Pauline's favorite by Barb Koops Armstrong

This is the only title I have for this recipe. I was intrigued by the fact that it was a favorite of course but also that it was created ( or given her by) her brother's wife. This is something that I've always loved about my grandma. That she always writes out the entire name when she writes on the backs of pictures (and apparently on recipes). Surely she knew who Barb was but she is always thinking family history and wanting to write the full name so that anyone coming afterwards ( like me) would know exactly who it was and would have a chance to connect the dots to the family. She was always getting on us to write on pictures and I totally see why. Especially after having a newborn and loosing my everliving mind.

It has been a slow spring this year in the west and as this feels like a summer recipe I just couldn't bring myself to make it when it was snowing outside ( yes it snowed the 24th of May here) but the warm is finally coming so I decided to try.

Like most people my grandmother loves summer, especially sun dresses. She used to have a pool in her large back yard and I remember going to her house to take advantage of it during the sticky summers of Michigan. This recipe reminds me of what one might serve at a garden party or more likely for my grandmother a large summer family gathering. For some of you who are more culinary this recipe may be a familiar or perhaps even common recipe but I've never made one like it and thought it was fun to make.

The recipe was pretty general and didn't specify any flavors of ingredients so I just did what sounded good and worked well for my family and invite you to do the same. If there's one thing I've learned while flipping through my grandmothers cookbooks is that she loves to make recipes her own.

It called for juice from canned fruit so I started with pineapple juice amended with water to make 2 cups and heated it to boiling

Then I combined it with the dry Jello mix ( I used strawberry- because that's what I had)

After stirring it well I added sherbet (raspberry) but I think I should have broken it up a bit before I put it in-it would have made much less of a splash (literally).

This is probably the size I should have had it when I put it in. Next time I'll definitely slice or chunk it up first before putting it in.

The recipe called for canned fruit (from the juices you used earlier) but my husbands tongue is sensitive to pineapple and citrus fruits so instead of pineapple I used frozen strawberries

In hindsight I wish I'd used fresh strawberries...they ended up a bit mushy.

Then after that cool whip

And chill in the refrigerator... for longer than you might think.

When I found this recipe I figured it was the type of thing you would put in a jello mold. But after it was in the fridge for awhile and hadn't set up I began to wonder if this was a drink recipe. As it turned out it was somewhere in between, but I don't think it was suppose to be. The recipe called for 8 oz. of jello but the largest I could find was 6 oz. I don't know if the packages used to be larger then but obviously the proportions were off.

Something fun I noticed was that it was more red at the bottom so I wonder if when done right if there is a layer type effect. Something I probably would have seen if I'd kept it in the glass bowl I started making it in. I don't know that we've seen the end of this recipe.

Hubby's take : "I think we should rename it strawberry soup. Good, a little tart, hurt my tongue." ( that was my fault- I slipped in a few pineapple bits )

Little man's take: " I don't want the special treat. It's yucky!" ( everything is "yucky" if he doesn't want it...he's three)