Thursday 20 August 2015

Nostalgia Corner.



I only have to look at the above, and I become a 6 year old again.

When we were children my mother always made our jellies in this rabbit mould. I quite expect most households with children owned something similar. Of course, nowadays very few people eat jelly (blancmange even less) so such things are confined to the ranks of 'curiosities'.

It now sits, untended, at the back of a drawer; only occasionally seeing the light of day.

Anyway, I'm very pleased that I've kept it. It represents so much.



42 comments:

  1. What kind of jelly did your mom make? Was it a fruit spread (which is what I think of when I think if "jelly") or some kind of dessert?

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    1. I think you would refer to it as Jello. A fruit flavoured, wobbly, transparent, gelatine, desert, much loved by children.

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    2. Ah, okay. Now I understand!

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  2. A rabbit jelly for bunny perhaps. I had mine until our last move when I passed it on to a family with youg children.

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  3. Replies
    1. That's the stuff. I used to like it as it was; a bit like wine gums.

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    2. I put that and then deleted it. So did we.

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    3. Me too - it saved having to wait for the bunny jelly to set !

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  4. Blancmange bunny! My mum used to make blancmange (pronounced "blommonge" by us Kiwis) but I always refused to eat it. Disgusting stuff. Jelly bunnies, on the other hand...obligatory for birthday parties!

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    1. With the bunny positioned as if eating bright green jelly (lettuce).

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  5. Chocolate blancmange bunny. A childhood memory.

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    1. Never had that one... We stuck to the standard transparent Raspberry or Lemon.

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  6. I got three fish moulds from my mom , a very big, a normal size and a tiny one. My mom prepared fish aspic with small vegetables and it was yummy. I use these moulds especially to prepare chocolate or strawberriy/ vanilla desserts. My little sun loves it, my daughter not so much. So may be.later my son will want these moulds,who knows. Nice souvenirs anyway.

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    1. Everyone's mother was 'the best cook in the world' (usually), so they are pleasant reminders of childhood.

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  7. Ah, the wobbly rabbit. We had one too.

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    1. Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, jelly on the plate.

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  8. I still make jelly. I have a set of fish moulds and a set of star moulds but usually just make bowl full (cut glass of course). Occasionally I go mad and put a tin of "fruit cocktail" in for old times sake. Obviously this has to be served with evaporated milk.
    When I was very young, just after the war, we always had a slice of bread and butter with a bowl of jelly. Thinking back, I suppose it was to fill us up. We just thought that that was the way it should be eaten.
    Thanks for the memories Cro. x

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    1. Sounds like the origins of trifle. If we needed filling up, it was usually bread and dripping with Marmite.

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  9. Oh, the famous bunny jelly mould ….. we had one too which was always brought out on birthdays and special occasions. My Mum also made what was known as a ' pink ' { because we liked strawberry or raspberry best but it could be made with any flavour } It was jelly with Libbys evaporated milk whisked into it which, when it set , was aerated and yummy !!! Also Tangerine jelly with tinned mandarins set into it ….. did you have those Cro ?
    Such simple things but, we loved them. XXXX

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    1. Yes, Tangerine jelly with tinned (and peeled) mandarins.... I'd totally forgotten.

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    2. Yes, I remember jelly with evaporated milk whisked in !

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    3. Tangerine jelly and tinned mandarins - quite the height of sophistication when we were young and the "in" thing at pre-teen parties. Would it be the same now, I wonder ?

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  10. I love jelly, and have an orange one set in our fridge.

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    1. Lady Magnon recently bought a pack of Chivers jelly back from the UK. It sat in the fridge for ages, until I ate it cube by cube.

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  11. I think you should make some jelly in that mould Cro…if only to show our US friends what " jelly" English/French style is ! I don't remember us having a mould….it was just made in separate bowls.

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    1. Jelly moulds were BIG in the UK; every household had one (or more).

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  12. We didn't have a special jelly mould, but my mother did have a special bowl in which she would make one of her famous jello salads. Layers of strawberry jello separated by layers of sliced banana, tinned pineapple chunks, and a sweetened cream cheese mixture... it was a special occasion when she whipped that concoction up.
    I had the bowl until very recently (last week, lol) and passed it along to my daughter when she moved into her very own place.

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    1. That sounds rather like English 'trifles', that were usually made in big cut glass bowls. Trifles also contained a type of cakey biscuit that absorbed the first layer of jelly.

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    2. I've been known to make a trifle from time to time... have been implored to never make blancmange however, lol.

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    3. What about the sherry soaked in to the sponges on the bottom Cro?

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  13. A jello salad from a mold was always a hit at family gatherings. The only place I have eaten or been served that wiggly dessert in the last few decades has been in hospitals.

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  14. Reminders of family times are always a treasure.

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  15. In the US, most of our molds were a profile bunny. Love yours. I juiced all my wild plums this summer and plan on using said juice for a jelly. Blancmange sounds very good, I'll have to look that one up. You should make one for the family.

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  16. Just remembering certain kitchen equipment from my childhood can make me quite nostalgic.

    Jello did appear at our dinner table, sometimes mixed with fruit cocktail, sometimes on its own, but usually with whipped cream on top. My Mom also made a tomato aspic which we children didn't like quite as much as the sweet jellies. Molded shapes were used for special occasions.

    Thank you for reminding me.

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  17. My gran made a jelly bunny every Sunday, she didn't own a fridge so the mold was placed outside the back door on a plate. Most times it was set perfectly, thanks to good old English weather :(
    Always served with evaporated milk and slices of homemade Hovis bread slathered with butter. I still can't eat jelly without the milk poured over it.
    Good days were those.
    What a lovely post and memory Cro.
    ~Jo

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    1. It seems as if everyone has good memories of jelly bunnies.

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  18. We have three but they are made of copper, a bunny, fish and a pineapple

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  19. I never liked Jello. I wanted to, it looked like such fun to eat, but I never warmed to it. We didn't have moulds for it, and I never trusted the fruit and Jello concoctions so many people made here.

    However, I think making Bunny a jelly bunny a capital idea!

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