Wednesday, December 2, 2009



ok, after posting my woeful pity party for one, i'm back. i have lots of posts and i'm going to stop complaining now :)

thanksgiving came and went, but not without mountains of food (many of those mountains consumed by 23 weeks pregnant me...). i had a delightful holiday at my sister's apartment (with it's tiny kitchen and easy bake oven), where husband and i spent quality time with my parents and sister. we all brought a few dishes and i was in charge of snacks, cranberry sauce (i made a simple one with orange segments and orange juice), and the dessert.

i don't like pumpkin pie (and neither does my sister), so i tried to come up with a pumpkin alternative. i had made a version of this trifle a few years ago using paula dean's recipe. because we were on location and my cooking space and supplies were limited, i made the gingerbread in advance and decided to stick to basics for the rest.



supplies and half of the layers (photos on location!)

the big change in the recipe came from homemade gingerbread. paula dean's calls for prepackaged, which is totally fine, but i was craving something at least partially from scratch. after searching, i came across this gramercy tavern gingerbread from gourmet, whih i made in a baking dish rather than a bundt pan.

i'm not posting any of the recipes, since i've linked above and it's pretty simple. yes, i used cool whip, pumpkin pie filling, and boxed pudding mix...but it doesn't matter because the gingerbread is out of this world good (i mean, it has guinness in it). to trifle it up, layer half of the gingerbread (crumbled) into the bowl, top with half the pumpkin mixture, then top with cool whip. lather, rinse, repeat. or just repeat, and you'll be left with an easy, pretty dessert.




and a tasty one, too. the pumpkin seeps around the gingerbread and the cool whip balances all the fall spices. i would prefer whipped cream, but i can't complain too much. if you don't have anywhere to take a trifle, or are done with pumpkin for the season, please go ahead and make the gingerbread. so worth it.

1 comments:

Helen said...

whoa mama! This looks good!!! I keep wanting to buy a trifle bowl and this could be a reason for it!! We also just bought turnips. It's true, when you roast vegetables, it always tastes good. We do that technique on 425 with brussel sprouts and asparagus all the time. You'd be proud, I'm trying a pork loin tomorrow...we'll see how it goes.... mees you!