The weekend before the weekend
Not quite ready to close the door, and that trifle recipe I was planning to publish!
In someways it’s starting to feel quiet with folk finishing up at work. Despite the pace changing it still feels like time is flying by. The big yin came home from Uni last night and it feels too soon! Although we are very glad to see him, it adds another dynamic to eating times, appetites and what goes into the pot. My wife and I have another week to go work wise, the youngest still has college and so there is a conversation to be had about how he just needs to take care of himself.
He nods, it's all fine, he's got some work secured for himself next week anyway. After school club and the corresponding Christmas parties that the club hosts. So when he might have been joining us for dinner each night, he's not, and in the same five minutes he rambles off a few social things he's attending. Like I say the dynamics are constantly changing and that's before we get to the other boy who's extra curricular items shift like sand in the dessert.
So the shopping has been done for another week, meals that can be re-heated come to mind like a good stew or hearty soups. Batch cooking that can be used for lunch the next day. That's before we get to the main event of December that everyone seems to be working up to.
Got my eye on a few things and the Mary Berry Christmas specials are adding a few extra ideas into the mix. I definitely want to tackle a pie and kedgeree. Started thinking about Trifle and the recipe I wrote up last year but didn't publish….it’s below
Substack doesn't let me insert a table, and I have a side by side recipe type thing going on. Depending on the style of trifle you want to make, so you can find it over on the cook one thing site in good old fashioned mark up, or the screen grab, link below.
Feedback welcome if you give it a go.
Meanwhile the Chocolate Christmas cake got cracked which I refereed to in an earlier post, and it’s a good. I think you’d get away with a short lead time if you still want to make it:
Trifle
Like a discussion between the Capulets and Montagues, there is usually a little conversation about what to serve for dessert at Christmas. Will it be Christmas Pudding or a Trifle? And if it's trifle, which one? The new ancestral or the old one passed down to me as a little boy. If it is to be trifle, then the compromise is that we go with the new rather than the old, albeit the new has now been perfected over twenty years. I lean on the word 'tradition' to sharpen my sword, along with the ability to make it the night before. However, the battle over which sponge, jelly, raspberries, or strawberries to use is lost before it even starts. I think my boys prefer Christmas pudding!
I'd like to make the case that Trifle isn't just reserved for Christmas, much like pancakes extend beyond Shrove Tuesday and the start of Lent. To me, a trifle ventures into 'last supper' territory, ranking among my all-time favourite puddings and deserving a spot in this book. For the sake of completeness, I've included recipes for both the new and the old trifle. I hope one finds its way to your table, regardless of the time of year.
The Christmas chocolate cake looks good. I haven't made a trifle. Thank you for your weekend coffee share.
I don't think I have ever made a trifle - but have certainly eaten a lot over the years.