Guest Post: Jello, Amie!
This post is from Amie Gibbons, my friend and fellow author, who just launched another book! I have a little reflected glow of pride, here, since I did the cover for her. Amie is prolific and a wonderfully fun author, and she wanted to celebrate her launch. Since I'm not able to do Eat This While You Read That posts right now (lack of time) she offered to do it all herself. Which is great! Because Amie, I have something to admit... I've never made a jello shot. Heck, I've never even had a jello shot. Which makes this all the more fun, since I now know that they come in a ton of flavors!
Jell-O Shots Recipes!
I don’t know about all y’all out there, but I have anxiety issues, and they have gotten worse the last year. For me, OCD is part of those issues. The world stresses me out, I panic over all the bad things happening, try to figure out how to fix them, spiral downwards when it smacks me in the head that I can’t fix things, and then I fixate on what I can control to exert some sense of power over my life.
Yes, that’s a dark way to start a post about the fun things I created and am now sharing with you. 😊 When I have a new book coming out, I freak, spiral, and fixate. My OCD usually comes out as stress baking with a new release. This time it came out as stress Jell-O shots experimenting.
And here’s the book that gave birth to these delicious concoctions: Scorpions of the Air. (If you like Urban Fantasy with a lot of reality in it, this series is for you, because there are more things in Hell and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.)
So now I’m going to share my experiments with all of you. And hopefully you can use these to bring a little joy to your lives… and to your parties, dates, game nights, working from home days… I did not official say that last one 😉
If you don’t know the basic Jell-O Shot recipe, here it is.
You boil a cup of water, mix in a 3 oz box of flavored Jell-O (or a packet of plain gelatin, aka 0.25 oz gelatin) until it dissolves, then mix in a cup of alcohol. Pour them into the jello shot cups and put in the fridge to set (usually around 3 hours to set). In mine, obviously, I got a bit more creative with these basics.
I didn’t use water as the base for most, instead, I boiled soda or juice. (Side note: All the sodas I use are real sugar ones, because I’m a snob like that. But I won’t judge if you use the basic stuff.) And not all of them required flavored Jell-O, so they got a packet of plain gelatin, but flavored Jell-O usually dissolves better, but it has to be a flavor that goes with the others, which is why some are plain gelatin. And then, of course, we get really creative with the alcohol side of things. I’m a huge fan of moonshine because it comes in so many flavors! 😊
(BF and I are hitting the Smokies next weekend and will be hitting moonshine distilleries, so I’ll probably have more recipes for you after I play with whatever we get on that trip… and sober up, because, well, lightweight. Hey, I’m a small woman, I’m allowed to be a lightweight.)
Appletini:
Cream soda base, apple jello, and apple vodka. Feel free to garnish with a maraschino cherry, especially a moonshine soaked one 😉
Watermelon Splash:
Champagne base (yes the alcohol cooks out when you boil it), watermelon jello, half watermelon and half vanilla vodkas.
Redneck Starbucks:
This one ended up too bitter for my tastes, so I’m going to tinker with the recipe, but here’s the one I made up if you tend to like more interesting and less sweet shots.
Coffee, plain gelatin, butter cake or caramel moonshines.
Apple Streusel: (This is a 2 layered one, which means you make the bottom jello shot, let it set in the fridge, then make the other layer and pour it on top, putting in the fridge to set again. But when you eat them, make sure you get both layers in every taste 😊 )
Both layers are a coke base with plain gelatin mixed in. The bottom adds apple pie moonshine, and the top adds salted caramel moonshine.
Strawtini:
Cream soda, strawberry jello, and apple vodka.
The Blueberry:
Cream soda, blueberry jello, blueberry moonshine mixed with straight moonshine or vodka. (The straight stuff is stronger than flavored, so more straight means stronger, but more alcohol bite and less fruity flavor, so measure accordingly.)
Birthday Cake:
One of my favorites. It is so sweet and yummy. This one is cream soda, lemon jello, and cake vodka.
Drunken Melons:
Cream soda, watermelon jello, part lemon lime moonshine and part straight moonshine.
Watermelon Daquiri:
Cream soda, watermelon jello, part straight rum (the higher the proof the better), part apple vodka.
Cuba Libre:
Another one of my favorites. Coke, lime jello, and rum.
Everest:
2 layers again. Bottom is Mt. Dew with plain gelatin and sour raspberry moonshine. Top is Mt. Dew with lime jello and lemon lime moonshine.
Raz:
Mt. Dew, lime jello, part sour raspberry moonshine and part plain moonshine.
Orange Dreamsicle:
Orange juice, orange jello, vanilla or cake vodka.
Berry Blast:
Water, raspberry jello, blackberry moonshine.
Root Beer Barrel:
Root beer, plain gelatin, root beer moonshine (or vanilla or root beer vodka since I only know 1 place to get the root beer moonshine, and that’s the Sugarlands Distillery in the Smokies.)
Southern Tea:
And I’m finishing up with the one that’s most people’s favorite. 😊 This is another 2 layered one. Bottom is coke, plain gelatin, rum, vodka, sweet tea moonshine. Top is cream soda, lemon jello, and vanilla vodka.
Enjoy and drink responsibly.