And the Secret Ingredient is...

 Three recipes this weekm, because last week was busy:  Caribbean Fruit Salad, Lemon Bisque, and Hershey Bar pie.

I made Caribbean Fruit salad last week.  Fruit, walnuts, and you guessed it;  jello!  I would give it a 6/10.  I'm not a big fan of the walnut/lime jello combo, and the coconut doesn't really add much flavor, just texture.  Not an appealing texture though.  

A few days ago at rehearsal, we started throwing around the idea of a potluck.  Before you cringe, keep in mind that we've spent three hours a day for the last month together.  We wear masks and socially distance as much as possible.  A few of us are already fully vaccinated.  Everyone that prepared food wore a mask while they made the food.  Which was great for me, because I'm a "sampler."  It's hard to pass marshmallows through a mask.  I made two pies, in case one wasn't enough for nine cast members and three crew members, and because I'd never tried the lemon one before.  Actually, 12.5 people, one of our cast members is is six months pregnant.  Thanks to some clever costuming, you can't tell which one it is.  The other pie, Hershey Bar, is a family favorite.  Especially of my aunt's.  She was Lottie's first great-grandchild, and during my grandma's entire pregnancy, she told her "You're gonna have that baby on my birthday."  And she was right.  I made both at once, and didn't destroy either one.  I'm kind of proud of that.  My only disaster was the whipped cream.  Something happened with the first batch, and it separated.  I got online, but none of the solutions worked.  Instead of light, fluffy whipped cream, I made butter.  Lottie, the WWI/Great Depression/WWII era housewife would have probably found some way to use it, or save it, but I had enough left over for both pies, so I threw it out and started over.  The recipes turned out well.  One of the instructions in the lemon pie was to "whip the Jello."  I didn't know you could whip Jello.

I would give both recipes 9/10.  I even ate the leftover filling for breakfast on Saturday morning.

I used the leftover filling as a test to see if the pie was set, etc.

I forgot to get a picture before I took them to rehearsal.

Caribbean Fruit Salad

1 package lime jello

1 cup boiling water

1 cup juice from drained pineapple

2/3 cup crushed pineapple

3/4 cup sliced bananas

1/4 cup chopped nuts

1/2 cup angel flake coconut

Dissolve jello in hot water and juice.  Chill and when partially set fold in pineapple, nuts, bananas and coconut.

Hershey Bar Pie

20 large marshmallows

6 Almond Hershey Bars

1/2 cup milk

Melt together in a double boiler over hot water.  When cold fold in 1/2 cup cream whipped.  Put in graham cracker crust.  Cover top with crumbs.

Lemon Bisque

1 package lemon Jello

2 cups hot water

3/4 cup cream, whipped

Grated rind of 1 lemon

1 T. lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

salt

1 cup rolled vanilla wafers

Dissolve Jello in hot water and cool until it starts to thicken.  Whip Jello, then cream and fold together along with other ingredients, except crumbs.  Cover bottom of 8 inch pan with part of crumbs;  pour in filling and cover with remaining crumbs.