. . . j•e•l•l•o . . .

. . . sometimes i like to tell myself that
i
could have a food/cooking blog . . .
. . . lots of people do. . .
. . . many are pros . . .
. . . but some cute people i know
have one, too . . .
. . . it seems like all you need to do is:

• choose a recipe
• tell people how to make it
• take appetizing photos along the way

. . . i decided to give it a try . . .
. . . it started like this: ring, ring . . .
. . . "hi, stephanie?
it's our ward's turn to
serve dinner
at the homeless shelter
this sunday.
can you make a
strawberry pretzel jello?"
"sure. not a problem.
happy to help" . . .
. . . honestly, though,
who makes only
one jello salad
at a time? . . .
. . . this is a personality trait i inherited from my mother
who whipped up a quadruple batch of baked beans
{a mere twenty pounds}
for our family dinner recently
which was attended by eleven adults,
nine children, and two babies ~
we now know that one batch
would have been more than enough . . .
. . . i, therefore, determined that
i would make
four batches of this dessert:

• one for said homeless shelter dinner
• two for family dinner
• one {with no crust} for cute niece with celiac disease
  

. . . anyhow . . .
. . . strawberry pretzel jello is really yummy . . .
. . . but i hardly ever make it . . .
. . . you all have the recipe
{or just google it} . . .
. . . i'll quickly go over the basics . . .
. . . start with a crust of:

• crushed pretzels
• sugar, and
• melted butter

. . . bake and let cool . . .

. . . if surprisingly
nice-looking fresh strawberries
are available,
i suggest using them . . .
. . . if not, frozen berries will do . . .
. . . fresh berries need to be
washed and hulled . . .

. . . then sliced . . .

. . . mix jello with boiling water . . .
. . . stir to dissolve completely . . .
. . . add ice cubes . . .
. . . stir until melted . . .
. . . carefully add jello
to sliced strawberries . . .

. . . beat room temperature cream cheese
with sugar . . .
. . . fold in whipped topping . . .
. . . spread over cooled pretzel crust . . .
. . . the entire crust . . .

. . . please make sure
the cream filling
goes all the way
to the edges of the pan . . .
. . . what you are trying to do
is form a seal
between the crust and the jello . . .
. . . imagine cream cheese caulking,
if you will {or don't} . . .

. . . carefully pour
jello/strawberry mixture
over the creamy filling . . .
. . . and, voila! . . .
. . . strawberry pretzel jello times four . . .
. . . but, alas . . .
. . . do you see what i see? . . .
. . . look at jello number two
{count from the bottom of the picture} . . .

. . . does this help? . . .

. . . upon closer inspection of the recipe,
i discovered that i left out
a VERY important step which is:
you need to refrigerate
the jello/strawberry mixture
until partially set
before it becomes
the top layer of this salad . . .
. . . so, my helpful tip of the day is this:
read the fine print and
don't skip any steps
when following a recipe . . .
. . . by the way,
this photo represents
only the beginning of
what turned into a
full-scaled gelatin disaster . . .
. . . within minutes, ALL of the jello
had seeped underneath
the cream cheese filling . . .
. . . this makes for a soggy pretzel crust . . .
. . . and that, my friends,
is why i will not be
hosting a food/cooking blog . . .
{that, and the fact that
i would certainly need a better camera . . .
my pictures=not good}