Christmas Ribbon Jello

Jello was often a part of family meals while I was growing up in the 50's and 60's. Also, it, with additions of fruit and cream, made the jello molds which were a staple at church pot-luck dinners. However, special, complex recipes were usually reserved for holidays. It seemed that everyone would try to outdo the other cooks with fancy recipes and interesting additions in their jello. At our Christmas and Easter family dinners, ribbon jello salad became a necessary part of the holiday dinner. Now it is "tradition."  Grammie always made it up until the past few years.  Now, using the popular recipe found in Joys of Jello, I, along with Bonnie, have become the keepers of the jello tradition. At Christmas the jello has layers of red, white and green, and at Easter the flavors change to get the colors of yellow, orange and white...or whatever combo the cook decides to use. The small packages of jello the recipe calls for are quite difficult to find nowadays, so the recipe automatically has to be doubled. No problem! Everyone likes this recipe, especially my nephew Scott who looks forward to this particular dish at holiday meals.

Christmas 2010 we served the jello right on the plate with the rest of the Christmas supper, but we often serve it on a desert plate, so it has it's own specical place at the table.

Here's the basic recipe I used, with slight modificatios, for Christmas 2010 and Easter 2011:

Christmas Ribbon Jello
Ingredients:
Step 1:

• 2 (3 oz) packages lime jello
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 cups cold water

Step 2:

• 1 (3 oz) package lemon jello
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 1 cup pineapple juice (Use the juice drained from the pineapple.)
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
• 1 can (1 lb, 4 oz) crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (unsweetened), whipped
• 1 cup mayonnaise

Note 1: You can use low-fat versions of whipping cream, cream cheese and mayonnaise, but this jello salad won't have the same creamy taste of the original. My thought is that for all the time and mixing bowls this takes to make, it is worth it to use the real thing. Also, this is not an everyday recipe...

Step 3:

• 2 (3 oz) packages raspberry or strawberry jello
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 cups cold water

Note: If you use the only one 3 oz. package of lime and raspberry jello as some versions of this recipe suggest for the bottom and top layers, the green and red layers will be a rather thin, so you may want to be sure to use the two packages of the small size or one of the larger size package of jello for the top and bottom layers. Everyone I know loves leftovers of this salad, so having a bit too much is no problem around our house.




Directions:
Step 1: Dissolve lime jello in 2 cups hot water, then add 2 cups cold water. Pour into a 14x10x2 glass casserole. Chill until partially set.

Step 2: Dissolve lemon jello in 1 cup hot water in a heavy pan. Add marshmallows and stir to melt.

Remove from heat and add cream cheese and pineapple juice. Beat until well blended. Stir in crushed pineapple. Let cool slightly. Whip the heavy cream, then fold into the mixture along with the mayonnaise. Chill until partially thickened, then pour over the lime jello layer. Chill until firm.

Step 3: Dissolve the raspberry or strawberry jello in 2 cups hot water. Add 2 cups cold water. Chill until syrupy, then pour over pineapple layer. Let chill until firm.

 Note 1: I speed up the process by putting bowls, pineapple, whipped cream, etc. in the refrigerator to chill until I need them. You can also put some ice water in instead of cold tap water after the jello has been melted.
Note 2: I always have to be really careful about the cooling of the jello to pour on partially set for layers, especially the last to go on top. If it gets too set/thick, the top will be lumpy...no way to get it clear and smooth. It tastes the same, but isn't as pretty and it is more difficult to serve.

Source: Joys of Jello via the Internet where dozens of this recipe were found on various sites. The many recipes I found had all of the same ingredients but some had slightly different proportions and different methods of mixing up the layers. I've just purchased a Joys of Jello soft-cover recipe booklet from a used book seller on the Internet, so I will be able to check out the "real" real recipe in a couple of weeks.