It’s been in the mid to upper 70’s for the last couple days, which means we are basically laying around sweating and complaining about the heat. It also means I have whipped out one of my intermittent culinary hobbyhorses.
Gelatine.
Not Jell-O, though I have nothing against it. I use Knox unflavoured gelatine to congeal every liquid I can get my hands on. In the past week alone I have gelatined:
– my home made limeade,
– apple, grape and watermelon juices
– mixed orange and pineapple juices with crushed pineapple
Does that sound like a lot of gelatin? It is. But it’s been really hot and it really is nice in this weather.
In years past I have experimented with gelling iced tea, iced coffee, tomato juice, beer, wine, and sodas and they all work fine. This year is more about fruit juice because we are working on losing weight. You don’t need to add any sugar at all to fruit juice and it still tastes great. Although I know there’s sugar in the fruit juice, it’s still better than soda. And you do have to sweeten iced tea and coffee quite a bit to make a good tasting gelatin out of it.
1 envelope of powdered gelatin gels 2 cups of liquid and around a cup of solids like fruit bits or whatever. There’s a little bit of a method to it – bring one of the cups of liquid to a boil while you soften the gelatin in some of the rest of the cold liquid. Then mix in the boiling liquid and the rest of the cold liquid, stirring like mad until all the gelatin is dissolved. Refrigerate, and you’re done. For some basic info on working with powdered gelatin, here is Knox’s website. For anyone interesting in actual recipes for playing around with gelatin and Jell-O, you might be interested in the book Hello, Jell-O by Victoria Belanger. And if you are interested in really way out there gelatin recipes, check out Jelly Mongers by Bompas and Parr.
What’s your go-to treat when it’s hot out?
*10 points to whatever house you identify with if you know where this line comes from!
Quite A Yarn 
I used to love jelly when I was a kid, although you can find vegetarian jelly it isn’t something I’ve made for a while….if I do it’s for trifle. Nom nom nom. Sponge base, fruit, jelly, custard and cream. Mmm I may make some this week, although it’s been pretty cold here.
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That sounds really good 🙂
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We did Jello this weekend, but vodka was the liquid of choice! LOL In fact I just did a Jello Shot this morning, was 10:00 too early?
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LOL!
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You call the mid-70s hot? You are out of practice! We have a week of 90s here. Lots of salads with the occasional pizza.
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Yes I am – we are acclimated to much cooler weather now! Lots of salads sound pretty good 🙂
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On a 95F day I like a strawberry coolada from Dunkin. I know nothing about the nutritional value and I do not care. All I want is the brain freeze:)
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That sounds really good!
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Gelled coffee? I must know more about this! That sounds crazy and strangely intriguing ☕️ ❤️
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It’s actually pretty good! You use 1 cup of cold coffee – either a bottled iced coffee, or just take your old cold coffee (with milk and sugar) and 1 cup of hot coffee and add the powdered gelatin! You can have any kind of flavorings you want – cinnamon, mocha – really whatever you want. It’s really tasty on a hot day 🙂
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You should try jellied carrot salad. Grated carrot in lime jelly- so good!
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I might!
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