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

Title:  For You to Find Out

Spoilers:  Season 4:  The Perfect Pieces in the Purple Pond

Rating:  T, just to be safe.

Disclaimer:  Do not own.

Summary:  He told her it was for him to know, and her to find out.  She does, several years later.  Short drabble, B&B.

Notes:  I was Christmas shopping recently when I just casually walked through the TV on DVD section at Target, to find that—miracle of miracles!—Bones Season 4 was on sale.  So I bought it.  And now, when I should be studying for a Constitutional Law class that I have a final in on Monday, I am watching the entire set.  The scene that is mentioned in this piece just got the ball rolling.  Any errors are mine, as I took twenty minutes to write it before posting. 

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I’m sending you a photo of Mr. Robinson, one of our teen area staff/mascot. He thoroughly enjoyed "You are So Undead to Me," and is looking forward to the sequel (Undead Much?), and "My So Called Death."

Here is our picture, including Chunk & Mr. Squiggles! Yes, they are real live zhu zhu hamsters - a very rare breed this time of year, but they wanted to check out the 2009 debut novels here at the College Hill branch of the Westminster Public Library.