Fourth of July Special

Happy Fourth of July Weekend! I bought this awesome, old school United States shaped Jello mold a few weekends ago for fifty cents, and I'm so excited to finally have an opportunity to use it! This recipe was very simple, just time consuming because you have to make sure the different layers set correctly. This was my first experience with an actual Jello mold, and it turned out awesome! I took a photograph of the ingredients, but I accidentally bought 3 more packs of Jello that was necessary, so I didn't want to confuse anyone with too many ingredients.

Lately, I've kind of been obsessed with Jello molds....I bought like, seven in one day.  

I really should've used slightly bigger bowls for this, but all of my glass mixing bowls were in the dish washer from the brownie recipe I'd made the day before. 

Be careful when pouring your liquid jello into the mold (or into shot glasses, bowls, whatever you have) because it tends to splash, especially when you're pouring it with your left hand and looking through the lens of a camera with the other.

Make sure you have a big enough space for it to chill in your fridge, and that you're very careful when placing it in the fridge. It isn't as big of a deal at this stage, but this mold is very flimsy, and I spilled blue jello everywhere trying to get it in the fridge to set.

Be careful while running the knife around the edge of the mold; I might skip this step if I did it again because I did spray it thoroughly with nonstick spray in the beginning anyways, and it made the edges a little raggedy in places.

Flip and pray. 

I literally stared at the mold for about 3 minutes after I flipped it over, hoping that when I took it off the Jello wouldn't break apart everywhere! But thankfully it didn't! 

Perfect! 

Prep time: 30 minutes

Chill time: 5 1/2 hours

INGREDIENTS

• 3 3/4 cups boiling water
• 1 pkg. (8 serving size) or 2 pkg. (4 serving size) Jello, any red flavor (I used strawberry)
• 1 pkg. (8 serving size) or 2 pkg. (4 serving size) Jello, any blue flavor (I used berry blue)
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 pkg. (4 serving size) Jello Lemon Flavor
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened (I used PET Premium)

DIRECTIONS

• Spray USA Mold (or whatever you put your Jello in) with no stick cooking spray
• Stir 1 1/2 cups boiling water into red and blue gelatin in separate bowls at least two minutes until completely dissolved. Stir 1 cup of cold water into each bowl.
• Pour red gelatin into prepared mold (or bowls or whatever). Refrigerate 1 hour until set but not firm. Reserve blue jello at room temperature.
• Stir 3/4 cup boiling water into lemon gelatin in bowl. Stir in ice cream with wire whisk until melted and smooth . Spoon over red gelatin in mold. Refrigerate 30 minutes longer or until set but not firm. Refrigerate blue gelatin 30 minutes or until slightly thickened.
• Spoon blue gelatin over lemon gelatin in mold. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Carefully unmold. Makes 16 servings.

Another easy Fourth of July dessert to make would be to fill individual angel food cakes with whipped cream and top with blueberries and strawberries!