My earliest memories of cooking in my mom’s kitchen revolve
around baking cookies. Mom didn’t do a lot of baking, but I
remember cutting out sugar cookies at Christmas time, getting flour
all over the table and dough stuck in the little crevices of the
copper cutters.
As I got older, and my mom went back to work, I found myself
doing more cooking than most of my friends. A couple of nights a
week I would make dinner for the family. It wasn’t always easy
– I once dropped a pot of chili as I was carrying it to the
table, and we had reddish-brown spots on the ceiling for years
afterwards. Another time I made this casserole dish that was
supposed to have ground beef, cooked spaghetti noodles, corn,
stewed tomatoes and cheddar cheese. I forgot the gro
und beef, making it the first vegetarian dish I ever made.
Easy desserts for beginning chefs
My earliest memories of cooking in my mom’s kitchen revolve around baking cookies. Mom didn’t do a lot of baking, but I remember cutting out sugar cookies at Christmas time, getting flour all over the table and dough stuck in the little crevices of the copper cutters.
As I got older, and my mom went back to work, I found myself doing more cooking than most of my friends. A couple of nights a week I would make dinner for the family. It wasn’t always easy – I once dropped a pot of chili as I was carrying it to the table, and we had reddish-brown spots on the ceiling for years afterwards. Another time I made this casserole dish that was supposed to have ground beef, cooked spaghetti noodles, corn, stewed tomatoes and cheddar cheese. I forgot the ground beef, making it the first vegetarian dish I ever made.
Despite – or maybe in spite of – the rough start to my culinary career, I’ve always enjoyed cooking. So it has come as no surprise that my daughters, ages 13 and 11 years, enjoy cooking as well. There are some differences, however. The oldest daughter has been baking brownies and cookies for a few years now, and she’s a bit bored with those. She makes cakes and cookies for the fair, and she likes baking at Christmas, but she’s moved on to preparing actual meals. As I’ve recently become a single mother, I’ll admit it’s nice to come home to find dinner taken care of for the night.
The youngest daughter is into desserts. Not just baking, although she made four dozen peanut butter thumbprint cookies this weekend and between the three kids left in the house, those cookies were gone in two days. But her ambitions are higher than Toll House. She wants to bake pies, cakes, tiramisu – you name it, she’s probably asked if she could make it.
Last year I bought a recipe book put out by Jell-O with 25 summer dessert recipes. For the last two weeks, my daughter has read every recipe in that book at least a dozen times.
The great thing is with this particular book, she can make all of these things and more. There are recipes for parfaits, mousses, trifles and cakes, and many of the recipes have six ingredients or less. Most are no-bake, which means I don’t have to worry about her using the oven while I’m at work or supervising her efforts when I’m at home. Also, since most of the recipes call for Jell-O gelatin or pudding products, it’s easy to cut back on the calories and fat by substituting the company’s sugar-free options. There is a section in the book for healthy treats as well, such as the Angel Lush cake my kids love.
Here are a few of my daughter’s favorite dessert recipes, courtesy of Jell-O. Because at our house, there’s always room for Jell-O.
Angel Lush
1-20 oz. can crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O vanilla flavor sugar-free reduced calorie instant pudding & pie filling
1 c. thawed fat-free Cool Whip whipped topping
1-10 oz. round angel food cake
10 fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
Mix pineapple and dry pudding mix in medium bowl. Gently stir in whipped topping.
Cut cake horizontally into three layers. Place bottom cake layer, cut-side up, on serving plate and top with one-third of the pudding mixture. Repeat layers two times.
Refrigerate at least one hour. Top with berries just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator. Makes 10 servings.
Chocolate Ribbon Pie
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) reduced fat cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. 1 percent reduced fat milk
1-8 oz. container of fat-free Cool Whip whipped topping, thawed, divided
1-6 oz. chocolate cookie ready-to-fill pie crust
2 c. cold 1 percent reduced fat milk
2 pkg. (4-serving size each) Jell-O sugar-free reduced fat chocolate instant pudding and pie filling
Beat cream cheese, sugar and 1 tbsp. milk in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Gently stir in half of the whipped topping. Spread onto bottom of crust.
Pour 2 c. milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk for two minutes or until well blended (mixture will be thick). Pour over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate four hours or until set. Just before serving, garnish with remaining whipped topping and 2 tbsp. shaved chocolate if desired. Store leftovers in refrigerator. Makes eight servings.
Banana Split Parfaits
1 c. cold 1 percent reduced fat milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) Jell-O sugar-free reduced calorie vanilla flavor instant pudding and pie filling
2 c. thawed fat-free Cool Whip whipped topping, divided
24 vanilla wafer cookies, divided
2 small bananas
8 maraschino cherries, drained
Pour milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mix and beat with wire whisk until well blended. Gently stir in 1-1/2 c. of whipped topping; spread into 8-inch square pan. Freeze three hours or until firm enough to scoop.
Chop 16 of the wafers. Spoon about a tablespoonful of the chopped wafers into each of eight parfait glasses or dessert dishes, and then scoop 1/4 c. of the pudding mixture into each glass with ice cream scoop. Sprinkle evenly with remaining chopped wafers. Cut bananas in half lengthwise, then cut each piece crosswise in half. Stand a banana piece in each parfait glass. Fill evenly with the remaining 1/2 c. whipped topping, remaining wafers and cherries. Serve immediately. Makes eight servings.
