Welcome! It’s the first Kim(O)chi post! And we’re starting with a picture:

What is it, you ask? Well, short answer, a gelatin mold. Yes, gelatin, as in something from you mom’s Jello Cookbook, the one shoved way back in the history section of the bookshelf. I’ve been wanting to make a molded dessert almost as long as I’ve wanted to make a bag pudding, so when I came home friday and decided to bake something one last time in the family kitchen, it was natural that I’d choose something like this.

I also just might have spent and hour or two the night before pouring over the molded dessert section in my 1960s cookbooks. Coincidence or Cause? You decide.

Either way, I ended up going with an apple snow filled with what started out as a chocolate cream. Then I realized we didn’t have anymore gelatin and had to flip over to the page where they made coffee gelatin out of a cup of joe, a pound of marshmallows, and some whipped cream. I didn’t measure my marshmallows or my cool whip – sometimes when I cook and things go awry I become petulant like that – but somehow the chocolate came out nice anyway. Not too sweet, and with an over all a wonderful texture.

The snow . . . it got mixed reviews. My family didn’t like the texture at all. It uses grated apple, and instead of digging through the drawers for our box grater so I could make the shavings nice and fine, I opted for the comfortable to hold, easy to access, cheese grater.

Together the flavours did pretty well. The chocolate almost completely overwhelemed the apple, but that little bit of tart, cinnamon-y flavour made a nice contrast to the other’s sweet and rich perfection. And yes, I liked having that little crisp! of grated apple in the middle of my mouse. The mold held – for about ten minutes after I took it out of the fridge and then it started slipping inwards. The whole thing also wept like crazy. Where did it find all that liquid? Was it my egg whites dissolving or my apples disintegrating? I don’t know where it came from but I drank it, and it was good.

What should I try next? I’m thinking it’s time for me to try a new kind of mold, should I ferment me up some kimchi?