As soon as the weather gets nice and picnics come to mind, so do jelly shots.  My sister always makes Jell-O eggs (yes, Jell-O in the shape of eggs) for Easter …I always wonder what it would be like to create a jelly shot egg!  I have never tried it since I have a niece and some nephews well below the legal drinking age, but Easter always seems to start me thinking about making jelly shots.

Back in my college years, I discovered Jell-O shots and started making and bringing them to parties.  I would prepare Jell-O, substituting most of the water in the recipe to some type of alcohol and pour it into small paper cups.  I loved experimenting with flavors of Jell-O and liquors to come up with some cool combinations.

Over the years, I discovered that using Knox gelatin opened up a whole creative avenue…no longer were my creations limited by the flavors of Jell-O…Knox could make any liquid become a gelatin!  Flavor combinations became much more sophisticated.  And, small paper cups were replaced…shapes were cut or fancy molds were used.

A fun way to serve a school of fish shaped jelly shots is on skewers. These are vodka pink lemonade jelly shots.

If you are less adventurous and would like some recipes already proven to be winners, check out the recipes of Michelle Palm.  Her blog, with tons of recipes for jelly shots, is amazing and contains more recipes than you could ever think of…for any occasion!  Today, I adapted one of her recipes for my ‘fish’ shots.  I chose the vodka pink lemonade for this post because it is pretty basic – a real crowd pleaser – everyone seems to like pink lemonade!

Vodka Pink Lemonade Jelly Shots Recipe (makes a school of fish)

• 2/3 cup frozen canned pink lemonade, thawed
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 envelopes + 1 tsp. Knox gelatin
• 2/3 cup vodka

Pour the lemonade mix and water through a strainer into a medium size sauce pan.  Sprinkle the gelatin over the surface, letting it saturate for about 2 minutes.  Heat over low heat, stirring constantly to dissolve – about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in vodka.  Spoon into molds and refrigerate until set.

I used fish shaped ice cube trays that I purchased at IKEA.  There are 12 fish in each tray and this recipe filled 4 trays.

Please remember that this recipe contains alcohol.  It should not be used or consumed by anyone except a responsible adult that is of the legal drinking age.

If you want to make some shots for the under 21 set, you can also use Jell-O brand gelatin to make Jell-O jigglers which only require adding water, or you can use your own fruit juice to make Knox Blox… these can be made from any fruit juice and the instructions to make them is right on the Knox gelatin envelope.  Another really fun idea for the kids is to make glow–in-the-dark gelatin by using tonic water.

Hope this inspired you to create your own ‘school’ of jelly shots… (with or without alcohol), they are a fun warm weather treat!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at Coastal Charm,  Little Red House, The Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush, and  A Pinch of Joy.