Normally I try and celebrate my disasters, I write about them all the time. Halloween foodie disasters? That is an entirely different story. These make me want to throw in the foodie towel. If you have signed up for my newsletter you will be aware of some of these foodie stories but I have been working my butt off trying to have SOME successes to share. Alas, none so far.
I absolutely adored the idea of making a fortune teller’s ball with Jello and fruit. When I was a little girl I dressed up as a gypsy almost every Halloween. I have actually been a fortune teller, from tarot cards to palm reading. For me, this is a treat that actually says Halloween to me more than scary eyeballs (but I love them too).
You combine orange and lemon jello, adding boiling water and stir to combine. The recipe says not to use an aluminum bowl so just to be safe I used a glass one. That ended up being a big mistake! While the gelatin is starting to set you slice an apple very thinly and with a cookie cutter you make decorations for the jello. I did not have a star cookie cutter (shocking!) so I used a moon and witch’s hat cutter. You put them in juice to protect them from browning, mine went a little brown anyway. I kept checking and checking the jello, waiting for the right consistency and missed it. I had to use a chopstick to push everything down.
I submersed the bowl in hot water and waited. Unlike when I made the rose wine jello in a proper mold, my dessert refused to warm up. The glass bowl was a crappy heat conductor! I had to use a small spatula around the edges, submerge into the water, scrape a little more… well, you saw how it turned out. Disaster!
My gelatin mojo must really be off because I tried making these little gelatin candies and they never hardened at all and turned to mush! Thankfully I had some leftover and put them in little decorative glasses for a treat me and my friends enjoyed but all that black food colouring left our teeth black!
I tried making an orange-coloured white hot chocolate decorated with a spooky ghost marshsmallow only to find out that that colour combination of one red drop with four yellow drops to make orange is a load of crap. It was still red and I dumped a ton of yellow into the hot chocolate and the closest it got was a peachy salmon. Why do they not sell orange food colouring at grocery stores???!!!! My little flattened marshmallow ghostie cut out with a cookie cutter was not too bad. I added some black eyes with decorating gel but they looked kind of weird. I went to put it into the salmon hot chocolate and it fell in face first. I could have cried…
I feel like I am being sabotaged. Three crappy foodie projects?! In a row?!!! What the….!!!!!?
Well bad luck does happy to occur in threes so I am hoping that this means my bad Halloween foodie mojo is over and I will have ton of success and great ideas to share with you soon. If you want to comment and add some words dispelling the bad mojo for me, I would really appreciate it. I think I need all the help I can get this year!
If you are looking for some successful Halloween treats, LOL, check out what I created last year.
The wee ghostie is so cute! And black teeth — LOL!!!
ACK! Don’t throw in the towel! I don’t want to miss the millions of great recipies I KNOW you have in your head!!!
I can’t believe you even have the courage to make some of the stuff you do! I am a kitchen coward! LOL I tend to stick to the easy, tried, tested and true recipies! 99.9% of the recipies you do come out amazing, you cant get discouraged yet! š I should post some of the crap disasters that I have made! I even messed up Kraft Dinner once…. Never use powdered milk and water…. HAHAH
Celebrate your flops, they still looked SOOOO cool and totally creative!
Don’t be so hard on yourself; everything you showed us is so cute. Halloween is all about having fun, right?
Rita
I looked deeply into the jello Fortune Teller’s Ball, and yes I can see it! There is future success and happiness to be had in the kitchen, your Halloween treats and creations will be perfect from here on.
Oh yeah, and an extremely light spray with cooking oil in your mold or bowl also helps when making jello molds. It helps to release them intact. Hang in there Suzie, I’ve seen your creations from last year and they were fantastic, I know there’s more to come. Can’t wait to see them and try out a few.
Is it possible that the ridiculous heat and humidity you’ve had even up there are interfering with your Jello mojo? They cause problems down here all the time.
Don’t throw in the foodie towel. I will have such a sad if you do.
š <—- this is my frowny face
I understand your frustration Suzie but don’t give up! Look at all the fabulous creations you’ve made successfully. I’ll bet you’ve had more hits than misses! Easy to be disappointed when foods don’t work out; just take a little “me” break and do something nice for yourself until you’re ready to come back to the food. I watch about four or five different cooking shows on TV but you know who my favorite cook is? YOU!! Your site is great and I love reading up on how to make these yummy dishes! The fact that we’re friends makes it even more fun. š So don’t get too down Suzie, because you and your cooking are a winning combination! š
Hi,
I just randomly found your blog on the web! I love that you document all your kitchen failures. I do that too, and I also have a blog hop about food disasters! This recipe would be perfect for that… Nice blog!
Matilda
sickofood.blogspot.com