Refreshing Summer Sandwiches

It has been hot here (and everywhere in the US). So hot it puts the ‘ho’ in hot. So I haven’t felt like cooking, or doing anything really. This exact situation is where Jell-O is a viking! So I searched through my disgusting old books and found the most refreshing, no-bake recipe I could. Which, unfortunately, turned out to be Jell-O’s herb-glazed sandwiches.  According to The Joys of Jell-O Your luncheon or tea sandwiches stay fresh and flavorful under a glaze. And how!

The ingredients are much the same as all the other recipes, only this time with Classic White Wonder bread, and some fancy spices.

So, first you make the Jell-O. Only this time it’s not like all the other times! You also boil the water and powder with some black peppercorns, cayenne, a bay leaf, and a butt-load of dill.

Then you drain out all the chunks and chill the Jell-O for about an hour, or until it’s ‘syrupy’.

While you wait for the cow hooves to congeal you make sandwiches of your choice. The book suggests such delights as wheat bread topped with hard boiled eggs and shrimp, but I decided to go with a delicious tuna salad on Wonder Bread. It just seemed fitting.

You can say you’re nutritious all you want, but I’m not buying it!

My first ever Bumblebee Tuna. It was actually decent. Before I glazed it anyway…

Now that is some fine sandwich makin’ if I do say so myself!

After about an hour you slop the Jell-O over the sandwiches, and put them back in the fridge until fully set. You can get so much done while cooking with gelatin! Or you can watch Real Housewives marathons back to back! Guess which one I did!

I didn’t have the right pan (dish?) for this, as I’m sure all of you do, so I had to resort to using some small baking sheets we had for thin crust pizzas. I know it’s unforgivable, but my heart was in the right place.

I think my sambos were a little too big.

Deeee-licious! I never want to eat an un-glazed sandwich again!

Just kidding, it was nasty! The Jell-O was spicy AND sweet, with that awful saccharin taste lemon Jell-O has. My husband, Stu, actually liked it the best of all my attempts so far, though. He thought the spice over powered the horribleness of the Jell-O and tuna, and made it tolerable enough to eat. He actually ate an entire sandwich. Ish. As for “fresh and flavorful” these sandwiches really just stayed cold and inhale-able.

This recipe really ended up being a disappointment, in that it really wasn’t that gross. The worst part is that it made my fridge all sticky. Other than that it was just bland, white, suburban 50s food. It’s the first time I could kind of understand that people really ate this crap willingly, and that is terrifying. I think I have had too much! I will eat anything now! Soon I will eat nothing but gelled foods; bland things I can gum down.

Glistening. Make everything I eat glisten from now on!

We are leaving this week for the West Coast (not the best coast) and will be gone for almost 2 weeks. I wouldn’t expect any updates, but maybe there will be an impromptu cook-off? And I’m really looking forward to new thrift store cookbooks! Also, I have something already lined up for our triumphant return.

See you in August!