I have been keeping a secret from you guys, and it is pretty major. Are you ready? Here we go:
I may have scored the greatest gelatin mold of all time.
I’m serious. I got my grubby little mitts on this thing probably 10 or so months ago, and I have been keeping it a secret ever since. Every so often I would get it out and just…stare at it. Because it is so awesome. And so majestic and so absolutely perfect for the Fourth of July. So perfect, in fact, that I bent one of my rules so that I could bring you guys the ultimate gelatin mold.
Drumroll please….
Look at it! Look! Are you looking??? It’s an EAGLE!! It’s even holding arrows and its body is a SHIELD.
I’ve been waiting so, so long for this moment.
The most patriotic mold ever, ever.
Anyways, on to the rule bending. So, I knew that I wanted to make a red, white and blue salad with this thing, but I didn’t have a patriotic themed recipe that worked with my eagle mold. So, I got creative with a recipe from a Kansas newspaper from the 1960’s called Christmas Salad. I have seen about a zillion variations of this one, so I thought that changing it up a bit wouldn’t be a big deal.
- 2 boxes lime gelatin
- 2 boxes strawberry gelatin
- 1 medium can crushed pineapple
- 1 envelope plain gelatin
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Mix strawberry gelatin according to package directions and put in a 13×9 pan. Let cool until partially set.
- Drain pineapple, save juice. Put half of pineapple and half of nuts in red gelatin and let set almost completely.
- Bring reserved pineapple juice to a boil and add plain gelatin which has been softened in 1/4 cup water. Add cream cheese and let cool, but not set.
- Whip cream, add sugar and vanilla, then add to juice and gelatin mixture. Pour over red gelatin layer and let set almost completely.
- Make lime gelatin according to directions and let cool until partially set. Add remaining pineapple and nuts and then pour on top of cream cheese mixture.
- Refrigerate until lime gelatin is completely set, then slice and serve!
It was pretty easy to make a couple of tweaks. The first thing that I did was move the cream cheese filling layer to the top and then I swapped out the lime gelatin with blue gelatin. Easy!
Well, pretty easy. I am using a 10 cup mold here, so I thought that would be plenty of room for this recipe. (It is supposed to be made in a 13×9 pan, like this one.) But I was wrong. The filling layer took up about half of the mold.
And then the two boxes of strawberry gelatin with pineapple and pecans took up more!
In the end, I was only able to fit part of one small box of blue gelatin at the bottom, and I couldn’t fit in the pineapple or the pecans for that layer!
Luckily there were a few rogue pecans from the red layer that escaped into the blue layer. So it sort of had extras in it.
But it didn’t matter, because when I unmolded it, it was a patriotic glory to behold.
Sniff.
Brings a tear to my eye and a lump to my throat.
And it even tasted good!
The Verdict: Fun and Yummy
From the Tasting Notes:
A good, adaptable gelatin recipe for any holiday. Tastes like a classic potluck gelatin dessert, all that is missing are the mini marshmallows, which you could easily stir into the cream cheese/whip cream layer. The cream cheese layer was creamy and delicious and the pineapple and nuts gave it a good texture. Would be super cute made into a 13×9 pan and served at your retro barbecue!
I’m betting the tasting notes are yours, as I really can’t picture Tom using the expression “super cute.”
You know, for a Jell-O mold, this looks (dare I say it?) practically edible.
Suave Tom is suave.
My grandma had a mold exactly like that! That looks great. I’ll have to try it.
I dig Tom’s hat and his always-cool t-shirt.
Wow! That is quite a find – I love it and the Christmas Salad looks really good.
Thanks!
Thanks, David!
Yup! Mostly of the tasting notes are mine this time! 🙂
HAPPY YANKITY DOO-DAH DANDY DAY, EVERYONE!
Been making a variation of that recipe from the Jello cookbook of the 1960s/1970. The Jello cookbook uses small Lemon jello with marshmallow (melted), mayo, cream cheese, whipped cream and pineapple. No nuts. Red layer is raspberry but I use cranberry sometimes. And of course as much sugar free Jello as I can find. Lemon sugar-free is scarce.
Your mold is beautiful and getting it out in one piece must have been difficult!
Happy 4th!
Sans pecans, sounds great.
Guess what! I found that same mold on etsy and I can’t wait to make this in my eagle mold
Wow – congrats on this ultimate retro July 4th score. Impressive indeed! Aunt Lil