Looky What I Found

Getting my hair cut and the place has super rad bathroom bathroom decor!

Cherry Almond Mold

Forgive us for the delay in posting, it has been one of those months, full of ups and downs. Actually, January and February were too come to think of it. Thankfully we have jello molds to boost our spirits!

Our last mold of February was the Cherry Almond Mold, one that we had very, very high hopes for after the catastrophe that was Tangy Tomato Aspic. So, in celebration of all things love and Valentines, we were ready to taste a promising cherry-filled mold.

The Ingredients

First, can anyone spot was is missing? NO LEMON JELLO! Woooo hooo! This mold already hit a high note with that subtraction.

Step one – yummy cherry mixed with sour cream. Sour cream you say? Yes, sour cream. Trust us, it will be okay.

Step Two – cut up some very dark,  sweet cherries. I found these ones in the frozen aisle so they were a bit mushy and looked like olives. Never fear, there is no scary surprise in this mold.

Look at that fast chopping! Mad skills!

Step Three – hello almonds! Blanches, sliced ones at that.

Simple, isn’t it? Simple makes me happy. No juicing of onions, grounding cloves or shredding cabbage. Ah… Tangy Tomato Aspic is almost out of my memory.

After it set, we took a look at our concoction which turned a very, very bright pink.  Pepto pink….almost neon! The chunkiness was unintentional – I let it set it too much before so it got a bit cottage cheesy. Timing and gelatin is still beyond my capabilities.

The unmolding….we were ridiculously excited about this. It is kinda sad, but this is what aspic does to three otherwise very sane ladies.

Hot pink and plated. Note please, the lovely garnish.

Check out those layers!

Mmmmm. It was as delicious as I wanted it to be. The fact that it didn’t have lemon jello in it was perhaps the best part about this one. It was very, very sweet but didn’t stop us from having seconds. The almonds provided a nice crunch (and the ones inside the mold turned hot pink, very exciting stuff). The salad greens are quite unnecessary and not at all tasty with this mold.

Next up? The month of March means green so get ready for some more technicolor!

The Making of: Tangy Tomato Aspic

The best thing about Tangy Tomato Aspic is that it is over.  It’s actually been over for a while now but we couldn’t stomach, quite literally, the thought of revisiting the dreadfulness. Without further adieu….the Making and Tasting of….Tangy Tomato Aspic (excuse me while my tummy tumbles).

I arrived at Jill’s with some Parsley Cheese Dressing on hand, and promptly threw it away! It was the most repulsive thing I’ve ever seen, smells and tasted. Never, ever again. Trying to forget about the dressing, we donned smart aprons, grimaced at our ingredients and got to molding.

The unfortunate ingredients for Tangy Tomato Aspic….cucumber, cloves and vinegar, oh my!

The major ingredient, tomato sauce in lemon gelatin. Why Betty, why?

And then lots of strange ingredients like ground clove, vinegar,  red pepper sauce, salt and onion juice. Have you ever juiced an onion? I have. Very exciting stuff. Actually, it is quite uncomfortable.

As if we were not puzzled enough, I chopped a whole bushel of cucumber to add to the mix.

This is where we had a light bulb moment.Well…maybe half a light bulb. Is this like a Bloody Mary?

We poured it into our mold cups and wondered what kind of fantastical drugs housewives were taking in the 60s. What would drive a sane lady to make such a preposterous dish?

Don’t miss the tasting of Tangy Tomato Aspic.You may want to make sure you don’t have plans to read and eat….

The Tasting of: Molded Waldorf Salad

Ah, I’m a little behind in my blogging. After the disaster of this weekend (which you will hear about soon enough), hearkening back to Molded Waldorf Salad unbelievably makes me a bit wistful.

Back to the story….

After giving the mold proper time to, um….mold, I finally had my chance to test Betty’s ingenious ways of getting the goods out of the mold itself. It was no small feat. Reminder, here is what our chunky monkey mold looked like:

The mold had set extremely well. And here I am  furiously shaking the mold onto the plate, cursing it in the nicest way I know possible.

We soaked it in hot water for a while, then I re-read Betty’s directions and realized she said to “quickly dip into hot water” …. But I was too late. The first one melted and plopped out looking very juicy and sad. For the next one, I followed Betty’s directions and even “loosened the edge of salad with tip of paring knife” and it came out easy peasy.

Voila!

Look at all that chunky, fruity goodness.

Us tasters weren’t as afraid this time around because this looked a whole  lot safer than the first mold.We also quickly realized we had high expectations for this one.

In the end Molded Waldorf Salad got mixed reviews. It was far, far, far too sweet. And frankly, we are all sick of lemon jello already. This could have used a different base. We all thought that the banana really offset the tartness of everything in the mold and wished that there were more.

If I made this again I would definetly try it with a different flavor of gelatin, but I would also keep my banana and walnut chunks larger and add more than the recipe called for.

Not that I’m ever, ever making this again….

Molded Waldorf Salad

well, one would think that a jello mold with fruit in it would be pretty tasty, nothing too far out of the ordinary.. well.. i was quite surprised to take that first bite and say, ‘i think the cabbage mold tasted better than this one’

i am not sure what flavor combination just wasn’t working in the mix but there was something that just wasn’t quite right.  i did determine that the bites that contained banana tasted better than bites without, but other than that i have no idea why it tasted so disturbing 🙂

that said, i still ate quite a bit of it. it wasn’t BAD, just not quite right….  I am looking forward to the next mold (which is tomorrow actually, i am a little late in my review)

Final Review Results –

Visual Appeal: 4 purple forks – comments were made that it looked like a frozen fruit cup

Taste: 3  purple forks

Repeat factor: 2 purple fork (i think if there were more banana it might be a 3)

The Making of: Molded Waldorf Salad

I’m still confused about this one. To me, waldorf salad  is celery and apples in mayonnaise but I am not one to question Betty’s culinary expertise. Especially with my track record. However, I am surprised that we were not asked to combine mayonnaise with celery for this one. (Whew….thank goodness.)

The Moldy Chefs met up on Sunday to create the Molded Waldorf  Salad, which was far, far easier to make than Confetti Cabbage Mold. Our waldorf consisted of only a few ingredients:  apples, banana, mandarin oranges, pineapple and of course, the pièce de résistance, lemon gelatin. I have a few things to say about this mold, but I will leave that to our reviews, which will follow later this week.

For now, the making of:  Molded Waldorf Salad

What’s Inside

The Coring

The Chopping

The Crushing

And the Mixing

This all looks good right? No shredded cabbage or eggy-like consistency issues. Our spirits were very high with this one.

Then comes the canned fruits and gelatin. I have to confess  that I am already kinda tired of lemon jello. But, still this molded salad looks …. dare I say it? This kinda looks…tasty?!

We poured it into our little one-cup molds and let them firm in the refrigerator. I like how Jill caught my wine in this picture. Only the finest drinks for the finest of culinary feats!

We had some leftover mix so we decided to follow Betty’s advice for a substitute to pour the rest in for “snacks and other meals”. Right, because who wouldn’t enjoy a little snack-sized molded waldorf salad?

There you go, now that looks more like the questionable molded salad I know and love.

Goodbye little molds until it is time to eat!

Want to Follow Along?

Are you fearless? Do you love food experiments? Become a Moldy Chef!

I’ve heard that a few of you have your own  Betty book that you hold near and dear and would like to try the recipes for yourself. If you want to play along in your town here is the offical Moldy Chef monthly menu. Cheers!

• January:  Confetti Cabbage Mold and Molded Waldorf Salad
• February:  Tangy Tomato Aspic and Cherry Almond Mold
• March:  Melon Mold and Celery-Cabbage Molds
• April:  Triple Orange Salad and Cucumber-Relish Mold
• May:  Lime Sour Cream Salad and Frozen Raspberry Salad
• June:  Pineapple-Carrot Salad and Beet and Horseradish Mold
• July:  Party Cheese-Lime Salad and Grenadine Ice-Cream Mold
• August:  Pineapple-Cheese Mold and Frozen Fruit Salad
• September:  Rhubarberry Mold and Creamy Frozen Salad
• October:  Apricot-Cinnamon Mold and Frozen Cran-Apple Salad
• November:  Cranberry-Relish Mold and White Wine Mold
• December:  Cranberry-Raspberry Mold and Strawberry Snowball Salad

 

Sneak Peek: Molded Waldorf Salad

Confetti Cabbage Mold – What’s Inside

Today was prep day for the first recipe in our challenge, the Confetti Cabbage Mold. Lots of chopping, mixing and horrified grimaces. Jill, our fabulous photog, came over to help the inaugural creation of the first molded salad. As you may have decoded from my lovely shopping list, the Confetti Cabbage Mold includes the following delectable bits:  cabbage, green pepper, onion, and celery. These veggies are mixed with lemon gelatin, mayonnaise and vinegar. If this isn’t enough to make your palette scream, we are told to present our fancy molds on a plate of salad greens with sliced radish decoration. Let’s just say that I’m not finding this promising for our taste buds.

The Goodies

First up…lots of chopping. We had to finely shred the cabbage and dice cucumbers, peppers and onions.

Chop, chop, chop.

Measure and mix.

If we were making a regular chopped salad, this wouldn’t look too bad, right? But this is no normal salad.

I was hesitant to post the next series of pictures, in part because I’m not sure our tasters would be willing to show up if they could see what our treat looks like. But, I have brave friends so I will charge ahead.

Jill and I mixed the gelatin and added the vinegar, mayo and a pinch of salt.

We thankfully set it aside in the refrigerator and waited “until mixture mound[ed] slightly”. While puzzling over this statement, I managed to topple the bowl over and lose a significant amount of the mixture. Normally, I’d be devastated but something made me feel like it was no great loss in this case (hmmmm, what could that be?).

After the gelatin molded slightly, we took the mixture out and tried to “beat until fluffy.” Ug. I have no words.

Then, time to add the veggie confetti (I think this is where I said, “I cannot believe we are going to eat this…”).

Then we mixed and mixed, trying to make this look less questionable, and folded it into our little molds.

Doesn’t this looks like a really horrifying omelet?

With tight grimaces and giggles, we are (proud?) to present our molds, which are happily chilling in my refrigerator until our unmolding experiment tomorrow. Some very brave family and friends are joining me tomorrow for the tasting and hopefully you will get to read their reviews of January’s Confetti Cabbage Mold.

Frankly, I’m terrified.