Sue's Diner: Easy Berry Trifle

My mother, Virginia Schonbachler, contributed this recipe to the BryonySeries cookbook Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony."

She often made it for holiday gatherings when my children were growing up because the kids liked it so much. It is easy-to-prepare and a good "extra" dessert to serve at Thanksgiving for people who don't like pumpkin pie.

We renamed it Darlene's Trifle for the cookbook because in Bryony, the protagonist's mother also made this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner.

Try this recipe on the Sue's Diner page on the BryonySeries website. 

But try the recipe this week. It will be gone some time next week. A new recipe will take it's place. 

All proceeds from  Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony." benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties.

Order the cookbook from the BryonySeries store or from Amazon.

If you have any troubleshooting questions or comments, email us at bryonyseries@gmail.com. 

By the way, Sue's Diner is only real in the BryonySeries world. But didn't Timothy do a great job making the page look like a real menu at a vintage diner?

Here is the full diner page: bryonyseries.com/sue-s-diner. You can't really order, of course (wouldn't it be great if you could?).

For more BryonySeries recipes, check out our three cookbooks at our BryonySeries bryonyseries.com/general-store.

My Mother's Nativity Set

The best nativity set in the entire world (for me) is the one my mother bought in the 1950s.

She was still single at the time (she married my father on September 3, 1960) and working at Continental Insurance.

She always placed this nativity set underneath the artificial tree in the finished basement of our home: 2108 Belmont Avenue in Joliet. A smaller, sleeker, three-piece scene sat below the real tree in the living.

My sister and I would come home from school and listen to our parents' Christmas records, which were stacked on the turntable of the console, which included two upright speakers.

We would lean our ears against the speakers for better sound quality, our way of enjoying headphones before we actually owned any.

Sometimes we played with the figures, too, the reason why they are chipped.

My mother said that Joseph was actually a shepherd because the set she bought was missing the Joseph figure.

I don't know if she bought the Christmas tree in the back at the same time or she added it later. 

I do remember the paper folded angels (with tabs and instructions for folding) were always part of the scene.

At some point, she added the Styrofoam snowman and stapled glitter star either my sister or I made, mostly likely when we attended the former St. Bernard Catholic School in Joliet.

When my sister gave me the set earlier this month, it was still packed in the nearly seventy-year-old gift box with what has to be the original bag of straw, judging from the disintegration of the bag.

The old can of snow was gone. But the snow you see sprayed on the cardboard stable is the snow from my childhood.

This nativity scene, as well as this beautiful piece of the first Christmas by Perry Como, are forever linked in my mind. 

You can listen to it now as you scroll through the photos.

Christ is Born! Let is Glorify Him!

Sue's Diner: Easy Berry Trifle

My mother, Virginia Schonbachler, contributed this recipe to the BryonySeries cookbook Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony."

We renamed it Darlene's Trifle for the cookbook because in Bryony, the protagonist's mother made this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner.

Rebekah also prepared it for a family Thanksgiving dinner last week as an alternate to pumpkin pie since half of the guests (many, but not all, were children) do not like pumpkin.

So if you need an easy-to-prepare dessert with plenty of child appeal for the holidays, we suggest this easy berry trifle, also known as Darlene's Trifle.

Try this recipe on the Sue's Diner page on the BryonySeries website. 

But try the recipe this week. It will be gone some time next week. A new recipe will take it's place. 

All proceeds from  Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony." benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties.

Order the cookbook from the BryonySeries store or from Amazon.

By the way, Sue's Diner is only real in the BryonySeries world. But didn't Timothy do a great job making the page look like a real menu at a vintage diner?

Here is the full diner page: bryonyseries.com/sue-s-diner. You can't really order, of course (wouldn't it be great if you could?).

For more BryonySeries recipes, check out our three cookbooks at our BryonySeries bryonyseries.com/general-store.

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: My Most Hated Meal from my Childhood Days

Thursday, May 23, 2013

My Most Hated Meal from my Childhood Days

When you were a child, did you have any strong dislikes when it came to food?

For me, it was Pork Sausage Casserole. Whenever my mother served it for dinner, I always went hungry that night. I could never understand who would create a recipe for something so disgusting.

So when we began accepting submissions for the official BryonySeries cookbook--Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony," my mother, with an evil chuckle, submitted this culinary nemesis from my past.

While typing out the handwritten recipe, I realized I had never known what ingredients actually went into the thing. Ironically, with the exception of the canned soups, I do like all of them separately.

Yet, (SHUDDER), you can be sure, I will NOT be preparing this. The rest of you might feel differently. Soooooo, just in case, here it is!

Pork Sausage Casserole

By Virginia Schonbachler

1 pound pork sausage

1 medium onion, diced

1 can condensed cream of mushroom or celery soup

1 cup low-fat milk

1 cup rice, cooked

1 cup cornflake or bread crumbs

2 tablespoons melted butter

Salt and pepper, to taste

 Brown pork sausage and onion together. Drain off fat. Add soup mixed with milk. Add cooked rice. Put into covered 1 ½ quart casserole dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Mix crumbs and butter together. Spread on top of casserole. Bake another 5 minutes. Yield: 4-6 servings.