Family Tree Recipes

recipe from Deb Kohle

My mother in law texted this one to me, saying I had to try it and that my daughter would love it. I usually refer to this type of recipe as a “Jello atrocity” but decided to give it a go! I honestly really like Jello, but it can get weird with too much stuff mixed in, and cool whip weirds me out. But I guess in making old recipes I will come across a lot of these, some good and some not.

First step, assemble the ingredients!

I had to google this, but a “large” box of Jello is the same as two regular size boxes. Also, container sizes seem to have changed since the 70’s so this was slightly off. The cool whip is an 8oz container, and 20oz was the smallest pineapple I could find… and I meant to add only half but forgot. Also, I couldn’t find any pints of sherbert at the store, so I bought a quart and just used half (also, autocorrect is telling me it is spelled sherbet and I refuse to believe it).

Step 1, mix the Jello in 1 cup of boiling water until dissolved. I made a poor choice of bowl color, forgive me for being a totally amateur food photographer.

Next, mix in the sherbert until melted. If I were to do this again, I would have broken it into smaller scoops so it melts quicker!

Then stir in the drained mandarins and crushed pineapple, and fold in the cool whip.

Then scoop it all into a 9×11 pan and put in the fridge to set.

This exceeded my expectations in every way! The texture was not at all like Jello, but more like a mousse, and it tastes like a creamsicle. I served with some sliced banana like the recipe card suggested. Maybe there is something to the weird Jello salad craze of the mid 20th century.