No, they are not paper weight!

Rosa Rodriquez was once a hopeless single mom without a job and now she is a successful business owner based in San Francisco, CA - Mexican-American jello artist, Rosa Rodriguez lose her job in 2009.  She was struggling to pay the bills and support her own kids.  She always knew art is something she was passionate about.  After losing her job, she started considering using her creative and artistic side of her brain to create an unique business (a combination of art and food) she always wanted and support the family.  She creates amazing jello arts by using syringes filled with colored gelatin, an artist's eye and a steady hand, she injects the colored gelatin into the clear, forming a design as she works (click here for video).   Now Rosa is a proud owner of Sweet Collection Catering company (check out her official websites for pictures, classes and ordering and catering information), a genius jello artist and a successful role model for her two kids. 

(Photo courtesy of Sweet Collection)

Gelatinas are a Mexican standard, often served at quinceañeras and weddings, made in all shapes and sizes. Flowers are the most common designs, but Rodriguez takes custom requests, recently doing a special order of gelatinas for Google that bore the company logo.  And while they're usually fruit-flavored, Rodriguez also makes spiked versions--that is to say, fancy Jell-O shots--with tequila, rum and vodka. When seasonally appropriate, she has been known to bust out an eggnog version  (Source from Taste Table).

The story of Rosa is another inspiring and touching story for those once lose hope.  At that one particular moment, you might thought you lose everything, sit back and let your mind remind yourself "the best is yet to come!". 

More amazing jello arts will be posted soon...

Easy Panna Cotta Recipe

Panna Cotta means cooked cream in Italian.  It is a classic Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. It is generally from the Northern Italian region of Piemonte.  The dessert could serve with fresh fruits or hazelnuts.  If you want to have some bitter sweet flavor, try green tea powder (aka matcha) panna cotta.

Here is my recipe (adopted from all recipe.com):

Ingredients:

1/3 cup reduced fat milk

1 (0.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin (look for it from the jello section at the grocery store)

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (look for it from the baking section at the grocery store)

6 cleaned ramekin dishes

Direction:

1. Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder and mix well. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan, stir together the heavy cream and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla extract and pour into six individual ramekin dishes.
3. Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving.
4. Serve with fresh berries (optional).