Stained Glass Jell-O

It's impossible to be bummed when eating Jell-O. It's true: the consumption of Jell-O drives away negative emotions. Just give a kid a bowl of Jell-O and you'll see what I mean. (And if you want real hilarity, show a kid how to suck Jell-O up through a straw. Better yet, serve Jell-O for dessert to your family, and give everyone at the table a straw to eat it with. I guarantee that all of you will be laughing like idiots by the time the last jiggly blobs are sucked up.)

Anyway, just plain old single-color Jell-O is fun. Can you imagine how much more fun Jell-O can be with four colors all tumbled together? More fun than a clown making balloon-animal hats, that's how much.

Stained Glass Jell-O, or Broken Glass Jell-O as it's also known, is an old recipe and there are a lot of versions in local fundraising cookbooks and on the internet. It's great for parties and potlucks because no one ever thinks to make Jell-O - especially not awesome multicolored überfun Jell-O.

Stained Glass Jell-O

4 3-ounce packages of Jell-O, all different colors
2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Water

Use any flavors of Jell-O you like. For the batch pictured in the photo, I used berry blue, peach, green apple (discontinued), and strawberry. Next time I'll replace the peach with pineapple or lemon - it looks too similar to strawberry.

Mix each flavor of Jell-O separately with one cup of boiling water, stirring to be sure everything dissolves completely (I've found that using a coffee mug for this step makes it very neat and easy.) Pour each flavor into it's own shallow pan (those small square disposable plastic food storage tubs like the ones on the left work great) and set them into the refrigerator to set (at least three hours.) When the Jell-O is firmly set, cut each flavor into cubes and tumble them all together in a 9-by-13 baking dish and set it aside in the fridge.

Sprinkle the two envelopes of unflavored gelatin over half a cup of cold water in a bowl and allow it to sit until the gelatin softens. Add 1½ cups of boiling water and stir until all the gelatin is completely dissolved, then stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk. Chill until this mixture is cooled, but not set.

Pour the milky gelatin over the pan of Jell-O blocks and gently smooth over the surface with a spatula to level any blocks that are sticking out over the white parts. Chill overnight until firm.

To serve, cut into blocks, exposing the brightly-colored transparent Jell-O throughout the opaque white parts.

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