Traditions with Jasmine Haynes
Here’s how my holiday season works. My two brothers live back East, so my mom alternates years between the daughters and the sons, meaning, one year my sister and I get Thanksgiving with her, and the next year we, the girls, get Christmas. This year our turn was Thanksgiving, so we’re packaging her up and shipping her off today. But on Saturday we had a wonderful celebration. Our feast was turducken (it’s a roll of turkey, duck and chicken with sausage stuffing in the middle), roast potatoes, broccoli and Hot Chocolate pudding for dessert (YUM!). Now, I have to admit we all agreed that next year we’ll go back to the traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and skip the turducken. Did I tell you Mom is British? Yep, and a very proper English lady at that. Our traditional meal when I was a kid always included Yorkshire Pudding. It’s not really a pudding like it sounds, but more like a popover. And you fill it with gravy made from the meat drippings. To die for. I always loved the hot chocolate pudding, too. It’s like a brownie with a hot fudge sauce. Add a dollop of whipped cream, mmm. Love it! The other traditional dessert we often have is English Trifle. Loads of whipped cream, and a spike to it as well, thanks to the sherry. Today I’m going to share my mother’s recipe for English trifle with you.
Mom’s English Trifle
2 packages lady finger cakes
Raspberry jam as needed
4 to 6 T sherry
2 bananas sliced
1 package thick custard
2 half pints whipping cream
Place lady fingers around edge and center of dessert bowl, covering the whole bowl. Spread raspberry jam over top of cake (thin layer to individual liking). Drizzle sherry on top to soak into cake. Layer bananas on top of cake and sherry. Make thick custard from package and spread over bananas and cake. Whip cream and top cooled custard.
Okay, Mom says “drizzle” but let me tell you, she can be very liberal with the sherry, LOL!
Any traditional recipes you’d like to share?
I’ve also got my blog up http://jasminehaynes.blogspot.com/ so feel free to pop over there and check out Mom’s recipe for Hot Chocolate Pudding, too!
Happy Holidays everyone!!!! And thanks for having me, Lucienne!
Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!
www.jasminehaynes.com
Look for Laced with Desire, coming February 2010
