To celebrate the dual birthdays of Laura and Chris this weekend, I decided to experiment with a liquor haven’t tried using before, gin. I mixed it with a little triple sec and ginger ale to sweeten it up and suspend mandarin oranges throughout. The result is a zingy, citrusy jello mold that will definitely give you a little buzz and put you in a birthday celebrating mood. Click on the comments section to try this one for yourself and Happy Birthday Laura and Chris!

A little something special for Valentine’s day this year, I made this multi-layer heart shaped mold. The top layer is raspberries suspended in clear gelatin over a layer of sweetened condensed milk over a layer of raspberry gelatin over a crust of chocolate cookie crumbs. This was no easy feat so I hope my someone special loves it. Click on the comment section to try this for yourself and have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

This vintage style veggie salad made with carrots, mayo, green peppers, and onion suspended in lemon gelatin with salt and vinegar is straight out of the 1950′s and despite it containing gelatinized mayo is actually not that bad. This jello along with 3 others from my book makes an appearance on the The Chew, hosted by Iron Chef America‘s Mario Batali and Michael Symon, Top Chef‘s Carla Hall, and What Not to Wear’s Clinton Kelly, as part of their “cooking through the decades” week with jello representing the fabulous 50′s. The show, airing Monday February 6th, is available to stream on The Chew’s website. Click on the comments section to try this recipe for yourself.

My sister Kateri sent me this recipe book some time ago and I have been meaning to try a recipe from it. The New Joys of Jell-O, a 1973 follow-up to the original 1960′s Joys of Jell-O, takes jello from the suburbs to the city and features photographs of sophisticated, swinging, singles in a posh Manhattan penthouse feasting on a dizzying array of jello selections… Seems about right.

I selected the Strawberries Romanoff recipe but substituted cherries for strawberries because I wanted to use this cherry themed mold Flossie gave me for Christmas. It has a top layer of cherry whipped cream with a touch of brandy and bottom layer of sweet dark cherries suspended in cherry gelatin. Click on the recipe text below to enlarge try this one for yourself!

I rang in the new year over the weekend with a little something boozy from the book.  This very rich and creamy Mudslide jello, fashioned after the cocktail, is made with generous amounts of coffee and Irish cream liqueurs, heavy cream, and a touch of vodka. A little cocoa powder tops it off (whipped cream and/or chocolate syrup would also be good).  Have a happy New Year everyone!

Rusty gave me this wonderful candy/mini jello mold for my birthday back in November. And at some point Janejai sent me an inspirational email with colorful photos of homemade gum drops in wintery flavors. I put two and two together and turned out a whole bunch of these little gum drops for my holiday party I hosted over the weekend. Made in mint, cinnamon, and orange flavors and rolled in sweet sugar, the cinnamon was my favorite. These were a huge hit and really simple to make. Click on the comments section for the recipe and have a Happy Holiday!

As one of the artists for Food Lust: Shock Candy (for which I served up jello at the opening reception last week), Martha Rich created a series of paintings on vintage cookbook pages featuring cakes and jello molds. I saw the above painting and recognized it immediately.  The inspiration for this particular painting was my very own Peaches & Cream Jello! Honored, I had to share her work here. Martha works in both the commercial and fine art fields. Her commercial work has been featured in Rolling Stone, CosmoGirl, Bon Appetite, and used in music videos for Beck and Less Than Jake. She has been shown in galleries across the country including the Santa Monica Museum of Art, La Luz de Jesus Gallery in LA, and CultureFix Gallery in NY. Check out more of her work on her website.

This exhibition will transform six store front windows in Brooklyn into an artistic candy land with displays of sculptures made of Jell-O, photography of mouthwatering desserts, paintings on vintage recipe books, and Polaroids that will tease your taste buds. The opening reception is this Tuesday evening, December 6th and yours truly will be on hand to serve up some jello treats from the book! If you are in the New York area come out and see me and have a taste of my Green Milk Tea Jello, reminiscent of trendy bubble tea and made with green tea ice cream and blueberries. I’ll have other creations to sample as well. Check out Where Am I Gallery‘s exhibition page for more info and hope to see you there!

I wanted to make something very warm and fall-like for Thanksgiving this year. I found a maple leaf shaped baking pan and thought that maple gelatin would be the perfect fit. To balance the sweetness of the gelatinous pure maple topping, I used creamy almond flavored Dofu Delight gelatin as a base with a little brown sugar and vanilla added. Click on the comments section to try this recipe for yourself and Happy Thanksgiving to all!