Berry Trifle

I had the girls over tonight and made a trifle for our treat. I used the Raspberry Trifle recipe from allrecipes.com and added a few strawberries and blueberries. I wanted to get some fresh raspberries, but they're not available at this time of year. However, I did include them in the recipe. It has been very cold out (below freezing for quite some time) and I've been making a lot of heavy foods, so it was nice to have a light and refreshing dessert.

Berry Trifle

1 1/2 cups heavy cream  

1/4 cup white sugar

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened 

2 tsps lemon juice

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

1/2 cup white sugar   

1 pkg prepared pound cake (like Sara Lee)

1 pkg frozen raspberries, thawed

1 pkg frozen blueberries, thawed

1 carton fresh strawberries, chopped (reserve some for garnishing)

1 carton fresh blueberries (reserve some for garnish)

1 carton fresh raspberries (reserve some for garnish)

2 T unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

In a medium bowl, beat cream with 1/4 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, cream together cream cheese, lemon juice, vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar. Fold 2 cups of whipped cream into cream cheese mixture. Reserve remaining whipped cream. 

Slice pound cake into 18 - 1/2 inch slices. Drain thawed raspberries and blueberries, reserving juice. Line the bottom of a 3 quart glass bowl or trifle bowl with one-third of the cake slices. Drizzle with some raspberry, blueberry and strawberry juice. Spread one-fourth of the cream cheese mixture over cake. Sift one-fourth of the cocoa over that. Sprinkle with one-third of the raspberries. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining cream cheese mixture, whipped cream and sifted cocoa. Cover and refrigerate 4-8 hours before serving.

Here are a few notes on the instructions. I chopped up the strawberries the night before adding a bit of water, vanilla and sugar. Doing this will get you some of the strawberry juice that you can add to the raspberry and blueberry juice. I also squeezed the raspberries and blueberries to drain as much of the juice as possible. The more liquid that the pound cake absorbs, the better. You could probably use a package of frozen strawberries as well to get more of the juice, but I did without since I had fresh ones to work with. Lastly, I sliced my pound cake into cubes. I don't know why, but I prefer the smaller bite size pieces. I don't think it matters when you dish it out though.

2nd Birthday Cake

We celebrated Mike's birthday on January 1st (technically December 31st, but we stayed up until midnight, so it blurred all together) and we had an ice cream cake. Tonight we had his family celebration and I made his second birthday cake, pictured above. I think it's beautiful, but most important very yummy! Besides, how can you go wrong with ice cream!

I found this recipe in a Woman's Day magazine over 15 years ago and this is the third time I've made it. The cake has an Oreo crust, the sides are Pirouette cookies, and inside is layers of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and toffee bits, topped with mini M&M's, whipped cream and maraschino cherries.

Same Old New Years Resolution

For quite some time my New Years resolution has been the same thing: do something you've never done before. Though it is the same old resolution, it always brings a different adventure. For example, last year (if I hadn't made it obvious enough with my prior posts) I had a baby!

This year I'm excited for an opportunity I have to take part in a dinner group! It will be good for me to test some new recipes and foods, and stretch my baking skills. My first dinner is at the end of the month...and you'll have to wait to hear about it. :-)

Baby's First Christmas

We drove all the way to Midland, TX for Christmas this year. Benjamin was very excited as we started out our trip. We had good weather all the way, despite the fact it was cold.

We stayed in NM the first night. We had breakfast with Tio Dani, Tia Estela and Mariela, Clay and Sofia. I felt like it had been way too long since I last saw them and it was good to catch up and visit with them. We had a very yummy breakfast of baked french toast, eggs and bacon. Thank you for the great time!

 Baby had fun opening gifts. Of course, he loved the wrapping paper!

Mike received DVDs of all his slides from his mission. They are now preserved. He had fun reminiscing the good old days!

 We saw Aunt Wendy, and Mike and Benjamin got to meet David and all the kids for the first time. Baby had fun with all the kids and received lots of attention.

 He finally got pooped out by the end of Christmas day.

I got to see the Hobbit with Mom and Ariana. I really enjoyed being able to take off and see a movie. It was a guilty pleasure. I took Mike out to eat at Rosa's Cafe...which he enjoyed. Then we also ate at Luigi's downtown so that I could eat their famous pastrami sandwich. Yum, yum! Also, Dad took us out to one of his producing wells. Mike got an education on the oil business in West Texas. We also got a chance to visit with David's sister, Becca; and had a fun time catching up.

Finally, the day arrived for our departure. We left Midland and went to Carlsbad Caverns. The caves are as spectacular as ever and Ranger Mike (above) was impressed. I hope some of the pictures he took from the caverns came out.

After a long drive home, here are the boys relaxing in their own way. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!

Pop Star Crispy Treats

Christmas treats...yum, yum, yum! This year I made caramel popcorn on my own. I helped some roommates back in my college days to make some once. So I figured it wouldn't be so bad doing it on my own. I'm glad I have a huge bowl, because it makes a lot. I used the recipe from allrecipes.com.

Caramel Popcorn

1 cup butter 

2 cups brown sugar 

1/2 cup corn syrup  

1 teaspoon salt 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
5 quarts popped popcorn 

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place popcorn in a very large bowl. 

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat. 

Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

I baked the popcorn for a little over 30 minutes because I like my caramel a little softer and it turned out excellent.

In addition to the popcorn, I made rice crispy treats in the shape of stars, and....

 Ginger bread men. I think they looked pretty cool and it was less work than the real cookie.