On Floating Fruit and Gelatin...

When we were down in Kentucky, my dad's family all got together at my Aunt Diana's and Uncle Murph's house on Memorial Day. Mom had gone to stay with her Sister the night before, and Heather, Adam and I stayed with Diana and Murph. Knowing my Aunt, I knew there was going to be a flurry of activity going on in her kitchen the next morning as she got ready for the 40'ish people that were scheduled to show up. So I told her I'd get up to help her if she wanted help, to which she replied "I need someone to wash dishes and stay out of the way!"

OK...I can do that.

So I got up and dutifully started washing dishes for her while she cooked everything under the sun. Of course it didn't take long for my "duties" to start expanding, which mainly included plunging the sink out every 3 minutes since the pipes were clogged and trying to remember the items she kept yelling out in statements that started with "Don't let me forget to......" Hmm, I need to ask for a raise.

Well, soon her son David shows up, then Heather gets up, then we drag Adam out of bed. Adam and Dave helped Uncle Murph set things up outside while Heather and I continued with the washing/drying/plunging/remembering duties. After the fellows got through outside, they then join the chaos in the kitchen.

So now Aunt Diana announces that "the meatloaf is done, the beans are cooking, the chicken is baking and I'm going to take 1/2 hour and go get cleaned up and get ready and you guys make sure to check the Jell-o in about 10 minutes and add the banana's if it's ready for them...."

That was the last thing we heard as she walked out of the room. Heather, Adam, David and I blankly look at each other, and quickly begin to assess the situation at hand. Uhm...none of us knew how to tell if the "Jell-o was ready for the banana's to be put in it". Well, this should be interesting.

So, we wait our allotted 10 minutes, and then decide to start the great banana experiment. Adam ventures into the pantry and comes out with what appeared to be (as Heather described it) a "very large butcher knife". She then informs him that it's probably not necessary to use a machete to slice a banana, and he should find a smaller knife. David decides it's too much trouble to slice the bananas into multiple pieces, so he "suggests" that we just cut them in half and throw them in that way. Somehow I don't think that will pass the Aunt Diana Food Quality Inspection test. This is going well so far, as you can see.

But the biggest issue is yet to be. Heather gets the Jell-o out of the refrigerator, and we all stand there and look at it. Then we jiggle the dish a little. Amazingly, that really didn't tell us a whole lot. I think Heather may have touched her finger to it. And that...gave us about as much information as jiggling the dish did. Finally I say..."I think we're gonna have to go ask Aunt Diana how we're supposed to know if this is ready." We all agree, so Heather heads off to yell at her through her bedroom door, and finally returns with the official instructions that we were looking for. "If the bananas float when you put them in the Jell-o, it's not ready yet." Cool...science experiment in the kitchen!

So Heather takes a piece of the banana that Adam has so meticulously sliced and holds it daringly above the bowl of wiggling gelatin. Then, as we hold our breath.....in it goes. And we all point and announce in unison...."FLOATING!"

Well, isn't that something. Who knew bananas would float in Jell-o??

We then have about a 10 minute conversation about how we think it's weird that banana's float in Jell-o and we really had expected them to sink instead and why didn't they sink anyway? (We came up with no answers mind you, but the conversation kept us entertained for a while anyway...) Then we try to decide what we should do with the cut-up bananas to keep them from browning over before they find their final home in the Jell-o sometime in the near future. Obviously, to keep them fresh, it would be best to put them in the refrigerator. Which is what we do.

Of course, later on my mom tells me that was the worst thing to do, as the refrigerator would actually cause them to brown faster than if we had left them out on the counter.

Hmm...who knew there was so much to learn about Jell-o and bananas in one lifetime. There is one thing that I have definitely decided though...

If I want banana's with my Jell-o in the future....I'll just have them on the side!