This year, I found a rainbow in Cotton Country Collection (The Junior Charity League of Monroe, Louisiana, copyright 1972, but mine is from a 1979 printing). Part of me imagines those old southern ladies taking to their fainting couches at the thought of their treasured recipes being part of a Pride month celebration, but another part of me thinks they might be a little less judgmental since they're from Louisiana. Who knows what they saw (and did!) in their lifetimes?
Let's start out with red. Usually I post something bright and full of berries that sounds yummy, but this year, our red is from tomato puree or paste.
Instead of being a mold, this is frozen as well. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to scoop a frozen gelatin flavored with tomatoes, cheeses (Roquefort and cream), and mayo onto an avocado half but hesitated since you didn't have official instructions on construction, well, you're in luck! This year's red offering is like me-- quite the little weirdo.
Next up is orange. This year, I'm going with Apricot Salad.
The interesting thing about Apricot Salad is that it has no apricots-- just apricot-flavored gelatin with enough orange juice in it that it will probably taste like orange anyway.
Those Louisiana Ladies must have really loved their apricots because yellow is represented by an apricotty dish too.
I'm not sure exactly how yellow this would be, but the apricot color will be muted by the whipped cream and yellowed-up by the mustard. (Besides, there is NO WAY I could resist posting a recipe that calls for apricots, pecans, whipped cream, and a pound of miniature marshmallows along with vinegar, mustard, and Tabasco sauce! As if that's not enough, diners are invited to drown that shit in a Puffed Dressing made of vinegar and eggs with still more mustard and whipped cream! I hit the jackpot with this one.)
For green, I'll move away from all those apricots and also make sure it will actually be the right color. It's "Green Dream" Congealed Salad!
The fun thing about this one is that it initially made me think of the Avocado Lime Pie I made for the Pieathalon last year. Lime Jell-O? Check. Avocado? Check. Cream cheese? Check. Then it goes totally off the rails with mayo, celery, bell pepper, and onion. So... probably best not to serve this one in a graham cracker crust.
For the blue/ purple end of the spectrum, I'll be nice and give you one that sounds like it would probably be pretty good: Blueberry Salad.
This is no naughty and all nice: blackberry Jell-O, blueberries, pineapple, and plenty of dairy fat. It's a nice sweet ending for the pride post.
If you'll feel cheated without the traditional semi-purplish beet mold to round things out, though, I won't leave you hanging.
This one is a little different in that it uses plain (rather than lemon) gelatin and adds "India Relish" along with the usual veggies and horseradish.
Now I'm off to build a tiny pride float with a serving platter on rolling pin "wheels" so my rainbow of imaginary gelatins will have something to dance on. They sure can jiggle, so it will be interesting to watch! Happy Pride Month!
2 cans of stone free apricots... maybe you need to be a stoned apricot to think that you should combine them with marshmallows, vinegar, Tabasco, and mustard. These recipes also prove that the Millennials did not start the avocado thing. You also know that it is going to be a good recipe when congealed is in the name.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how people really seem to think that Millennials are responsible for avocados being so popular, but my old cookbooks have tons of recipes for them. Besides, everybody had avocado green appliances in the '70s. (Well, at least everybody who didn't have harvest gold.)
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