Pumpkin Cream Cheese Trifle

I am a nostalgic fool. Almost anything that reminds me of the past, especially of my parents, I feel like I need to save. My mother passed away 12 years ago and now my Dad is suffering from Alzheimer  He still remembers me and my siblings and things from his childhood but very little of anything else. I was going through my old recipes, the ones that are kept either in a shoe box or loose among the pages of your favorite cookbook. I found a slip of paper with my dad's handwriting on it. I knew immediately what it was. One of my favorite dessert recipes. Written on this same piece of paper is the info about my cousins baby. That baby is now 34 years old with two children of her own. Dad had called Aunt Eda to get the recipe for me and found out that her daughter had just had her first baby. So before writing the recipe down he got the baby's important info, i.e. weight, length, name. Just a scrap of paper, but also a scrap of history now. Crazy. But this recipe is crazy good! I did change out the chocolate pudding for pumpkin pudding for fall. You gotta love it.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Trifle

Crust:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Combine flour and sugar. Cut cool butter into flour mixture as you could a pie crust. Stirr in nuts. Pat into a 9 x 13 dripper pan and bake @ 400 ºF for 15 minutes. Crumble crust. Set aside.

Pudding
Part 1:
2 cups milk
4 Tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
8 ozs. cream cheese room temp

Combine cornstarch, sugar, salt and spice. Pour milk into a saucepan. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat. Whisk in cornstarch mixture. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool. When thoroughly cool beat in cream cheese until smooth.

Part 2:
2 sm. pkgs. instant vanilla pudding
2 cups milk

Whisk together and let sit until thick. Add. . .
6 ozs. cool whip thawed. Fold until combined.

To assemble trifle, cover bottom of dish with some of the crumbled crust. Spoon on some of the pumpkin pudding, then more crust. Spoon on the vanilla part of the pudding, then more crust and repeat with the pumpkin part. top with cool whip and crumbles.

Shortcut: Combine parts 1 & 2 of the pudding and just layer with the crust. Or layer with Cool Whip and crust.