocky.
It turns out that semi-liquid Jello is scared by the light, and will hide underneath cream cheese layers if they are available.
Or, I am just a terrible cook, who needs to abide by the Jello Good Taste Rules.
Rule #1: Never put onions in Jello
Rule #2: Semi-thickened Jello does not equal thickened Jello.
Rule #3: Never put onions in Jello
Well, there isn’t onions in it. At least I got that right.
“Whatever, it looks fine. You know I’ll eat it anyway.”
My hero.
That blur is Tom making an “A-Ok” sign with his hand.
The Verdict: Good. If I wasn’t an idiot, it would have turned out prettier. But it didn’t affect the taste. The cream cheese/Dream Whip layer and the graham cracker crust were, of course, very good. Jello layer and pineapple with the cream cheese layer was ok, but if I was going to make this again, I would just skip the pineapple and cover the whole thing with cherry pie filling. Mmmm…maybe I would even leave the Jello out all together…
“They still make Dream Whip?”
I have this cookbook! I knew I could put my faith in Dream Whip!
Who loves you, Charm and Poise???? Oh, that’s right, Dream Whip does! Oh yes.
Wait, they still mamke Dream Whip??? 🙂
YAY for it turning out good! I think the pink pineapple is purrtty!
The cherry pie filling would have been the bees knees.
That looks really good! Mmm…Dream Whip!
This looks dreammmy and deeeeelicious!! A perfect dessert for a lady and her dreamboat to share. I can’t wait to see what you two cuties will be whisk’n up next Wedn. Muuuah. 🙂
Yes, they do!! 🙂 Thanks, Sara, once I stopped screaming and realized what had happened, I thought it looked pretty good too.
Tom- Next time, babe. Next time.
Eartha – I would mail you a piece, but all you would get would be a greasy envelope with a dried peice of pineapple in it.. 🙂
Jenny – Thanks, darling! So glad you stopped by to see all the mayhem!
This looks delicious.! i love the way they look and i am a big fan of pineapples.
Oh my gosh, Dream Whip! It was quite “the thing” in ’70s kitchens. By the way, another thing you should never put in Jell-O: pretzels. For some reason, lime Jell-O with pretzels was a staple in the dining hall of my college dorm.
Hey – this one looks pretty tasty! I am surprised at the pineapple/jello combo, though – isn’t pineapple the dreaded fruit that they tell you not to put in jello on the jello package? Maybe that’s why it didn’t set well?
I have to say that this doesn’t sound disgusting at all, and in fact appealed to me (otherwise I’d not have wandered over from the other blog, LOL). I do wonder if waiting to add the pineapple ’till later would have helped the Jell-O set better, but it still looks yummy.
I’m going to have to see if I can find some gluten-free graham crackers to make this. The Mister’s clear “a-okay” signal (no translation necessary!) sealed it for me. 😉
Does Tom ever lie and say something gross is fantastic, just so you’ll taste it and wretch?