We are planning to be away this weekend at the biannual molded fiberglass trailer meetup with the Trillium (Glass Eggs is much easier to say!), so I have been sorting out the provisions in the trailer to ensure we are warm and well-fed!  Its been so cold here, that this will be the first trip of the camping season.  It turns out there are other crazy people besides us who are obsessed with our vintage retro trailers, and the obsession has been growing – there will be at least 65 trailers for this meetup!

A potluck is being organized for Saturday night, and in additon to food, I thought I would also bring some fancy jello-shots — no spillage here!  I decided to start with one version I had made before (thanks to Gary Regan’s Joy of Mixology), and moved on to inspirations from other sources.

I ended up with 3 different flavours:  Margarita, Lychee Martini, and Fieldberry Martini.  I’m not sure which one I liked the best — each a little different from the other.  I have to say the Lychee martini ones turned out very much like a boozy version of those jellies you buy in plastic cups from Chinatown (yummy!)

If you really want to, you can take any cocktail and turn it into a jelly, there are some things to remember:

1. you usually need to add sweetener.  the combination of the jellifying (is that a word!?), and the cooling kicks up the need for extra sweetness.
2. you usually need to add some non-alcoholic liquid, sometimes water, sometimes juice.  Dont forget that when you make a cocktail, you shake or stir with ice, which adds water.
3. you can sometimes do both #1 and #2 at the same time by adding simple syrup.
4. you are basically making boozy jelly jigglers, so 1 pouch of unflavoured gelatin will solidify 8-9 ounces of total liquid.
5. you can soften the gelatin with the non-alcololic liquid, melt it in the microwave (30-60 seconds on high), and then add the alcoholic ingredients.  If you heat the booze, you have to be really careful not to let the temperature get too high and evaporate off the alcohol!

With those guidelines, you just start playing around.  The Margarita jelly shot recipe can be found in Gary Regan’s book The Joy of Mixology (Its a great reference for your cocktail library!).

For your enjoyment, here are the other two recipes I concocted.  Be warned, they are strong, but tasty!

Lychee Martini Jellies (created by Janice Mansfield, 2009)

• 1 package unflavoured gelatin
• 3 oz. lychee liqueur
• 3 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. Triple Sec
• 2 oz. simple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon Angostura Orange Bitters
• fresh or canned lychess, pitted

Soften gelatin in the simple syrup.  Microwave on high, 30-40 seconds until gelatin is melted.  Stir in lychee liqueur, vodka, triple sec and orange bitters.  Pour into molds, and place 1/4 lychee in each mold.  Chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour, until set.

Fieldberry Martini Jellies (created by Janice Mansfield, 2009)

blueberry and raspberry flavours with a hint of rose petals.  I added a dash of dark purple paste food colouring to the batch in the photo.

• 1 package unflavoured gelatin
• 1.5 oz.  Sence Rose Nectar
• 1.5 oz. simple syrup
• 3 oz. Framboise
• 3 oz. Blueberry vodka
• 1/4 teaspoon Fee Bros. West Indian Orange Bitters
• fresh raspberries and/or blueberries

Combine rose nectar and simple syrup, and sprinkle gelatin on top to soften.  Microwave on high for 30-40 seconds until gelatin is melted.  Stir in Framboise, Vodka and bitters, until completely combined.  Pour into molds, and place one raspberry or blueberry in each mold.  Chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour, until set.