Calvary Lutheran Church Choir hosts ‘That Midwestern Mom’ for annual Jell-O salad competition – Obituary

GRAND FORKS – Ric Mott proudly held up his prize, a Christmas tree ornament in the shape of a Jell-O mold, after capturing first place in the Calvary Lutheran Church Choir’s annual Jell-O salad competition Saturday, April 12.

The contest is held every year on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, as part of a retreat – led by choir director Whitney Berry – during which the choir rehearses in preparation for Holy Week services.

“This was the first time I’ve done this with the choir,” said Mott, one of the few men among 12 contestants. He got the recipe for the Strawberry Pretzel Jell-O Salad from his daughter-in-law, he said. “She brought it to a holiday dinner, and I thought it was really good.”

He chalked up his win, he said, to “rookie’s luck, I guess.”

Extra flavor was added to this year’s competition by a visiting judge, Amber Estenson, who, as “That Midwestern Mom,” is an online personality known for championing Jell-O, hot dishes and the “quirky culture” that permeates this part of the country.

Estenson, a professionally trained opera singer from Frazee, Minnesota, has become a well-known online presence on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube as a 1950s-era mom who shares the “joys and wholesome culture” of life in Minnesota with the world, she said on one of her posts.

This is the first time she has judged a Jell-O salad competition, she said, although she has judged a hot dish contest.

Her online persona, That Midwestern Mom, is based on her grandmother and her mom, she said. Her mother, Jay Estenson, has owned and operated Yak Shack Beauty Salon on Main Street in Frazee for nearly 50 years.

“She has been putting curlers in my hair for as long as I can remember,” Estenson wrote in one of her online posts.

“The salon, I would say, is the cornerstone of the community,” Estenson said. “My mom is in charge of everything.”

During the judging on Saturday, Estenson sprinkled bits of truisms along with her reactions as she taste-tested various salads, including “Always serve the salad on a leaf of lettuce; it always makes it taste better” and “Anything can be a salad.”

Estenson, the mom of three who are ages 9, 15 and 20, got her start as That Midwestern Mom when she posted a video “about our quirky Minnesota salads that really aren’t salads because they’re made with Jell-O and Cool Whip, and the internet went crazy for it,” she said. She realized the internet gave her a voice to talk about her life in Minnesota.

Since then, she is “always surprised” by her growing popularity and internet success, because the Midwest is not generally seen by the rest of the nation, she said. However, “the Midwest is really hot right now,” she said, and people are looking for something that is “cutesy,” served up with “fun and kindness – and we all need that right now.”

This year’s other Jell-O salad competition winners are Elaine Einarson, with her Holiday Oreo Cookie Jello Dessert. She found the recipe in her cookbook “and thought I’d try it,” she said

Berry received the Honorary Mention award for her Midwest Picnic Jell-o Salad, an artistic molded concoction crowned with a sculpted red pepper “flower.”

Last year, Einarson and Lizz Sandberg shared first-place honors when they each brought a Strawberry Pretzel Jell-O Salad.

The competition is a tradition, spanning the last roughly 10 years – except for two during the COVID pandemic – at Calvary Lutheran. It started when Berry became choir director and, along with Sandberg, decided to launch the Jell-o salad competition.

“I grew up Lutheran,” Sandberg said, “and we wanted some sort of tradition.”

Every year, the two dozen or so choir members are invited to bring a Jell-O salad for the competition. In the past, other judges have included Molly Yeh, cookbook author and star of Food Network’s TV show “Girl Meets Farm,” and Marilyn Hagerty, a columnist with the Obituary.

Judging for the contest is usually anonymous, but this year, each of the entrants came forward to describe their dish, which worked out well because Estenson “doesn’t know any of us,” Sandberg said. Estenson’s son, Trysten, shot video for her posts on online platforms.

“I decided to go with the ones I like the best – versus the traditional and fun (ones),” Estenson said after the winners were announced. “They were all delicious – in their own way.”

Edith Soli, who has won the Jell-o salad competition three times, is known as “our Jell-O Queen,” Sandberg said. This year, she brought a Luther League Jell-o salad from the 1940s.

Soli said she enjoys the contest because “it’s fun to be with the group, and it’s all in good spirit. … It binds us together – and it’s fun.”

Soli also noted that it’s fun “to see men come up with a salad” for the competition. “For some, it’s their first time – and they’re proud of it too.”