I am kind of sad to see the Christmas season go. I love all the traditions and how some people (not all!) are able to look past the mass-commercialized holiday and celebrate family and friends.
That is what Christmas time means to me, spending time with friends and family and celebrating the time you have with them.
Oh and good food of course!
I showed up at my parents house Christmas morning to find that my mom had set out this:
She had pre-made the waffle batter the night before and had set the necessary items out for those of us who came over early to make and enjoy :) ...I didn't spray the iron enough though so mine looked like this:
Presentation was awful but taste was marvelous.
Christmas has always been an intimate holiday for me spent with immediate family. We've never had a Christmas dinner larger than ten people that I've experienced. So my mother always prepares a classic but not extravagant dinner, just something a little more than an average Saturday meal.
This year we had;
our traditional ham with pineapple brown sugar glaze (it wouldn't be the same without!),
my moms "special" mashed potatoes,
scalloped potatoes by Betty Crocker,
pre-packaged dinner rolls,
Del Monte mixed vegetables,
my sister's green bean casserole,
frozen peach cobbler,
frozen apple pie,
and my addition to the 'feast' a chocolate Oreo trifle!
I was so proud of this dish, everyones jaw dropped when they saw what I had prepared! This is the first time I made a dish for a family dinner and everyone pretty much knows I am not really any kind of cook. Until now... :)
Anyway as you can see from the list, we don't really have a lot of "made from scratch" things even at holiday dinners. Thats just how I grew up, boxed and canned items were just cheaper and more convenient for my mom to prepare.
So back to the trifle!
I absolutely love my trifle serving dish, I bought it two weeks ago to make my first trifle for a holiday party. Just by getting these two uses out of it already I feel it was worth the buy. I spent an entire day trying to find it, I went to a local kitchenware shop, Bed Bath and Beyond, Ross, TJ Maxx, and a few other "maybe" places I was directed to. No one had one, or else they only had the individual dishes. I had about gave up and settled for a simple glass bowl when I went to Target to pick up some ingredients I needed. They had a perfect dish for a great price! The
Elegance Trifle Dish was only $6.99 on sale, I was so excited! Especially when I saw how awesome my first trifle looked in it:
This was a simple chocolate trifle, which I misjudged how much I needed for each layer so it was a little short. I made up for not having the two top layers by using all of the whipped topping I had left to make a little heart design.
I've realized I sort of ramble...oh well back to to the Oreo trifle.
Having learned from the first one I made sure I had plenty to make each layer.
Oreo Chocolate Trifle
16 oz Cool Whip
A package of Oreos
6 cups chocolate pudding
half a pan of your favorite chocolate cake or brownies
Set aside 8 or so cookies to garnish the top. Dump the rest of the cookies into a giant zip-lock, close, now smash until your hearts content! Now layer up the ingredients, here is what I did.
Layer 1 - cake, layer 2 - pudding, layer 3 - cookies, layer 4 - Cool Whip, repeat layers 1-4. Garnish the top with cookies and cake crumbles :) Let set for awhile (I left mine in the fridge for a few hours while we ate dinner but you could serve it sooner, the longer it sets the more moist the cake layer gets) Voila! Awesomeness.
What I love about chocolate trifles is you can pretty much do whatever you want as it goes about assembling, and it still tastes and looks awesome.
I wanted to make the cake from scratch because I am trying to gear away from box recipes and actually learn to make things on my own. (Although I didn't tackle trying to make my own pudding this time :( )
I used
One Bowl Chocolate Cake III from AllRecipes.com but the cake turned out a bit salty. Which since mine was going into the trifle it was unnoticeable. My mom said never to add salt to cake recipes because it does make them salty, however my friend disagrees Oh well next time....
Now I am off to work on my knitted scarf and dream of the days when I will prepare a full Christmas meal...
