Made For Each Other

Some things just go together. Peas and carrots (thank you, Forrest Gump). Popcorn and butter. Robyn and ice cream. Oh, and chocolate and peanut butter!

I didn't realize there's a "peanut butter and chocolate day" next week when I began planning for my trifle today. But no, I'm not making another one next week! I already felt guilty like I was cheating on my coworkers because this one was not going to the office. 

But it traveled to Rudolph for a night of music and laughing with friends we'll be performing with in the near future. I'll fill you on that later. For now, the recipe I cobbled together this time... 

For the bottom cake layer, I tore apart one container of those "brownie bites" you can buy at most grocery store bakery areas. (I used a second container for the other cake layer later.) Also around the bottom, I cut Reese's Thins in half to border the outside.

Next layer is the pudding layer. I mixed two packages of white chocolate pudding with 4 cups of milk, then added in a heaping tablespoon of PB2 powder (basically powered peanut butter that goes great in smoothies, too). Only use half the pudding to start since you'll have another pudding layer!

Third layer is the crunchy layer. I diced up a package of Little Debbie Nutty Buddy bars. Made the perfect amount for the two crunchy layers. I refrigerate for a few hours so the Nutty Buddies dice up nicely – no mush.

Repeat first 3 layers. The top layer is just Cool Whip and some mini Reese's cups. You can embellish with whatever you want. There are so many peanut butter and chocolate treats out there!

As predicted, it was a hit and I brought home just enough to have trifle for breakfast. Gotta get that protein in first thing, right?

Happy Trifle Tuesday!

Thinking of Going to Kokomo

 

I'm kind of embarrassed that Kokomo is not a real place in the Caribbean but a fictional place of dreams.

When us college girls went to the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail, we just went along with it.

In reality... "Kokomo" is a soft rock/yacht rock classic written by John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, Mike Love, and Terry Melcher. It was featured in the 1988 Tom Cruise movie Cocktail.

Still... when I make my "Coconut Dreams" trifle with thoughts toward remote islands and tomorrow, I am a little bit miffed at what is happening!

But I did soldier through and this trifle – from the ground layer up – includes brownies, coconut creme pudding, and chopped up Samoa cookies and my newly discovered Milano coconut variety. I'll let you know if any is left for a drive-thru tomorrow!

TGIF: Trifle Gathering In Friend's (house)

Considering what a hot mess things are at in my life (mainly work life) right now, it was a very welcome distraction to get a call on my Trifle Hotline this morning.

OK. It's not a real thing. But now I'm wondering if it should be. Ha.

A friend was inquiring if I had a recipe for trifle that includes XYZ, her father-in-law's favorite candy bar. I told her I always make these things up on the fly, but recommended how she could make it work into the (what I consider required) trifle layers.

Side note: I can't go into specifics because I do not want to spoil the surprise... the image above is not what we worked on – it's just to get you trifle fans a reason to read this!

I also asked if she even had a trifle bowl. And when she said no she was just going to buy one, I had wicked flashbacks to Christmastime and my focus to find just one bowl! Now that I have 3 of them and one was fresh out of the dishwasher, I said, "Let me loan you a trifle bowl, stop by your house over lunch and give you a Trifle 101 tutorial."

So that's what I did.

I gave her the Trifle 101 basics. Cake-like layer on bottom, then pudding layer, then crunchy layer, repeat all 3, and add a whipped cream topping and "fancy/decorative" cover.

I saw the final result later today and think some birthday boy is going to be pretty happy tomorrow.

Of course this also got me thinking, since no less than a dozen people have urged me to hold a workshop/tutorial of some sort, should I do that? Would you come? Would I need to just pick the flavors, charge for the ingredients and the bowl so you can take that home and understand the basics of building a trifle... and the etiquette of serving/eating it? There really is a lot involved.

Or should I just do a video (very amateur quality) demonstrating it?

For those who have asked me or wondered, I welcome the feedback. I can either do a Trifle on Demand type Hotline to make them, or I could empower you to do them and keep your family and co-workers happy for life. Ha.

I appreciate feedback since trifles can appear intimidating. 

At the same time, I'm a nice and honest lady. They are NOT that hard to do. Y'all can handle this.

Define Precious Cargo

So what defines a "precious cargo"? This weekend meant our neighbors transporting their newborn son home. Yesterday was our son driving his and Mamie's belongings from Dubuque to Duluth for their new start. Today was me and this birthday trifle.

I will say having this tasty bugger strapped in was a good idea since I had to slam my brakes for deer just 5 minutes into my commute! (Side note: It arrived in beautiful status and was 98% snarfed down before I took the bowl home today!)

But what about invisible precious cargo?

Think about who you are carrying around in your hearts – especially those with needs for additional prayers right now.

Like when our son called me tonight and said they quickly traveled from Duluth to southern Wisconsin because his girlfriend's best friend's dad died this morning from pancreatic cancer. His call was partly to share the sad news and also him saying how grateful he is he has both his amazing parents.

Yes, I'm ugly crying now! 

I'll confess, when I was in my 20s, I can't imagine I'd ever have made that call to my parents. So who's more grateful now?

Just think about what precious things you are trying to keep safe. If you need extra prayers, ask for them! And if a friend or loved one needs prayers, share that. 

There's a pretty good group of people around here who will pray and care about your precious cargo!

Not as Trifle of a Trifle Tuesday as I Hoped

I should've known at the first glance of the sunrise on my morning commute that God was trying to instill in me a sense of calmness for the day ahead.

Instead I was worried about my precious cargo for a Trifle Tuesday birthday celebration at work. Granted that does take 30 minutes of concentration – especially when I had to slam the brakes for two idiotic deer crossing the road. I held my hand across my passenger seat like I was protecting a child! In the end it got to work intact.

Right now I feel stupid talking about what was in the trifle because some tragedies occurred today with some of my loved ones but I'm not at liberty to share yet. Just hug your loved ones and know cancer effing sucks!!!

So anyway, this is my usual Frosted Circus Animal Trifle. So appropriate when a majority of us working in corporate setting know it can be a circus!

Bottom layer had a very carefully placed parade of animals on the outside. Inside that parade is mini frosted vanilla cupcakes basically cut in half or crumbled a bit. Next layer up is white chocolate pudding I added some red food coloring to for a pink-ish layer to match those animals! Next layer is chopped up vanilla wafer cookies – the kind with frosting in them, not to be confused with 'Nilla Wafers.

Repeat layers. Add Cool Whip on the top – plus more circus animals!

It was very sugary and sweet and delicious. And I came home with perhaps one serving left if I really scrape the bowl good. I'm not above licking it clean when it comes to this particular trifle combination!

The other bright spot of the day – although much colder than "summer" yesterday – was Royals baseball kicking off their home season. I lasted a few inning but got pictures of each of the starters at bat. And we were ahead when I left and thankfully continued to kick butt and beat Owen-Withee 11-1. I think this will be a fun season to watch and capture.

When it's warmer! 

I do hope you all found something positive and not the least bit "trifle" to your emotions today. Take care!

I Don't Care How Pretty You Are

I know the days are starting to get longer now, but today felt like 3 days' long! And that was without leaving the house!

We woke to about 5 inches of snow and below-zero feels. My hubby the winter hero spent the morning nose-blowing and snowblowing here and at his dad's. And I am about a day and half behind him on the winter cold/cough train. So I had absolutely no energy!

What I did accomplish was starting a trifle cookbook (well not really, but I do have 6 recipes done anyway for friends who got trifle bowls for Christmas). 

Then I switched to scrapbooking mode. It took all afternoon but I found and uploaded all my 2018 photos I want to use at Camp Crop-A-Lot in February – but since there are 392 of them they won't all fit anyway. But.... drum roll please... I ordered the prints!! What? I know. Crazy. Still have lots of prep and organizing to do once I get the photos, but this is a great start.

And for my final accomplishment of the day, I wrote a poem.

Thoughts on Winter

Dear, winter:

I don't care how pretty you are.

I still hate you.

The end.

Be careful out there, my friends!

Pre-Merry Christmas

We had sort of an unconventional Christmas Day – for us anyway. Since the boys (and rest of the in-laws) are coming to celebrate tomorrow, today it was just us old folks. 

I decided right away that even though Santa had stockings filled for everyone, we shouldn't have to wait until tomorrow. It's officially Christmas after all! I was thrilled Jim got us a couple's membership to our golf course again. And a gift certificate to one of my favorite locally owned businesses. If I can adhere to some New Year's resolutions, I see some wardrobe changes courtesy of Rustic Redefined. 💗

In addition to missing the boys, but grateful we're just a day away from seeing them, we missed our angels – my mom and dad...

And Jim's mom. But these ornaments always remind us they are close in our thoughts and hearts. We did have dinner at Jim's dad's this evening, so that was nice!

Otherwise, today was also just busy – getting the house ready for company, some food prep, doing a family photo shoot (for hire) and now that I have those two trifle bowls, make them tonight for a customer.

Andes Mint Chocolate Avalanche Trifle (Does Culvers have that trademarked?).

And Peanut Butter and Chocolate Trifle – with both Nutty Buddy bars and various Reese's PB cups. I think she'll be pleased.

And Santa also brought us a Vikings victory today. Yes, we're well aware this win over the Lions helps the Packers, but we're just happy to have this one small Christmas gift with our third- maybe fourth-string QB this season! Pretty sure we'll still be in a good place for the draft! 💜💛

Be Christmas nice and let us have our joy! 😁

Hope all of you had one or many Christmas blessings go celebrate today!!

One More Sleep

Who's so excited for her scrapbooking weekend that she had her car packed LAST night? Apparently, THIS girl!

I was missing a few key items that had to wait until tonight/tomorrow morning... like my clothes for the weekend. Even though I'll wear the same thing probably all 4 days. And the food and snacks – which half are in the fridge right now.

Including my Pumpkin Spice Spice Baby Trifle I whipped together after work! 

Now I just have to throw my clothes together and hopefully I'll be all set to hit the road at 8 a.m. Must make the most of 4 days! Ha. 

I don't know if I'll have time or connectivity to blog at all. I'll be working to finish up my 2017 "family memories" album and get a good start at 2018. My high school BFF Julie will be joining me again (yay). Sometimes we get more distracted chit-chatting than scrapping. But you know what? I wouldn't change that for anything. 

So no judging on my productivity (or lack of it). I really need these 4 days out of the office!

Plus, reliving memories is so fun and healing. Today my dad would have been 98 years old. Logically, I know he wouldn't have made it this far. But that doesn't make me miss him any less. I scrapbook to preserve moments in time that I want to cherish from this day forward. 

I mean if you can find a hobby that's both fun and therapeutic, you gotta grasp it and hang on!

Pumpkin Spice Spice Baby!

 

Much to the relief of thousands of fans, Trifle Tuesday is back! Hey, I can't control the work team birthday calendar!

But throw in the month of October with some Pumpkin Spice Spice Baby – and you've got a winner!

And this one is sort of fraud since hubby and I have been coughing and dealing with stuffed noses. So no oven was turned on at Blue Jay Drive to create this. Instead here is the latest made-up trifle recipe...

The cake layer was something called Pumpkin Cake Bites, which makes total sense. My pudding layers were one layer of pumpkin spice pudding and the other layer of Cinnabon pudding snack packs.

Yes! This brings out every fall flavor, in my opinion! And yes, all 6 little packs went into one layer.

As for the crunchy layer (which I always require) I took my momma's rolling pin to a gallon-sized Ziploc bag of a combined cookie packet of Pumpkin White Chocolate, Gingerbread Cream Cheese, and Brown Butter Cinnamon Bun cookies. This time, courtesy of Wal-Mart.

Even though I do have some Pumpkin Spice Eggnog in the fridge, I just wasn't willing to sacrifice it for this trifle. But... now you know another option to add to this trifle mix. 

Happy October. And good luck!

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut

Humor me and my age that your remember the commercial jingle: "Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. Almond Joy's got nuts. Mounds don't."

I mean it played a pivotal role in my "Coconut Dreams" trifle layers tonight. I decided that maybe some people don't like the nuts, so I bought a king-size Mounds to decorate the top. Cannot wait to dig in tomorrow!

The other layers are chocolate cake, coconut cream pudding, chopped Samoa coconut and caramel cookies, with a thin layer of my new game changer...

How fitting, right? Side note: I could just eat this whole container as is. I love coconut that much!

I'll let you know the feedback from the birthday girl and work crew, but I actually hope there's a lot left. Yes, I do love coconut that much!

For additional "work fun" today, I actually went into the office for a bit (normally Monday is all about working from home). While it officially is Melissa's birthday tomorrow, I also "created" a fake birthday for one of our interns. The other one had a legit birthday during our time this summer so I felt bad for the one who didn't get a special day. And this is their last week! So I decorated her desk too and we'll celebrate tomorrow with a two-for-one trifle! 

Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you a just super jealous you don't work with me, right?

Trifle Thursday Sneek Peak

 

When the "new girl" at work isn't on Facebook and doesn't know about my blog I can give you all a sneak peek of our Trifle Thursday celebration for her upcoming birthday Saturday – and she'll be none the wiser.

I also have a longtime friend at work who just got a promotion – and she loves Circus Animal Cookies – so this could be a 2-for-1 trifle day!

Here's the latest concoction recipe of sorts by layer:

• Since the temps have been more than HOT, I did not bake the cake layers on this one. I bought vanilla and confetti mini-cupcakes and sliced them up. 
• The matching pink layer is just white chocolate pudding with some red food coloring.
• The crunchy layer is my old stand by – diced up vanilla wafer cookies (you know, the ones with frosting in between the wafer layers).
• Topped with Cool Whip and more animals.

After all, this is my circus and these are my monkeys! Sounds delicious to me.

Birthday Weekends Start on Thursday

When you work from home on Fridays, a Saturday birthday becomes something you celebrate on Thursday. And I'm OK with that!

Was a nice surprise to see my desk decorated for my birthday. I take pride in my role as the Birthday Fairy for our team. But I love that everyone pitches in when I can't. I mean obviously I wouldn't decorate my own desk. But another team member has her birthday on July 1 and she's on vacation next week, so they took care of her, too.

For my part, I brought in a trifle for the July 1st birthday girl. She said she likes éclairs. So I did my best to match those flavors. Like most of my trifles, every one if a new combo of flavors and ingredients. This is what created this one...

I had a graham cracker crust type layer throughout, interspersed with French Vanilla pudding. For the middle layer I figured I should add some Cool Whip and Hershey's chocolate chips. I repeated a few layers and on the top I melted some Hershey's chocolate frosting, let it firm up in the fridge, then added more whipped cream and some Hershey's chocolate bar squares for decorations.

Not my personal preference for flavors, but since I came home with an empty trifle bowl... mission accomplished. 

Now I just have to figure out how my birthday can stay top-of-mind through Friday! Unlike college years, birthday "weekends" can be a bit long when they start on Thursday!

Trifle Tuesday... Again?!

The truth about trifles is this... Since we work from home on Mondays and 95% of my creations are for work, it's almost always Trifle Tuesday!

Today was one of our new interns' birthdays and I decided to go with Oreo Cookies 'n' Cream vibe. Yum. (Inspired, of course, by Birthday Cake Oreos and Cookies 'n' Cream pudding.)

And, since I recently put a Trifle for Auction in a silent bidding war (ha) through school, I decided I should make a recent menu – well at least some examples – for the auction winner to get inspired to think of some flavor combos. I can't wait to see what I can do for them.

But for now, I might as well share some of my "fly by the seat of my pants" flavor combos and layering options in the past year or so...

Anyone hungry right now? Ha. These are just a few. But my friend that talked me into auctioning one off said I should put them in a cook book or at least let people know I occasionally do "Trifles for Hire."

Like I need one more "side hustle" in my life. But it's so fun for me to do. So now you know.  

P.S. I choose to keep my blog a TRIFLE light tonight since I'm disappointed our first night of SentryWorld golf league was a no-go due to rain and thunder and such. Like I alluded to yesterday, I can't trust Mother Nature for anything!

A Trifle Busy This Week

When we last left off in this blog-a-thon of life, it was Tuesday night and I had to get my trifle in order!

I think it was after 9 p.m. when I texted hubby that I forgot about the top layer – Cool Whip – and could he pick up some. So yep, late night.

My Pina Colada Trifle (I call this one) has Pina Colada cake from the Walmart bakery since it was too hot to bake and I had permission to be lazy. The next layer is Coconut Cream pudding, which I can only find at Pick and Save or the local IGA. Then my crunchy layer – this time rolling pin-crushed white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and Girl Scout coconut-themed Samoas. 

Pretty darn tasty. And no leftovers to bring home for Jim. 

Wednesday was work, then our final golf lesson at SentryWorld.

Thank you, Teacher Katie (top row, 2nd from right)!

Naturally everything I learned about putting on my final night was exactly what my better half has said for years. Why do I listen to my female instructor over him? Not sure. But I have an idea. It was definitely money well spent! 

After that last night I had church choir practice then came home to finally edit all those track and field photos from the night before. Definitely no time to blog. LOL.

Today was a fast (busy) day at work. After work we gathered with just our writing team to get to know our new team member. And sort of got stuck in Point because, well, tornado warnings.

Thank god it turned out to be nothing at home or in Point. But it was kind of freaky pondering if we should out-drive it or drive through it. I heard there were twister touchdowns the next county over, so we'll see how the news shakes out tonight.

Hope you all are safe! As I often say, be careful out there!

Jumping into a Busy Tuesday

Not that there is anything more important than you, my dear readers, but I am beat after quite a full day.

Work was a bit chaotic because we had a new member of our team and the mother hen in me always wants to go overboard to be sure they're welcomed and know their way around.

From work, I went straight to Nekoosa for their track meet so I could finally get the "field" part of a Track & Field meet pictures of our Royals. Got what I could before my next engagement.

Book Club.

We were discussing my book "The Last Secret of the Soul" at R&R Patio and Bar (formerly Joker's). The book is a novel a point of view of a 10-year-old boy and how he gets through the holocaust, etc., near the end of World War II. Our group has done several different WWII novels but not from the point of view of a child, so it was interesting.

My next engagement?

Well, as I mentioned we have a new member on our writing team, so of course that calls for a trifle. I have to do the finishing touches so that is why it is not photo ready at 10 p.m.

I also need some sleep. Quite the full day for a Tuesday. The rest of the week can feel free to slow down. Am I right?!

For Your Enjoy-Mint

 

Had a busy day and evening with work, then book club, then choir practice. The whole time I'm thinking, "I gotta get home and whip together that trifle!"

And I did.

Bottom layer is brownies, next is that fabulous Shamrocky pudding, then crushed up Mint Oreos. Repeat and top with a thin layer of Cool Whip and Andes Mint chips.

Think anybody will like it?

I don't even know if the birthday boy will like it. But I did two peanut butter and chocolate ones in a row so I needed a change of flavor. I wouldn't mind taking most of this back home with me since it's my favorite. Ha.

Hope you found some enjoy-mint in your Wednesday as well!

Well Shake My Shamrocks

I forgot to mention one of the highlights of Camp Crop-a-Lot. Every year the event falls on the weekend of my friend Becky's birthday. She's one of the coordinators so for her, there's no place she'd rather be to celebrate.

As a bonus, her husband always delivers her a cake, balloons, and a Shamrock Shake. Make that a 4-pack – because he's been bringing one for me for the last 10 years! So that was a nice surprise that I hoped would happen.

Either way, it put me in a minty mood.

So this week's work birthday trifle – yes, the 3rd week of trifling in a row – will include a wee bit of Shamrock flavor with chocolate.

Here's my game-changing ingredient. Instead of adding mint extract to pudding mix, one of these bad boys from Kwik Trip is 2 cups. And blends perfectly with a package of instant White Chocolate pudding. It's Shamrock-a-licious! A perfect pudding layer for what I will now have to call my Shamrock Trifle when I "assemble" it tomorrow night.

Follow me for more Trifle Tips! ☘😋

Every Layer is Packed

 

If I sleep fast tonight, scrapbooking camp will be here before I know it! And I am ready. I have everything packed and even whipped together a Chocolate-Peanut Butter Trifle to bring along.

I took a break from packing and went to the first half of the girls basketball game. It was senior night so I wanted to watch at least some of the game against Stratford. We also had two girls reach 1,000 career points tonight. This team (this No. 1 ranked team) is on fire! Perfect timing going into the playoffs.

Got home and got a few pictures edited but the rest will have to wait. I need decent sleep tonight since I'll get very little the next 3 nights. But you won't hear me complain about that!

Also, hubby is home from his brief trip so I better talk to him before we're separated again for a few days. And keep an eye on him and that trifle. It looks too good to ignore!

Sweat dreams!