Broken Glass Jello

I know I haven't posted much lately; I've been very busy with long term house guests, a birthday party, the garden, animals and getting ready for the upcoming school year!  I will be starting my new teaching position in exactly two weeks and can't believe its time already!  This summer has flown by!

I made this AWESOME jello for Mr. J's birthday party.  I found the recipe from Food Librarian and have been meaning to try it for a long time now.  I'm sure you could even do a version of this with my Peppermint Martini Jello Shots; only for an adult party of course!

I doubled the recipe so we got to pick out 8 flavors of jello instead of 4; and we ended up with two 9 x 13 pans of this fun stuff!  It was great; and the cool thing is that you can use any flavors/colors of jello you like!  

I think it would be really neat to make for Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter, St. Patricks day, etc!  The possibilities are endless!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

-4 (3 oz.) boxes of jello, any flavors you like

-4 cups + 1 1/2 cups boiling water

-2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

-1/2 cup cold water

-14 oz. sweetened condensed milk

Process:

Day 1:

1. Mix each 3 oz. box of jello with 1 cup boiling water.

*Tip: start with the lightest color of jello and work to the darkest; then you don't have to wash or rinse the container between mixing.

2. Pour each jello mixture into its own flat container.

*I used the small Glad plastic containers, which are about 5 1/2 inch square and hold 3 1/8 cups each.

3. Cover containers and refrigerate until firm.  {Do this at least 2 days in advance.}

Day 2:
4. Prepare a 9 x 13 baking dish for jello by spraying it with non-stick spray {this will help the plastic wrap stay in place}, then place a long sheet of plastic wrap into the pan, press the corners down so the wrap is completely stuck to the pan.

5. Cut each container of jello into "squares", they don't have to be perfect or even straight.

6. Use a spoon or your clean fingers to remove the jello from the containers.  Place all of the jello squares into the prepared 9 x 13 dish.

*Tip: I found that setting each container of jello in a shallow dish of warm water just before cutting and removing helped a lot.

7. Sprinkle both envelopes of unflavored gelatin over the 1/2 cup cold water and allow gelatin to bloom.  Let gelatin bloom for about 5 minutes; this will ensure your jello has a nice smooth texture.
8. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of boiling water to the gelatin mixture and dissolve completely.
9. Add sweetened condensed milk to the dissolved gelatin and let set until cooled to around room temperature.  
{Don't put it in the fridge to cool it down or it could set up and you'd have a large mass of white jello!}

10. Pour the cooled milk/gelatin mixture evenly over the jello squares.

11. Cover and refrigerate the jello overnight.  

Day 3 or Serving Day:
12. Use the plastic wrap to lift out jello or flip the pan onto a large cutting board.  Cut into squares. 
{You could even cut using fun shaped cookie cutters and treat yourself or the kids to the scrap pieces.}

I'm telling you, its totally worth trying.  My dad doesn't like jello and he really liked this, he said it was kind of like ice cream.  ENJOY!

Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake

Someone posted this recipe on facebook, it was one of their grandmothers recipes; so of course I had to try it!  And it is an awesome recipe!

Ingredients for Cake:

-1 1/4 cups boiling water

-1 cup oatmeal

-1/2 cup shortening or butter, softened

-1 cup sugar

-1 tsp baking soda

-3/4 tsp cinnamon

-1 cup brown sugar

-1 tsp vanilla

-2 eggs

-1 1/2 cups flour

-1/2 tsp salt

-1/4 tsp nutmeg

Ingredients for Caramel Frosting or Glaze:

-1 1/2 cups brown sugar

-2 tbsp butter

-3/4 cup milk or cream

-1/2 tsp vanilla

Process:

1. Pour boiling water over oatmeal, cover with a towel or a plate and allow to sit for about 20 minutes.

2. In the meantime, beat shortening/butter with sugar until fluffy.
3. Add vanilla, eggs and baking soda, beat well.

4. Beat in salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

5. Beat in brown sugar.

6. Add soaked oatmeal and flour, mix well.

7. Pour batter into two 8 or 9 inch  greased cake pans or one 9 x 13 greased baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes.
8. Cool at least 30 minutes or completely before cutting.

Prepare Frosting or Glaze:
1. Cook sugar and milk/cream until it reaches 235 degrees.
2. Add vanilla and butter.
*for glaze: serve at this point

For Frosting:
1. Cool completely and beat until it reaches spreading consistency.

Enjoy!

Canned Blueberry Jam

This is such a super recipe, I actually made this one last winter when we needed jam but I just can't get myself to buy jam anymore since I am always making it homemade.  

The original recipe makes about 3 pints.  I doubled the recipe, so I used 8 cups of berries; listed below are the ingredients for a single batch.  It uses frozen fruit so its awesome for winter!  I found this one from Food.com, the original recipe says to thaw and drain the berries, but I didn't.  

I also think you could use any single or combination of frozen fruit too! Enjoy!  This jam can be used as you would any other jam, or get creative and drizzle warmed jam over vanilla ice cream or fresh fluffy angel food cake! 

Ingredients:

-2 pints frozen blueberries {4 cups}

-2 tbsp lemon juice

-1 packet liquid pectin

-5 1/4 cups sugar

Process:

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.

2. Place frozen blueberries in a large pot.

3. Add sugar and lemon juice.

Stir to combine.

4. Turn on heat to medium-high, stirring occasionally until berries are thawed and the sugar begins to dissolve.

5. Stir in pectin and bring to a hard boil for 1 minute.

For a single batch you would use one of these pouches.

6. Remove from heat.

7. Ladle jam into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe rim, top with lid and ring.

8. Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.
9. Remove to a wire rack or a clean kitchen towel.  Allow to cool.

Enjoy!

Canned Apple Peel Jelly or Syrup

This is a great recipe; its perfect for the fall when we have access to fantastic fresh local apples!  It has a beautiful color and will be very transparent if strained through a jelly bag or very opaque if squished through a sieve.  I found this recipe from Recipelink.com.

When I made this I intended to make it as a jelly, although mine came out more like a syrup {after I cooked up enough apple peels to equal one gallon/16 cups of apple "juice", I realized I only had 6 tbsp pectin}.  For us that was a fortunate mistake since my son loves this on his morning french toast, waffles or pancakes.  Actually he LOVES it; and uses it over maple syrup every day!

Ingredients for Apple Jelly:

-apple peels {and/or apple cores, enough to equal about 4 inches in the bottom of a large pot}

-5 cups water

-1 box pectin

-7 cups sugar

Ingredients for Apple Syrup:

-apple peels {and/or apple cores, enough to fill a large pot}

-15 cups water

-6 tbsp powdered pectin

-7 cups sugar

Process:

1. Add apple peels and/or cores to a 4.5 quart pot.  {There should be about 3-4 inches of apple peel in the bottom of the pot.}

2. Top apple peels with water; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Remove from heat, place lid on pot and allow to sit at room temperature overnight. {Optional: Add a cinnamon stick to the mixture while mixture is resting overnight; for apple cinnamon jelly/syrup.}

4. Strain mixture into a large measuring cup or container {I used a 1 gallon pitcher with a colander on top.}

5. You should end up with 5 cups apple "juice"

6. Return apple "juice" to pot, dissolve pectin into "juice" and bring to a full boil over high heat.

7. Add sugar to apple "juice" all at once.  Stir to dissolve, return to a rolling boil and boil for about 1 minute.

8. Remove from heat and ladle into hot 1/2 pint of pint canning jars, top with canning lid and ring, place in hot water bath.
9. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
10. Remove lid, allow to sit for 5 minutes; then remove from canner to a wire rack or clean kitchen towel.

Enjoy jelly as you would any other jelly.

Enjoy syrup for breakfast over pancakes, waffles, french toast or dessert over angel food cake or even warmed over vanilla ice cream!  Yum!

Mom's Fantastic Fruit Pizza

This is my Mom's fantastic fruit pizza recipe!  Its great as a dessert, an appetizer or just as a snack.  

You can use whatever fruit you have in the house or customize it to your family's likes.  Enjoy!

Ingredients for Crust:

-1 cup flour

-1/2 cup butter, softened or melted

-1/4 cup powdered sugar

Ingredients for Sauce:

-8 oz. cream cheese, softened

-1 tsp vanilla

-1/2 cup sugar

Ingredients for Glaze:

-1 cup pineapple juice, reserved from canned pineapple plus enough water to make 1 cup

-1 tsp lemon juice

-1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Suggested Topping Ingredients:

-canned pineapple slices or tidbits

-apple, peeled and sliced

-bananas, sliced

-kiwi, peeled and sliced

-strawberries, sliced

-red and/or green grapes, sliced in half

Other Topping Ideas:

-mandarin oranges

-pear, peeled and sliced

-pomegranate seeds

-blueberries

-blackberries

-raspberries

-oranges or clementines, peeled and sliced

-fresh cranberries, finely chopped

-peaches

-apricots

Process:

Prepare crust:

1. Mix together flour, powdered sugar and butter.

2. Pat or roll the crust into a pizza pan.  {I used a layer of plastic wrap to prevent the dough from sticking to my rolling pin.}

3. Bake crust at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  Cool completely.

Prepare Sauce:
1. Mix together softened cream cheese, vanilla and sugar.

2. Spread sauce over the cooled crust.

3. Arrange fruit over the sauce.

Prepare Glaze:
1. Mix together pineapple juice, water, lemon juice and cornstarch in a saucepan.

2. Bring mixture to a boil, until thickened.

3. Spread glaze over fruit.  Cool in fridge for 2-8 hours and enjoy!