Behold, the trifle

Early last week I sent an inquiry to all the girls in my small group, asking if anyone had a trifle bowl I could borrow for the dessert I was planning for Thanksgiving dinner. I received 4 emails back asking, "What's a trifle bowl?" and to each I found myself replying, "Have you ever seen the episode of Friends where Rachel tries to make an "English Trifle" but the pages of the cookbook get stuck together and she ends up making a dish that's half dessert, half shepherd's pie with 'a layer of lady fingers, then strawberries, then beef sauteed with peas and carrots...' and everyone is repulsed but then Joey tries it and really likes it? (a great episode.) Well, a trifle is a layered dessert, traditionally served in a glass bowl on a pedestal, and I'm looking for the bowl."

Then I thought to ask one of my married friends, because married people register for obscure kitchenware items like trifle bowls, and I found one to borrow on the first try. So, early Thanksgiving morning I rose and made the gingerbread (okay, it was from a box, but still) and mixed all the other stuff together, then layered everything oh so carefully, producing quite possibly the most beautiful dessert I've ever made - a gingerbread and spiced pear trifle.

Behold, the trifle.

I was quite pleased with it. Okay, and with myself, too. And with my brother, for being brave and trying some, which he claimed was the very first time he's ever eaten pear (he's not really one for fruits...or vegetables...or anything new). Yes, it was time to shake up Thanksgiving dinner, or at least, dessert.

Although, lest I upset things too much, there was also pumpkin pie.