Tomato Aspic

Way back when, my mom would inevitably make tomato aspic whenever she had a group of church ladies coming over for a daytime get-together that involved food.  All the ladies would ooh and aah over it and ask her for the recipe.  I recall her aspic as being something that no one ever assumed I would like, but I always found it delicious and thought of myself as quite sophisticated in doing so.  So with a bunch of military spouses (I nearly wrote "wives" -- we do try to be politically correct, but there is only one man in the club, so I still sometimes forget and use the "w" word) coming over for a board meeting, I started thinking...  aspic!

I have some rather warm fuzzy memories of my mother actually making her tomato aspic, but there is a disturbingly nagging image of lemon jello being involved in the process.  I looked through my mom's old recipe box, but could not find her recipe (one of my sisters must have liberated it from the box before it found itself in my possession).  This sounds the closest to her recipe taste-wise (at least to my recollection), but the lure of ease sang its siren song and I made this recipe instead.  I used a small bundt pan as the mold (just like my mom always did) and I wish I'd taken pictures of it because it turned out quite fetching.

I decided on a Cucumber Dressing to accompany the aspic although my mom always served mayonnaise with hers. But when I went to make the dressing, it was one of those days... I grabbed the mayo and there was only a couple of tablespoons left in the jar (RWT!). Then I snagged the sour cream to find only a tablespoon there. So I made up the rest of the half-cup called for with Greek yogurt.  It still came out well, although the nostalgic side of me wanted more of a mayonnaise flavor with the aspic.

For the meeting, I had made Spiced Peaches (they are sort of sweet pickled with cinnamon and cloves, maybe I'll post the recipe here sometime), Green Chili and Chorizo Strata, Scones (found Devonshire cream at the commissary of all places) and that Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake.  I thought Tomato Aspic would have rounded out the menu nicely, but at the last minute decided that group of ladies would probably not truly appreciate its retro yumminess, so I kept it for myself.  As I expected, RWT would have nothing to do with the gorgeous blob of tomato-y-ness, but I did manage to get EES and CB (an aspic virgin!) to try it out.

So I guess this adventure should be categorized as a new recipe, but an old favorite.  Not something I'll make regularly, but maybe for the Spring Birders' Brunch. I know that group cannot think I am any crazier than they already do.

[If you still want to read more about aspic, this is an interesting post although it appears the author is not much of a fan of aspic's jiggly goodness.]