One Reflection after Seven Years

This weekend marks our seventh wedding anniversary and I thought I’d share a few reflections of the past seven years.

Here is one:
Getting married for the first time at age 36 was rather a challenge in the cooking department. Cooking for one is much, much different than cooking for two; especially when the one you are marrying happens to be used to all kinds of homemade stuff; like potato salad and devilled eggs and desserts galore. In the 3 month time span between saying “Yes, I will” and “I do” there were hours of panicked ransacking of the internet to find recipes that I could maybe attempt.

I was dismayed to find out one of his favorite desserts is strawberry gelatin with bananas. As far as I am concerned gelatin is something that ought not to have been invented. The texture is just nasty. But, always game for a challenge, I bought up a couple boxes of the stuff to try my luck at it.

To start off with I discovered I’d forgotten bananas, but I was determined to go through with it anyway. So…I got out this fancy gelatin mold a friend had given me, did a 3 second perusal of the directions, sloshed some water in a bowl, stirred the red powder in and poured it into the mold.

I eyed it doubtfully; what I’d made didn’t quite fill the mold. Then I got out the second box; sloshed, stirred, poured. It still wasn’t completely full, but oh, well. That’d have to do. Into the fridge it went.

A couple of hours later I checked on it. The gunk in the mold was the consistency of one of those clear rubber balls that kids get; tough and bouncy-like. How were you supposed to get THIS out of a mold?

Oh, warm water. Right. I floated it in a bit of warm water. While it floated I re-read the directions.

AHA! Hehehehe…You are supposed to put TWO cups of water to one box of the stuff!

I turn back to the mold in the water. In the gelatin mold a small island of red rubber is floating in a large lake of red juice. It had mostly melted. Oops.

Hmmm… I sloshed in a bunch more water…into the mold that is, stirred and chucked it into the fridge for a second go round. After a couple of hours, I checked it again. Well, it was not so terribly rubbery this time. But not quite right either.

Bless my husband’s heart; he ate the stuff, no bananas and all, and didn’t complain. I knew then that we’d do fine.

Comments

jel said…
happy Anniversary,

has it been seven year aready?

jello is very good, we were brought up on that suff! :)
Donna. W said…
I liked Jello when I was a kid, and my mom always added tiny marshmallows and bananas, and sometimes fruit cocktail. I don't really like it much these days, but my husband loves it; and if you fix it with nothing added, it's low-calorie. I need to make some Jello for Cliff. It's been awhile.
Frau Guten Tag said…
Happy anniversary!!

I can really relate. I married in my 30s also. And I had 2 stepkids in addition to the husband. And all 3 of them were picky. Not to mention the stepkids WANTED to complain no matter what I made. I actually just quit cooking completely for acwhile. It was a very sore subject. But it has settled down. My hubby likes the meals I make, but I still wish I had a hubby who thought my cooking was the greatest. (not bragging but all the other guys Ive dated & my brother always brag that Im a great cook)

And I HATE jello. Always have. I cant eat it, it makes me gag. I thought Ivwas the only person in tge world that didnt like it.
Unknown said…
Happy Anniversary! This post made me chuckle. As you know, I also married a farm boy and I too, had to get used to making everything homemade!

By the way, I still cannot successfully make Jello!!! It baffles me how I can fail at this time and time again.
Calfkeeper said…
Thank you all. Yes, it's hard to believe it has been seven years already.

Donna, I remember my mom used to make it and let us..meaning my siblings, not me, I wouldn't to this...drink it from glasses. For some reason this was considered a treat. URK!

Frau-well I am glad I am not the only strange one who won't eat the stuff. There are certain ways I can tolerate it; like if it's mixed in with something else, or poured over a cake. But I still don't care for it.

C-well, I can make it, but I resist for as long as possible. Now brownies are something I have trouble with. There's only one or two brownie recipes I have that I can make come out of the oven looking nice.

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