Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Family Reunion and Berry Trifle

This past Sunday was spent getting together for our annual family reunion. It was wonderful to see everyone and spend time outside by the pool. It was an even better surprise to see my sister Emma, who showed up unannounced from Ithaca! She is fabulously talented and always busy with work, so it was nice to be able to catch up with her and her boyfriend.

One of the best parts of the reunion of course is the food. When I was much younger the family would get together at a park and there would be rows and rows of food, but also many more people. Now that everyone is much more spread out, we just get together at a cousin's house to play frisbee golf, swim and of course eat good food.

My mom offered me the job of cooking/ preparing the food for the day and I was glad to take her up on that offer. So I ended up making the mini caprese salad, a berry trifle, and Mediterranean pasta salad.

The berry trifle was a huge hit so here is the recipe. I found this by searching online for a trifle recipe, however I do not really follow the recipe, I really just needed some ideas. So this is my variation on what I found.

Berry Trifle

1 box vanilla pudding
1 orange
1 c. milk
1 c. sour cream
2 c. whipped topping (or whipped cream)
3 c. blue berries (I just buy 2 boxes at the store, or use as many as will fit in the dish)
2 c. strawberries sliced
1 pound cake (you could also use angel food cake and other "light" ingredients to make it low fat and low calorie)

Mix milk, sour cream and pudding together in a bowl until blended. Then zest (use a small grater to shave off the skin of the orange, but not the white part) the orange and mix into the pudding. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl. I do this over my hand to catch any seeds. Mix well. Finally fold in the 2 cups of whipped topping and place in the fridge.

Wash berries and slice strawberries. Slice the pound cake into small cubes about 1 inch by 1 inch.

Place sliced strawberries around the base of a clear glass trifle bowl or other tall dish. Cover the bottom with a single layer of cake. Next top with 1/3 of the cream mix. Then add a layer of blueberries, cake and 1/3 cream. Next is a layer of the sliced strawberries, cake and cream. That will take me to the top of the bowl. Sometimes I have to mix in the rest of the whipped topping with the last 1/3 of the cream mix to have enough to cover the cake. Finally top with a layer of blueberries. Feel free to vary the layers as you see fit. The first time I made this (see pic above) I was not able to get as many layers in the bowl because I used too much cake.

2 comments:

  1. perfect for the 4th! i need a trifle bowl...

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  2. Cara,

    I got this one at a pampered chef party. It is great because it comes with a lid and the foot is removable!

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