Food: Would I Trifle With You??

Would I trifle, with you?? Of course I would....if it was a delicious trifle like this one!

One of my favorite desserts to make for parties, especially at the holidays, is a trifle.

A trifle is a dessert dish often made from custard, fruit, sponge cake, gelatin and whipped cream. The ingredients are usually arranged in layers into a large glass footed bowl, which is usually called a trifle bowl. Some trifle recipes include a small portion of alcohol, usually a sweet sherry, port or Madeira wine. Non-alcoholic versions may have fruit juices or gelatins to moisten the sponge cake layers.

The trifle evolved from a similar old-fashioned English dessert known as fool or foole. The name derives from the French word "fouler", to crush.

A fool is usally made with some kind of berry fruit, like strawberries, raspberries or blueberries.

 Stock photo of Strawberry Fool, from the internet.

For the fruit and custard trifle pictured above, I use a home-made custard and home-made pound cake instead of sponge cake. The layers of berries juice up nicely with some sugar and rum and will moisten up the layers of pound cake.

Here's how I make it:

Custard:

4 large egg yolks

2 cups heavy cream

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until pale and well blended. Pour the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat and bring just to a boil. Gradually add the hot cream to the egg mixture while whisking. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until just boiling and very thick (about 4 minutes). Pour into a clean bowl and stir in vanilla. Scrape down the sides and gently press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until well chilled--about 2 hrs, or up to overnight.

Trifle:

6 cups mixed berries, such as raspberries,blackberries, blueberries and halved strawberries

3 Tbl dark rum or sweet sherry

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2 Tbl sugar

whipped cream

1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted

6 slices pound cake, each 1/2 inch thick.

custard (recipe above)

In a large bowl, toss together the berries, the rum, lemon zest and 2 tablespoons sugar until  well mixed. Cut each pound cake slice into eight pieces. Arrange half the cake pieces snugly in the bottom of trifle bowl or a 2  1/2 qt serving bowl (preferably clear so you can see the layers!). Spoon half the berries and juices over the pound cake slices. Pour half of the chilled custard over the fruit. Top with another layer of pound cake, berries, and the remaining custard. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to one day. Just before serving, top with whipped cream and garnish with sliced almonds.

I don't care for store-bought pound cake, so if you're like me and would like to make your own, here's my recipe, which is quite delicious.

Pound Cake:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus extra for greasing

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream, room temp.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease an 8 1/2 inch by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan; dust with flour. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt until blended. In another bowl, using a mixer on medium to med-high speed, beat together butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, until just blended. Sprinkle half the flour mixture over the egg mixture and stir until just incorporated. Stir in the sour cream, then sprinkle with the remaning flour mixture and stir until evenly distributed.

Pour batter into loaf pan and tap gently on the counter to even out and settle ingredients. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean; about 70 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around the inside of the pan and invert the cake onto a wire rack and lift off the pan. Place the cake on one of it's sides and continue cooling.

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Tree of Christmas Past.........

It's slightly too early for the Christmas decorations to make their appearance at Le Beau Paon, but when I looked at the calender and saw how fast it's coming up, I realized that it won't be long before I'll be making the trek up the attic to get all my Christmas stuff down!

I'm one of those folks who won't put up a Christmas tree, decorations or outdoor lights before Thanksgiving,  mostly for fear of being set upon by a lynch mob of traditionalists who consider pre-Thanksgiving Christmas decorations to be an evil that should not be tolerated. I'm sort of one of those people myself; I think each holiday should be given it's due.

However, I thought I'd cheat a little and show a few pictures of a Tree from Christmas Past; that is...... one of my Christmas trees from last year, 2009.

This small, slender fake tree was the tree I used for many years when I was single and before I owned a house and I lived in small, one-bedroom apartments. It was perfect for the apartment dweller; only 5 feet tall, it was also extra skinny and was marketed specifically to people like me, who had limited space, but still wanted to have a Christmas tree. It came apart in three sections and could be folded into a bag about the size of a large duffel. Our first Christmas at Le Beau Paon, we put up my little tree (which was crammed with so many Victorian ornaments that you could barely see the branches.) And then we laughed and laughed.
It was so tiny looking in our big parlour, with it's 10 and a half foot ceilings. It looked rather ridiculous.
The following Christmas, Erik persuaded me to buy a new fake tree; a pre-lighted 10 foot monster that takes two people to carry. My little tree sat in a box in the attic and gathered dust for two years.

Above: the little tree in the parlour ( with only about half of the ornaments I own on it) our first Christmas at Le Beau Paon in 2006.

I felt sad for my little tree and then got an idea; why not have two Christmas trees?  I could have my big Victorian tree in the parlour as usual, but then I could do a "theme" tree and set it up in a different room. I could do a specific color scheme, or motif and I could change it every year. And I would buy the next year's decorations after each holiday when all the Christmas stuff was on sale for 80% off, so it wouldn't be expensive at all to do.

And so, here again, was 2009's theme tree; I used a variety of ornaments, but I used a specific color scheme; gold, copper, bronze and lime green. I purchased all the ornaments at after-holiday sales for 70-80% off and was able to buy more than enough ornaments and garland for this tree spending only about $28.00.

After Christmas last year, I hit the stores and bought ornaments for this year's theme tree, which will be going up after Thanksgiving, so you'll have to wait until then to see the theme tree for 2010.

Here it is all lit up (with the lighted garland that I made for the stair rail).

I'll leave you with this pretty picture I took of the Victorian tree in the parlour from last year..........

See you soon!
Thanks for stopping by!

Show & Tell Friday: 1939 Piano Estate Sale Find

A couple of weeks ago I showed some pictures of two pieces of antique furniture we scored at an estate sale, along with.......surprise!!! A piano!
I took a couple photos and posted them, but I had Halloween stuff on top of it and also a cat, who decided that the piano was her new "bed" ( she loves anything new...now the thrill of newness has worn off and she has returned to other, more cozy and cat-nap-worthy digs).

So today I will be joining Cindy at My Romantic Home with some proper pictures for Show and Tell Friday.

Erik was able to locate the serial number and look it up so we know that the year this piano was made was 1939. This piano is an upright spinet piano, made by Gulbransen. Here is how it looks with the top closed.

And voila! With the top open. The top has hinges so it folds back on itself and the music stand is also on hinges so it can be lifted up.

We probably should have it tuned, although it's not actually too bad. We don't know how long ago it was last played by anybody.  In case you're wondering.....no, I do not know how to play. Erik can play a little bit; he had lessons for awhile about 6 years ago. I've always wanted to play piano. I was one of those weird kids who actually would have loved to have piano lessons, but alas! My parents did not want to pay for lessons ( or buy a piano) so instead I played the clarinet. I still have my clarinet. I started playing when I was about 12 and played all through high school.

The decorative carving is so beautiful!

I love the needlepoint seat cover on the bench. I'm considering learning to play; I don't think that 40 is too late to learn!

On this piano, the sound chamber is underneath, instead of on top. Look at the gorgeous lyre motif on the sound chamber where the pedals are! So lovely!


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Food: "Sinister Sludge" Dip (Black Bean and Guacamole Dip)

I've had several people ask me about the dip we recently served at our Halloween party on October 30th. I always call it 'Sinister Sludge'; the green color looks perfectly spooky when paired with black tortilla chips! But it's also a very delicious dip for any occasion.

So I thought I'd share the recipe:

1 (15 1/2 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt (sea salt)
1/2 large white onion, finely chopped
1 tsp minced jalapeno chile, seeds removed
1 1/2 tsp minced chipotle in adobo
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 tbl plus 1 tsp fresh lime juice (about 1 or 2 limes)
2 ripe avocados, peeled and pitted
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Combine beans, salt, onion, jalapeno, chipotle and lime juice in a bowl. Mash avocados and stir into bean mixture with cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips. Makes about 3 cups.

Mmmm! Delicious!

Thanks for stopping by!