Jello Worms

We are only a month into fall, and I already see more pictures of gorgeous orange pumpkins and stunning fall foliage than I can count. Not to mention all the chunky sweaters and boots we are all digging out of our closets right about now. In acknowledgment that shorter and colder days are heading our way, and I still can't seem to get used to the idea that summer, pool, and sandals are done for this year, I have been baking a little something with e every week to get myself into this thing called fall mood. 

Up this week, worms, especially after last week's {not so} happy encounter with a garden spider and the spider cookies.

I'll be the first to admit, as I have grown older I have gotten worse and worse when it comes to little bugs and spiders. Believe me, I want to show my daughter it's ok to hold them and love them and not be a screaming hot mess, but that's just it. I'm a screaming hot mess when an itsy bitsy spider gets too close.  

Still with me? Good. Now back to the worms, thank you. Worms, mind you, I can handle them a lot better. They're just slimy. 

Gelatin {Jello} worms 

Ingredients:

1 pack of raspberry Gelatin* {regular size, not family size}

2 envelopes of unflavored Gelatin

3 cups boiling water

3/4 cups heavy whipping cream

green food coloring* {optional}

Glas Jar

about 120 plastic straws **

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, prepare flavored and unflavored Gelatin with 3 cups of boiling water. Place in the fridge for about 20 Minutes until luke warm.

2. During this time, prepare straws by pulling out the flexible part on.each.one. Place the straws with the flexible part down into the glass jar.

3. Prepare the whipping cream by dropping in and combining about 15 drops of green food coloring {if using}. Add the whipping cream mixture to the red gelatin. Mix 

4. S L O W L Y pour the whipping cream-gelatin mixture over and into the straws. You will notice the jar will fill up as well as the inside of the straws. Pour in as much of the mixture as possible {mine happened to go all in}

5. Place in the fridge for 8 to 24 hours, or in the freezer for 4 hours, which is what I did and it turned out well.

6. Once the gelatin has set, remove the straws from the jar, one by one and hold them one by one under running hot water for a few seconds. Now you can squeeze the gelatin out.of.each. straw into a container.

The separation of the red gelatin and the whipping cream is normal and adds a more natural flair to the worms. 

7. Take the worms to your friends' house and enjoy their reactions {insert smiley face}. 

* We are a Red 40 free household and our gelatin was colored naturally with beets instead of artificial colors. I did use green food dye as I still had some left over, but my next batch will be made without any kind of artificial dyes.

**P L A S T I C {sigh} We are downsizing and these plastic straws have been in our cabinet for almost the last decade, which means we hardly ever use straws in our house. I used up a good bit of them. While I'm tempted to give it a try with paper straws, I wouldn't know how to get the worms out of them after they set. Has anyone any advice on that? 

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