Here are last years pranks…

Fun With Jello:  April Fools Jello Pranks

1.  Late the night before, dissolve clear gelatin, cool and pour into toilet.  It will set overnight and if you are lucky the user will be mystified by their suspended stuff.  Here is how to do it:  Estimate the amount of water your toilet holds by pouring a big pan or bucket of water into the bowl- this will cause the water to empty out of the toilet bowl.  Then pour pre-measured water into toilet until it is at about the same level it was before.  (I estimated that my toilet holds 8-9 cups of water.)  For each cup of water your toilet holds, use 1 packet of clear gelatin.  Measure determined amount of water into a pan.  Sprinkle gelatin over water and let sit for 5 minutes.  Heat over medium heat until gelatin is dissolved.  Cool to room temperature- you still want it to be a runny consistency.  Flush water out of toilet bowl with a pan or bucket full of water.  Pour gelatin into toilet bowl and allow to sit overnight.  To flush, break up gelatin with a toilet brush and flush.

Well this didn’t work exactly as planned.  For one, clear gelatin is not exactly clear so it doesn’t look like water- unless you live somewhere with a lot of minerals in the water.  But it did accomplish the goal of confusion, mostly that of why is the toilet not flushing right?  My 7 year old said, “someone put too much toilet paper in the toilet.”  To which I replied, “but there isn’t any toilet paper in the toilet.”  My husband thought he must be dehydrated because his job looked darker than usual.

2.  You could do the above prank using lemon jello in place of clear.

I think this would work well.  The person would try to flush it before using it and then wonder why it was not working right.  It would work well on dinner guests who would have to suffer the embarrassment of telling you that the toilet is having issues.

3.  Remove the shower head, put dry red jello in the shower head and replace for a Psycho-like shower prank.

This had a little hiccup in that the water did not immediately come out- perhaps the jello had solidified in the apparatus and thus it took a moment for the water to break through.  Anyway, that gave my victims time to suspect a prank.  When it did come out it, it did produce the desired effect!  Perhaps the original Kool-Aid in the shower head would work better.

4.  Put a little Methylene Blue in blue jello.  This can be purchased at a pet store in the fish department.  Make sure it is labeled simply Methylene Blue.  The first pet store we tried did not have it, but the next one did.  Just a few drops, should work.  Those who partake of the jello will urinate blue.  (I have always wanted to do this, but have been worried about safety-  I am afraid someone will have an allergic reaction to blue dye or ingest too much.)  I called my brother-in-law who is a Zoologist and works with fish and a friend talked to a pharmacist.  They said that it is generally considered harmless in small amounts.  I am going to give it a try- I’ll let you know how it works out.

I was so excited to try this one, but have to admit failure.  The Methylene Blue is extremely bitter.  I tried 4 times to adjust things to disguise the bitterness, all to no avail.  I added 5 cups of additional sugar, but the bitterness was still evident and my victims would not partake more than a couple spoonfuls.  I guess I will have to work on it a little more- stayed tuned for my attempt next year.  Plan on doing it the night before April Fools.  We tested it and it takes overnight to produce the desired effect.

5.  Of course you could mimic the Office prank, by encasing someone’s stapler in jello or your spouses car keys or your teenager’s cell phone.

I didn’t try this one, but the cell phone thing sounds tempting.

6.  Empty victim’s shampoo or body wash from bottle and rinse.  Make a package of jello- as directed, that corresponds to the color of shampoo or body wash.  Carefully pour jello into the empty bottle and place in fridge to set up.  Early in the morning, place bottle back where it was removed from in the shower or tub.

This one  worked like a charm.  I was lucky in that I was able to perfectly match the body wash.  We also had three bottles that were pretty much empty.  Prepare jello as directed.  Pour into body wash bottle and turn upside-down to set up.

7.  Make one of the more interesting (code word for repulsive) recipes from an old Joys of Jello recipe book and take to a neighbor, family member or you could leave it on someone’s doorstep with a nice note.

Let us hear about your April Fools Jello Joy!

#1  Did you know that St. Patrick wasn’t named Patrick at all, his real name was Maewyn Succat.

Creamy Green Jello Salad

1 cup water

1 small pkg. green jello

1 cup canned pineapple, drained

1 (8oz.) pkg cream cheese

Dissolve jello in boiling water.  Combine jello, pineapple and cream cheese in blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into 9×13 pan.  Refrigerate until firm.

We Always Eat Lucky Charms For Breakfast On St. Patrick's Day: My Kids Think They Are Magically Delicious, But I Am With the Chicken.

Now Go Make Some Green Jello and Have a Happy Maewyn Succat’s Day!

Here is another re-post from last year:

Why is it that we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the United States of America?  What is the ratio of Irish immigrants to immigrants from other lands?  I don’t really know, but I think it’s the pinching thing don’t you?

What other holiday do you get to go around pinching people?  

And the color green, don’t you just love it?  There is a different shade of green for each decade, such as Hunter Green during the 80′s; totally out now.  I use to have a Granny Smith Apple colored kitchen.  I loved it- so cheery.  I miss that kitchen.

Back to St. Patrick’s Day.  We have a few ideas to celebrate the season.  This blog is about our St. Patty’s Poke Cake.  I wish I could call them St. Patty’s Pinch Cakes, but I’m not sure how pinching a cake would work out, so I will stick with poke.  Jello Poke cakes use to be the rage.  Everyone was baking cakes, poking them and pouring jello over the top.

We are going to bring the Jello Poke Cake up to date in cupcake form.  You could use a cake mix, but we recommend homemade.  It is so much tastier.  We are using a Lemon-Honey Cupcake recipe from the March 2010 issue of Woman’s Day and changing it up just a bit.  If you like to bake cupcakes from scratch check out the cupcake feature article at http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Food/Recipes/6-One-of-a-Kind-Cupcakes.html  Here is our spin:

Lemon-Lime Jello Poke Cakes

Cupcakes

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest

4 tbsp lemon juice

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1.  Heat oven to 350.  Line muffin cups with paper liners.

2.  Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

3.  Whisk sour cream, milk, lemon zest and juice in a medium-small bow.

4.  Beat butter, honey and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes.  Beat in eggs one at a time.

5.  With mixer on low speed, beat in half flour mixture, then the sour cream mixture.  Beat in remaining flour mixture until just combined.

6.  Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup.  Bake 16-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes and remove to cool completely.

7.  When cupcakes are cool, poke holes in cake with a wooden pick or meat fork.

Jello Glaze

Mix a 3 ounce package of lime jello with 1 cup boiling water.  Stir until sugar crystals are completely dissolved.  Carefully pour over each cupcake.

We suggest topping with lightly sweetened whipped cream to balance the sweetness of the cupcake.  See our post on stabilized whipped cream.  You can then sprinkle with jello crystals for a little extra color and flavor.

For some free cupcake wrapper templates, check out http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/10/22/make-your-own-cupcake-wrappers/

Now go have some Jello

This is a re-post from last year:

I know, it is hard to resist the urge to over-do it with green food coloring on St. Patrick’s Day.  You probably put it in the milk, pancakes etc.  Here is a better way to use it:

Jello Key Lime Tarts

1 (3 oz) pkg. lime flavored jello

3/4 cup boiling water

1 tsp grated lime zest

1/2 cup fresh key lime juice, or lime juice

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup sour cream

4 drops green food coloring

Dissolve jello  in boiling water.  Cool jello to room temperature- about 35 minutes.  (You can speed this up by placing container in a larger container filled with ice water or in fridge; however, watch carefully so that jello does not become firm.  If it does, it will not incorporate into the other mixture and you will have Key Lime Pie with lumps of green jello.)

While jello is cooling, whisk together sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, food coloring and grated lime zest in a separate large bowl.

Whisk in sour cream and cooled jello.  Pour into small pre-cooked and cooled tart shells or one 9 inch pie crust.  Chill until firm.  (If you would like filling to be higher than tart shell, wait until it is set and then spoon or pipe into shells.)

Tart Shells

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter, softened

4 tbsp. sugar

2 cup flour

Blend cream cheese, butter and sugar.  Stir in flour just until blended.  Chill about 1 hour to make dough easier to handle.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Shape dough into 48 one-inch balls and press into mini muffin cups.  Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until very light brown on edges.  Remove from oven and let set in pan to finish cooking.  When cool, remove from pan.  This recipe makes a lot of tarts, but they are easy to make, and they disappear fast!

*Today’s post is based on two recipes from one of our favorite websites, http://allrecipes.com/ The recipes were both submitted by Glenda under the names of Key Lime Pie II and Cream Cheese Tart Shells.

Now Go Have Some Green Jello Joy!