Candi's Corner: Wanderlust and Passions

We had a fabulous Valentine's Day dinner last night, with lots of food, good wine, watching the Winter Olympics and enjoying each others' company. I thought I'd start blogging from our last course: the dessert. I wanted to make a simple dessert that I can prepare ahead of time, and since we've just finished eating a chocolate tart, I thought I'd stay away from chocolate. When I saw strawberries on sale at the supermarket, English trifle came to mind. I researched some recipes on the Internet and came up with a simple, yet delicious version of English trifle.

Easy English Trifle

8 oz. package cream cheese
2 cups cold milk, divided
1 (4-serving size) vanilla flavor instant pudding and pie filling
1 pound cake (store bought of homemade), sliced into about 21 pieces.
1 pint strawberries, washed, dried, stems taken off and halved.
1/2 cup lemon curd
2 cups thawed whipped topping

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and half a cup of milk on medium speed until well blended. Add the dry pudding mix and the rest of the milk and beat on low speed for one minute. Set aside.

Mix the strawberries with the lemon curd and set aside.

In a 2-quart clear glass serving bowl, place one third of the pound cake slices on the bottom of the bowl. Layer with one third of the strawberries mixture and half the cheese/pudding mixture. Repeat the layering two more times stopping at the strawberries third layer. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours until chilled.

Top with whipped topping and garnish with strawberries before serving.