Pink Stuff aka Jello Salad

By request, I am making jelly salad for Easter dinner. This is no ordinary jelly salad. It's more like dessert but heck, on top of all that pie and chocolate, what's another spoonful of sugar. Sweet!

In our family we call this "pink stuff" but it's good with orange or lemon jell-o, too. It will be served with the ham, in other words, the main course. Get a jump on dessert...

Pink Stuff
1 box strawberry jell-o powder
2 cups boiling water
2 cups cool whip
2 cups mini marshmallows, plain or coloured

1. Stir jell-o with boiling water until powder is dissolved.
2. Cool and refrigerate until Jell-o is jiggly but not set, about 45 minutes. Check periodically as your fridge may be colder than mine.
3. With a rubber spatula or electric mixer, beat in cool whip until well incorporated.
4. Stir in marshmallows. Refrigerate until mealtime.

Irish Soda Bread

I did some St. Patty's Day cooking with Jeff Rogstad on the local CTV noon show. Well, cooking is a bit of an exaggeration ~ there's no oven on the set. I baked an extra soda bread at home and Voila! Instantly done.

I left that one behind for Jeff to enjoy with the crew, then I took home and baked the dough we made on television. Everyone was happy.

This bread has chemistry: the baking soda is activated by the acidic buttermilk, giving rise to a simple traditional bread.

If you don't have buttermilk do this: put 2 tbsp plain white vinegar into a 2-cup measure, then fill with milk to the 2-cup mark. Stir well and let sit 5 minutes.

4 cups all purpose flour (or 3+1 cup whole wheat flour)
1 tbsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups buttermilk

1. Hold back 1/2 cup flour.
2. Blend the rest of the flour with the sugar, salt and baking soda.
3  Pour the buttermilk onto the flour. I like to pour it in a circle rather than in the middle of the bowl. Mix quickly with a fork and then with your fingers to incorporate the liquid. 
4. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead by hand just long enough to make a soft smooth dough that is no longer sticky, 1-2 minutes. Use the extra 1/2 cup flour as needed to flour your hands and prevent sticking.
5. Place the ball of dough on a baking sheet and press to flatten the top.
6. Slash the dough with a knife, cutting about 1 inch deep. If you do not slash deep enough, the centre of the bread may be uncooked.
7. Bake at 425F for 35-40 minutes. When cooked, the bread will be quite brown and a good tap on the bottom will sound hollow. Allow to cool down a few minutes before cutting.

Two Grandmas ~ one batch of Jam-Jams

We have two kinds of jam-jams in my family. These oatmeal jam-jams were a specialty of my Grandma Jo. The other is a soft brown sugar cookie jam jam. They were the jam jams of my Grandma Irene.

Grandma Jo often put date jam in her jam jams. Grandma Irene usually filled her jam jams with homemade apple jelly. This reflects their two different styles in the kitchen. Grandma Jo liked to make fancy things for which buying dates and making date jam was a perfectly enjoyable step in the process. Grandma Irene had no time for that. She had already put her time into making apple jelly, so that was the perfect filling for her jam jams.
 
Today in our family, my sister Maureen makes the soft cookie jam jams of my Grandma Irene. They are my dad's favourite cookie ~ Irene was his mom ~ and he still gets a tin of these jam jams for his birthday every year.

As for me, I mix the two: I make Grandma Jo's oatmeal jam jams and fill them with my homemade jam or jelly. Cause I loved my grandmas equally!

Oatmeal Jam-Jams
2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup sour milk (mix 1 1/2 tsp vinegar with milk to make 1/2 cup, stir, sit 5 min.)

Grandma’s instructions simply say, "Roll these." To elaborate, mix everything together, form into two balls, wrap in plastic and place it in the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes.

Using a floured counter and a rolling pin, roll each ball of dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch (1/3 cm). Cut out circles with a cookie cutter or a glass. Re-roll and cut more cookies.

Bake on a cookie sheet for 8-9 minutes at 350 degrees. Cookies should just start to brown.

Transfer hot cookies to a rack to cool. Spread a dollop of jam or preserves on one cookie and press another cookie on top. Store in airtight container. These cookies are crisp when they come out of the oven but the filling will soften them up.

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