Strawberry Cream Trifle

My mom made this for Easter dinner. I told her she needed to put it on the blog, so I am now helping her do it. Okay I am doing this while they do the dishes. I just wanted you to think what a great daughter I am when in reality I am just getting out of work. This is very good and would be a perfect light dessert for summer. So we wanted to share it so you could add it to your list of things to try as the weather warms up.

CONTRIBUTED BY DORIS BUTLER



Strawberry Cream Trifle

This pretty pink trifle showcases the summery combination of strawberries and cream.

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1 pkg (10.75 ox) frozen pound cake, thawed
1 qt. fresh strawberries
1 container (16 oz.) frozen sliced strawberries in syrup, thawed
1 lemon
3 conatiners (8 oz. each) blended strawberry yogurt
1 pkg (3.4 oz) cheese cake instant pudding and pie filling
1 container (8 oz.) frozen whipped topping
Powdered sugar

1. Coarsely chop almonds. Cut pound cake into 1 inch cubes; set aside. Set aside one strawberry for garnish. Hull remaining strawberries and cut into quarters. Combine fresh and frozen strawberries; mix well.

2. Juice lemon to measure 2 tbsp. of juice. In a bowl, whisk lemon juice, yogurt and pudding mix until smooth. Immediately fold in 1 cup of the whipped topping.

3. To assemble trifle, place one third of the pound cake cubes into bottom of trifle bowl. Top pound cake with one third of the strawberry mixtures. Top with half of the yogurt mixture, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with one third of the almonds. Repeat layers one time. Top with remaining pound cake cubes and remaining strawberry mixture.

4. To garnish, spread remaining whipped topping over top of trifle, forming a flat surface. Sprinkle remaining almonds over whipped topping. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Create strawberry fan with reserved strawberry; place into center of trifle.

Makes 12 servings.

Award Winning Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you like your chocolate chip cookies soft, this is a great recipe. I do find that the dough needs to be at room temperature for them to turn out. So if you freeze the dough, let it sit out at room temperature until it is soft. Or if you have had it in the fridge, again, let it sit out. It is not a great freezer to oven recipe. I think Steff has a good one for that?

NOTE: I think is what makes this so good is the use of the pudding mix. I usually just use one large package as apposed to the two small. But it is nice to know you can half it and use only one small package as this does make a lot of cookies. Also make suer you only cook it for 10 minutes (depending on your oven). They should just be turning light brown around the edges and soft in the middle. Take them out and let them sit for a few minutes on the warm pan. That way they don't over cook and stay soft.

AWARD WINNING CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Oreo Dessert

This is very rich, but yummy. If anyone lives in Utah, my brother-in-law LOVES peanut butter and would love this. So someome make it for Matt :)

Note: I heard of people using chocolate pudding instead of vanilla. I only used half of the powdered sugar called for in the cream cheese mixture and none in the pudding mixture. It was to sweet the first time I made it following directions.

OREO DESSERT

* 22 Oreo cookies, divided
* 3 tablespoons butter, melted
* 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
* 1/2 cup peanut butter
* 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided
* 1 (16 ounce) carton frozen whipped topping, divided
* 18 miniature peanut butter cups, chopped
* 1 cup milk
* 1 small package instant chocolate pudding mix


Directions

1. Crush 18 cookies; mix with butter; press into bottom of an ungreased
2. 9x9 dish. Beat cream cheese, peanut butter and 1 cup powdered sugar
3. until creamy. Stir in half the whipped topping; spread over crust.
4. Sprinkle with the chopped peanut butter cups.
5. In second bowl, beat milk, pudding mix and the rest of the powdered
6. sugar on low for 2 minutes. Fold in remaining whipped topping.
7. Spread over the peanut butter cups. Crush the 4 remaining Oreos;
8. sprinkle on top.
9. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.