An important part of Dinosaur Day is, of course, the consumption of elaborately conceived dinosaur comestibles. Last year, we made blue, dinosaur egg ice cream. This year? JELLO DIORAMA.
First, I laid out the prehistoric earth, with a sad apatosaurus embedded therein.
That is a milk-based almond, cinnamon, bourbon jello (I was trying to use up the dregs of bottles in the liquor cabinet, and last few drops of some fireball whiskey left over from some apocalypse-themed cocktails that I made a few months ago served quite nicely here), with blackberries, peaches, slivered almonds, and chunks of cherry jello (leftover from that time Aaron got a wisdom tooth pulled) for prehistoric texture. The apatosaurus is plastic.
And then I added a volcano, made out of grape jello, which was made using plain gelatin and real grape juice. Using actual fruit juice instead and plain gelatin, instead of using flavored gelatin mixes is so much tastier and probably better for you because it isn’t as loaded with sugar. Also, pterodactyl.
And then the volcano erupted!
The lava is gelatin made with tasty orange-carrot-ginger juice, which I let partially set and then folded into whipped cream. This results in an amazing sturdy and yet mousse-like texture that is tasty and also, admittedly, weird. I then dusted the whole thing with sparkly red sugar from a cookie decorating kit, thereby negating any of the positive health effects of using juice. The trees are eucalyptus branches. The dinosaur is engulfed in lava.
I promise that for next Dinosaur Day I will make an actual dinosaur out of jello and frosting.
