Contributor: Sally Curtis AsKew of Athens, a former law librarian married to a retired Methodist minister with one son and three grandchildren.

The story: "I grew up in Waverly Hall, Ga., in a home with five women: grandmother, great-aunt, mother and sister. My mother (Rebecca Biggs Curtis) worked at an office supply company in Columbus. My great-aunt (Florence S. Weston) was the stereotypical old-maid school teacher/principal. My sister and I often laugh and say the most important thing she taught us was to always rinse dishes in very hot water! She taught us many other things, of course, not the least of them to eat all kinds of foods like brussels sprouts and broccoli, which were very uncommon in Waverly Hall when we were growing up in the '40s and '50s."

JOEY IVANSCO/AJC STAFF (ENLARGE)

Pimentos add some color to Asparagus Congealed Salad.

AsKew particularly remembers the "jellied fruit salad" her great-aunt would make for Christmas dinner with the basket of Indian River citrus fruit her mother received from her boss each year. She has since modernized the recipe.

Chef's interpretation: "I liked the fact that this recipe uses fresh citrus, which is so good this time of year," Scott Peacock says. "I also like that it uses plain gelatin as opposed to Jell-O. But since my objective was to use all fresh fruit, the pineapple was problematic. I couldn't substitute fresh pineapple because it contains an enzyme which prevents gelling. Then I remembered a champagne jelly that I had tried years ago and liked. So I substituted that for the pineapple and juice and was pleased with the results; the champagne goes really well with the slight bitterness of the grapefruit. You could serve slices of it as a side-dish salad, or individual servings in champagne glasses as a light dessert."

Jellied Champagne and Pink Grapefruit Salad

6-8 servings
Hands on: 30 minutes
Total time: 41/2 hours or more, including chilling time

3 tablespoons cold water
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
2 cups champagne or sparkling wine
Finely grated zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
3-4 large pink grapefruits, peeled and sectioned, about 5 cups

Put the cold water in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the gelatin and set aside.

Put the champagne, orange and lemon zest, sugar, lemon juice and salt in a nonreactive saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the mixture is very hot and the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the softened gelatin until completely dissolved.

Arrange the grapefruit segments in a nonreactive 7-cup mold or loaf pan that has been lightly oiled or rinsed in cold water.

Stir the champagne mixture over a bowl of ice water until very cold and just beginning to thicken. Pour over the grapefruit. Shake gently back and forth to make sure the champagne jelly coats all the grapefruit. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely set, 3 to 4 hours.

When ready to unmold, dip the mold briefly (10 seconds) in a bowl of very hot water. Invert mold onto a serving dish.

Per serving (based on 6): 230 calories (percent of calories from fat, 1), 2 grams protein, 44 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, trace fat (no saturated), no cholesterol, 52 milligrams sodium.

Some juicy twists

"People are not indifferent when it comes to Jell-O," says cookbook author and Watershed chef Scott Peacock, who is also on our Saving Southern Food chefs panel, tasked with helping us preserve and update recipes readers have contributed to our ongoing Southern Recipe Restoration Project. "Either they love it, they hate it, or they enjoy it — but with a tinge of embarrassment."

For this installment of our ongoing series, he challenged himself to update three gelatin salads submitted by our readers in the style he is known for — emphasizing fresh, seasonal ingredients without straying too far from his Southern roots. Meanwhile, AJC staff writer Jeanne Besser tested the original versions, making only minimal adjustments for clarity's sake.

Here we feature both, along with the stories behind them, for you to consider as you plan your holiday tables. We round out the selection with several others that caught our eye either for the intriguing recipe, the great story behind it, or both.

(Because we received so many tomato aspics and gelatin-based dessert recipes, we decided to hang on to those for future issues.)

— Susan Puckett