Fruity Popcorn

I’ve seen a lot of jello popcorn recipes. We mixed this up the other night while watching a movie. It was a hit. I made it into popcorn balls that we stuck on sticks.  Messy hands be gone!

8 cups air popped popcorn
1/4 c. butter
3 T corn syrup (honey will probably work as a substitute, but I haven’t tried it)
1/2 c. sugar
1 small box of any flavor Jello

Place butter and syrup in a pan and heat until butter is melted. Add sugar and Jello. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for five minutes. Immediately pour mixture over popcorn in a large bowl, making sure all the popcorn is coated.

Josh picked a box of peach jello when we did it, but i’m having visions of red and green at Christmas.

Red, White and Blue Jello

This is just great.  No Fuss Fabulous has links to this pretty, patriotic jello on her blog.  Check it out here.

*we’re making #5 this afternoon*

link to red, white and blue striped jigglers

Peach Fluff

You can make this apricot fluff, strawberry fluff – any fluff you want.  I was kind of skeptical at first; the recipe sounded odd, didn’t have decent directions, and I couldn’t picture the stuff in my mind.  Below are the directions that worked for us, and a picture I remembered to take of the left overs, because I like you that much.  In trying to get the kids to eat their dinner, I hid a few pastel colored mini-marshmallows in theirs, and they were in heaven.

1 small box peach jello
1 cup boiling water

Put in a blender, and start whizzing.

Add 1 can (8 oz) peaches, drained

Blend, then add 1 – 8 oz pkg cream cheese.  Blend well.

The original directions said “refrigerate until almost set” before this next step, but I left this in the fridge for 5ish hours (soft but set), then added 8 oz Cool Whip and mix in well.

Orange Apricot Jello Salad

People.  If you only saw the e-mail thread about this recipe between my mom and I that went on and on and on and on and…get it?  That bad.  She was trying to interpret a “badly copied” recipe her mom wrote down a zillion years ago, and while I can take almost any pile of ingredients and figure it out, this was Greek.  I think we’ve finally figured it out.  This recipe did remind me, however, that we do definitely have several family recipes that have been passed down through the generations.  When I think of Easter I think of this side dish that’s almost more dessert-like.

JELL-O
2 small or 1 large pkg orange jell-o
1 quart peeled apricot halves
15 oz (or so) can crushed pineapple
2 cups hot water
3/4 c miniature marshmallows

Drain cans of apricots and pineapples, reserving juices.  Place fruit in a glass 9X13 pan.  Combine jello and 2 cups hot water, stirring until combined; add in 1 cup of reserved juice.  Pour over fruit, top with marshmallows, and put in fridge to set.

Topping
1/2 C. sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1 egg slightly beaten
1 C. juice combined (reserved from the cans – add a little water if you’re short)
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 pt. whipping cream

Combine sugar, flour, beaten egg and the 1 cup of reserved juice.  Stir constantly over the stove top (so the egg doesn’t scramble) until thick.  Add butter, still until well combined. Cool mixture in fridge, and then fold in whipped cream.

Grate 3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese and sprinkle on top.

Raspberry Pretzel Salad

I made this almost on a dare: pretzels and jello?  It’s now a family favorite.  I love the combination of salty and sweet, creamy and crunchy. (from The Essential Mormon Cookbook)
3/4 cup butter or margarine
2 1/2 cups thin pretzel sticks
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, room temp
1 (8 oz) tub cool whip, softened
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
1 large pkg raspberry jello
2 (10 oz) pkgs frozen raspberries or strawberries, undrained and slightly thawed
1 (15 oz) can crushed pineapple, undrained

Melt butter and pour into 9X13 pan.  Break pretzels in half and pat evenly into pan.  Bake 10 minutes at 400.  Remove from oven and cool.  In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, cool whip and sugar.  Dab on top of pretzels and spread to edges of pan .  Refridgerate 1 hour.  Bring water to a boil.  Completely dissolve gelatin in boiling water and cool in fridge until syrupy.  Add raspberries and pineapple and stir.  Pour carefully over top of cream cheese mixture.  Refrigerate overnight or until firm.