I’m going to my cousin’s for Thanksgiving, and I need to bring a side dish. My mother always brought a Jello mold, but she’s passed away . . . so I’m going to keep the tradition alive by making one myself. The only problem is that I’ve never made a Jello mold, and I hate the simple ones with just pieces of fruit in them. So who has suggestions for a really impressive mold that even a newbie can make?
I have two. Hang on a minute while I get my recipe box…
Red Jello
1 lg pkg raspberry Jello
2 c hot water
1/2 pint sour cream (1 cup)
1 can whole cranberry sauce
Green Jello
1 lg package lime Jello
2 c hot water
1 small can evaporated milk
1 cup sour cream
1 pint cottage cheese
1 can crushed pineapple
Guaranteed to be authentic 50’s Jello recipes from my grandmother. One is for Thanksgiving and one is for Christmas–you pick which. 
This one from AllRecipes.com requires plain gelatin, which I don’t think Jell-O makes.
I got this one off the internet, but it’s almost verbatim what my mommy used to make. She’d put the nuts on top.
CRANBERRY JELLO SALAD
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
1 (3 oz.) box raspberry Jello
1 1/4 c. boiling water
1 sm. can crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
Add boiling water to cranberry sauce and Jello. Stir well. Add crushed pineapple and stir. Nuts can be used to top Jello salad or mixed with pineapple. Chill for a few hours. This recipe can be doubled and put into a 9 x 13 inch dish.
If you would rather be assigned a different dish next year, I recommend this Jello mold -
I’ve made one for holiday meals that involved melting red hots in the jello, but beyond that it’s really just fruit (and walnuts) in jello.
This recipe seems similar. http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1943,156187-236204,00.html Mine is from the Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery which I don’t keep here at work.
Pass around the Circus Peanut Jello! just the thing for a festive holiday spread! (Insert Barf Smiley Here)
Circus Peanut Recipe
You will need:
7 ounces (about 30) of Spangler Circus Peanuts
1-6 oz package of orange flavored gelatin
1-16 oz can of Mandarin oranges, drained*
2 cups of boiling water
1 3/4 cups of Mandarin orange syrup and cold water
2 cups of whipped topping
- You may substitute 16 oz of canned crushed pineapple, drained
Directions:
Cut the Spangler Circus Peanuts into small pieces
Dissolve the orange gelatin in the boiling water
Add the pieces of Spangler Circus Peanuts, stirring until dissolved
Drain the syrup from the Mandarin oranges, adding enough cold water to equal 1 3/4 cups
Add to gelatin; chill until partially set
Stir together the Mandarin oranges and whipped topping; fold into the gelatin mixture
Pour mixture into a 13 x 9 inch pan
Chill until firm
Yields approximately 18 - 3 oz servings
Heh - I know this is too late, but for future reference… The recipe here , for a peach melba gelatin dessert, is actually pretty good - we made it this past Halloween as described - i.e. in the brain mold.
How appropriate that I stumbled across this thread while searching for “barf smiley”.
I’ve read that some chemical in pineapple prevents Jell-O or any other gelatin from solidifying properly. True?
I use crushed pineapple (not fresh), cream cheese and whipped cream in my 3 layer jello and I use half the water in that particular layer. It seems to firm up fine although I did hear something about fresh pineapple and have never seen it used, so perhaps the rumor you heard is true.
Canned pineapple and/or canned pineapple juice is perfectly safe to use in jello. Fresh will prevent it setting. If you Google pineapple jello you will get scientific detail.
I found a scientific explanation (though not at the Jell-O site):