Ok so the other day Big Daddy goes to see one of his customers and he had some strawberries. Correction a bunch of berries. Beautiful, ripe, red Louisiana berries. The kind that represent exactly what a strawberry should be. And make you feel a little sad for those poser berries (that I buy because my kids love strawberries in their lunch boxes) that are in the stores when berries are out of season. And BD being the sweetie that he is, brought home a flat of those babies to me.

See what I mean? Just so beautiful and juicy and perfect. Yum. So my dilemma was…what do I do with these berries? I mean, sure we could just nibble on them but that’s a bunch of berries. Now, as I have said before, I get some notions sometimes to go above and beyond and pull out all the stops when I am cooking. And in life in general. But when I do, I tend to set myself up for disappointment because I pour my heart and soul into something and the effort does not equal the reward. Know what I mean? There are things in life that are worth the hard work. Growing my babies and giving birth, raising them right, my marriage, my relationship with God. But really, day to day, I do not have the where with all to put forth 100% effort into any meal I make. Come on, I am too practical for that. So I think of recipes along those lines most of the time. What is the fastest, easiest route to use up these berries in a delicious and quick to put together dessert. Then the kiddos and BD decide they want to take the boat out. Yeah, that lit a fire under me to get the berries put away. Mama needs some time on the water, cruising along the Red River. So I made the executive decision to remove the hulls and slice the berries up. Poured some sugar all over those babies (cue the Def Leppard–my band du jour) and a little Grand Marnier that I had on hand. I would cover them and let them sit in the fridge during our boat outing. Tomorrow I would turn those sugar drenched, liquored up berries into a strawberry shortcake. I had some Sara Lee pound cake and some cool whip…yes that would all work just fine. Sure I could have put forth that extra effort and made a homemade poundcake like the one I posted a recipe for a while back…the link is here
Southern Living Pound cake and the perfectionist super woman who lives in my head | cajunmamacookin’s Blog
https://cajunmamacookinblog.com/2014/04/17/southern-living-pound-cake-and-the-perfectionist-wonder-woman-who-lives-in-my-head/. Yes that would certainly have been noble of me. Definitely industrious. Dignified even. Luckily, I don’t aspire to be those things. I am just me. And just so Martha Stewart. All due respect to Martha, but I don’t have any assistants to help me and I wanted to get my butt on that boat. So store bought pound cake it is. I could have made my own whipped cream. I mean, I know how. But would the extra effort made that big a difference? I had a boss (who is still a friend…hey Terry!) whose mantra was KISS…keep it simple silly. At that time I was not married yet and had no kids…I could not imagine why simple was so necessary. Oh but I see it all so clearly now. So, I did. I am sure I am not impressing y’all with my supreme practicality, but if you are a busy mom or busy grandma or busy in general individual with so many other things to do but you still want something tasty for dessert…maybe you appreciate this just a little!! So for you I have this super simple, stupid easy strawberry shortcake trifle. I hope you pull it together and get out there and live your life. Life waits for no one and no berry! Oh and sidenote…or maybe most importantly of all…this was awesome dessert and it was hard to believe it was such a cinch to pull together!!~AMB

Get those berries soaking in that sugar mama and let’s get on the boat!! Fun is waiting!!

totally worth keeping it simple.

posing on the sandbar…cutie

seriously who cares about showboating in the kitchen? We are making memories mama!

Super easy strawberry shortcake trifle
serves 10-12

Stuff you need~

6 cups (or more) of ripe luscious strawberries, hulls removed and then sliced up
2 cups of sugar
3 teaspoons of Grand Marnier (optional)
2 small Sara Lee pound cakes (freezer section of the grocery store), cut into slices and then cubes
2 -8 ounce containers of Cool Whip

What to do with the stuff~

Remove the hulls from the berries. Slice up the berries and add them to a nice size bowl. Stir in the sugar and give it a good toss. Resist the urge to eat the berries. They are scrumptious. Drizzle in that Grand Marnier now if you are using it. Stir the berries gently.

just like that. So good. Mama likey

Now slice your poundcake and then cut into chunks.

In a trifle bowl or a punch bowl (or really y’all any bowl that you have that is big and not super wide but pretty deep) , make a layer of one pound cake chunked up.

just like that. Yep.

Now, layer half of those insanely delicious berries over the layer of pound cake chunks.

yessss

Now smooth one of the containers of Cool Whip over the berries.

resist the impulse to eat it now. It’s not ready

Now repeat the whole process one more time. Pound cake layer, berry layer, Cool Whip layer. Oh yes. It’s good.

oh sweet layers of perfection

totally worth some shortcuts in the kitchen

what a view for a Friday night

shortcut perfection

love this one

sunset on the Red River. Perfect.