Hands Down!--CHOCOLATE Wins!

Homemade Chocolate pie--the favorite of our crowd

"Let me bring dessert," I offered. 

"Chocolate pie?"my friend quizzed. 

"Will that compliment your entree?" I asked. 

Glazed, almost serious eyes looked back at me. "How could chocolate pie NOT fit my entree?"he laughed.

I knew immediately-- no other dessert options, chocolate pie was THE choice. So it is and ever shall me. Our family (and many of our friends) think of me making only one fitting dessert for every occasion, what they call Alice's chocolate pie.

I'm not sure how the tradition began. Mom made chocolate pie from her mother's recipe. We loved it. Then when I became the matriarch of the family kitchen the chocolate pie expectations strengthened. 

At every occasion  my husband, relatives or friends tease each other about the size of the pie slices. And George, who prides himself regarding his daily diet, looses all discipline when chocolate pie is still in the kitchen after company has departed. 

Over the years I've customized our favorite pie, combining mom's recipe with Better Homes and Gardens and the classic recipes I acquired in college foods classes. I still enjoy reviewing and comparing a yummy chocolate pie in a magazine to our family favorite. To play with tradition by adding espresso or rum extract is fun, partly to question the family's palette. And I've learned, through lots of experimentation--quality DARK chocolate and homemade crust make the difference.  

Regardless of the occasional variations, the family chocolate pie is THE favorite, maybe the only pie that is always welcome at our dessert table.

First, mix dry ingredients thoroughly; add milk 1/2 at a time.
Stir until completely mixed and while the heat thickens the pudding.

Stirring and low heat make a great pudding. - Add butter and vanilla after thickened. 

Homemade pie crust is the best. I use Hodgson's Mill 50/50 flour  &  real butter-yum!

To baked and cooled crust pour the chocolate filling

Beat egg whites to frothy peaks--a beautiful final addition

Not a crumb will be left--I promise.

Our family's FAVORITE CHOCOLATE PIE

CHOCOLATE PUDDING

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch OR 1/3+1/6 cup of flour 

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 squares of unsweetened dark chocolate (I use Ghirardelli)

1 Tablespoon of high quality cocoa (again, Ghirardelli)

Mix all dry ingredients until totally blended. (cornstarch or flour MUST BE blended into the sugar to avoid lumps)
Chocolate squares are added with milk.

3 cups milk (I use 2%, whole and/or canned milk)

Pour 1/2 of milk into dry mixture and stir until well blended. Cook on low temperature, thickening the mixture.

As it thickens add the last amount of milk, continue cooking, stirring until pudding consistency. Next, add

3 egg yolks--Break yolks into custard cup. QUICKLY add some hot chocolate mixture, stirring fast to blend the ingredients. Pour the egg yolk/chocolate mixture into the main mixture.

2 Tablespoons butter

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Stir into the cooked pudding. Set aside to cool

PIE CRUST (variation on a KitchenAid mixer recipe)

Hot oven - 450 degrees

1 9 inch pie plate

2 1/4 cups of mixed 50/50 wheat/unbleached flour (I use Hodgson Mills)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup real butter (1 1/2 sticks cut in narrow chunks)

4-6 tablespoons COLD water

Pour  and mix flour and salt into mixing bowl. Add chunks of butter while the mixer is turning. Mix the flour and butter until it looks like small peas. Add 1 Tablespoon of water at a time until the dough "cleans" the bowl. (amount of water varies, but usually about 4-5 tablespoons is perfect). Take dough from bowl, form into a ball.

Flour a work surface. Lightly flour the dough ball. Roll out in a circle shape, about 2 inches larger than the pie plate. Lift and center over plate and form the shell to fit the plate. Bake at 450 degrees about 8-10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

MERINGUE

3 egg whites

6 Tablespoons sugar

pinch salt /cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pour egg whites into mixing bowl. Add salt and cream of tartar. Begin whipping and add two tablespoons 

sugar at a time until all is used. Whip to stiff, but not dry. Add vanilla. (I like to add the sugar as the whites are whipping to avoid a grainy texture.)

Pour pudding into baked  9 inch shell; Spread meringue over pudding, touching the crust edges with meringue so it will not shrink. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Cool and ENJOY!

Happy cooking,

Alice

And a favorite scripture: I Peter 4:9 Offer hospitality up to one another without grumbling.

And a favorite cookbook: Helen Corbitt's red book titled Helen Corbitt's Cookbook, dated 1957.

(I used my first one so long that the pages fell from the spine. I found another in an antique store and see it often in book stacks in antique or half/price book sales.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

                       

Merry Christmas, Joy to the World, Christmas Greetings and Happy New Year...I love these traditional greetings. For me it is not the same to say Happy Holidays. For me, the lack of sentimental language falls cold.


 I like tradition. I like repetition of years gone by. Time spent opening and hanging old decorations, addressing and sending cards to friends far away, preparing favorite recipes, and making time for visits and parties with extended family and friends identifies the spirit of Christmas. The sameness reinforces joyful memories built one year at a time.


"Twas the night after Christmas" when my daughter and I looked at every ornament on her tree. They sprang eternal to her 32 years...childhood memories built in the form of shiny glass balls and classic painted wooden shapes in the style of sleighs and little trains. These beginning stories of Lis and her husband Andy continue to multiply.From childhood memory  ornaments to college and early marriage years, a recall of the giver and the occasion rings clear. Even now, more ornaments are being added for their young children, my precious grandchildren. The tree is glistening with beauty, smiling with 30+ years of Christmas stories. So many tales are told in these simple shapes--vacations, summer camps, school awards, children's births, work and friendship connections.   Indeed,a dimensional journal of family history is recorded in the glitz, homemade style, sentimental paint or stitch of every ornament.


The allure and sentimental value of the decorated tree is enhanced with an advent calendar, old ruby-red nosed Rudolph setting on the chair (from Lis's childhood), the scripture opened to Luke 2's recording of Christ's birth and gingerbread men cookies ready in the kitchen. In addition, the phone conversations with sister and daughter "do you think he will like....?" add spirit to the hustle and bustle of the season. Augment these sentiments with wrapping paper, tape and ribbon, all awaiting the wonder of the hospitality of  the family get-together for fun and gift giving.


I cherish the menus of years gone by and the delicious flavors of this season's fare. I save magazines and love to group several Christmas issues from various years--Martha Stewart Living, Cooking Light and Bon Appetite read awesome to me with their golden baked turkey on the cover and layed cake inside--be it a 1998 or 2010 issue. It is a joy to flip pages in favorite cookbooks and see a note "mom made this, Christmas 1986." I am always tempted to prepare it again. I cherish the time to make a home-made gift by needle and thread for family and friends--even though the goals of completion are never fully met. The calendar seems to always run out.


Enter the drive from one city to next, joining family and feeling their hugs and smiles exchanged with sincerity. I love the dinners amid laughter and conversations "do you remember the Christmas when?" with everyone adding their personal version to complete the annual story. Don't forget to add the tale of the snow blizzard of 2009 and our Christmas Eve time in the generous snow shelter provided by Goldsby Baptist Church. In the not expected blizzard, 9 hours of snow packed driving led us to spend the evening in a spirited round of favorite carols, the reading of the Christmas story and a night's rest on the vestibule church pews. The novel experience provided one of my all-time favorite Christmas memories. Family connections were possible the next day and the tradition of old and new  (with a new story) began again.

I am thankful for all these years of tradition. I cherish family and the stages we are in. Grandparent, parent, sibling, cousin, niece and little ones--every age writes a different chapter. Every chapter spells j-o-y and thanksgiving for God's blessings. Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night. May you and yours be blessed in the coming New Year.

Sincerely,

alice

p.s. I regret I fell behind in my blog season of 2010. Thanks for reading my weekly words. I'm back on go--once a week I look forward to sharing 2011. Let me hear from you. Tell me your stories, your favorite books, your travels...stay in touch.

Just in case...

          

possibilities from a friendly quilter...just in case??

                     
                    JUST IN CASE...to my mind means all possibilities of emergency, including multi-maybe's when traveling, thus packing assorted products to cover the random chance that any event might happen. Make sense?  I've always packed, bought groceries, collected fabric and books, just in case...to be prepared for all possibilities.

                                   
                                 To reinforce this obvious thought process, I recently observed a second style of woman's logic. I was privy to a series of business announcements at a quilter's meeting, only to hear the spokeswoman say " The September meeting will meet the last Thursday of August." No one questioned the statement. No one seemed confused.  It made perfect sense....exactly like just in case.
 
                               Reinforcing this logical thinking style I heard a writing artist read her clever poem just in case. It caused my mind to wander across the multi-hat, multi-task, multi-focus paths I and all women have traveled for eons--just in case we are called upon to make life more convenient.

take it all--take it all!

                         
                         Third week of August, the date had been on the calendar for weeks. We decided to meet the kids (big and little) in the New Mexico mountains. 


                          Preprep first involved food for a week, buying veggies and fruit, snack foods, G's muffins and more. It involved a Saturday of cooking--soup, chicken and rice, taco meat, peach cobbler and organizing assorted fresh and frozen breakfast, lunch and snackies.  I felt like the local grocer, chef and I were loading for our departure. Oh, I forgot to mention spices, paper goods, trash bags and more...just in case.


                          Next came the packing of things I might want to use. I had to finish "Kate's quilt", so perle #8 and hand threads, darners, needle threaders and measuring tape were packed. Book favorites, Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott, Thunder and Lighting by Natalie Goldberg and sorted new issues of Bella Quilt, American Patchwork and Quilts, Poets and Writer magazines unread. I "needed" my writing notebook, mini computer and the larger one too. My son-in-law (computer pro) is meeting us and I have computer questions. And is a trip possible without necessary office scissors, tape, paper clips?...just in case.


                           Organization of carefully considered clothing included my umbrella, walking shoes and fleece (even if it is 100 degrees as I pack) and a mirage of other emergency possibilities--short and long sleeves, capri and long pants and one choice of dressy...just in case.


                           And modern technology included a zip case of additional emergency considerations. Charge cords, batteries, screen cleaners, camera and an extra memory card, just in case. Oh, the home telephone book, some note cards and stamps and a few "surprise" gifts for Michael and Kate. ...just in case.


                           And the departure time. G says "I don't want to drive when it is hot." My brain says "I don't want to get up before daylight to avoid that possibility." Well...he won and we were out of our driveway by 6:30 a.m., which meant I had a five a.m. alarm. I knew all the possibilities must be pre-ordered.


                           Extreme early mornings are painful for me, so the organization had to fall the day before departure. I created a plan.  First, pack G's truck with luggage inside...just in case of rain, then ice chests to the pickup bed, stuffed with pork tenderloin, frozen salmon filet, farm fresh veggies and organic carrots for the cabin. Next organize the hard cooked eggs, avocado, fresh cherries, raw almonds, peanut butter sandwiches-- the car food and just in case, water and energy bars. Oh, and fresh coffee in mugs. It is 6:30 a.m.


                           The next nine hours we moved 80 miles an hour down Interstate 10 then took a turn through the desert of Texas, the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains and finally into the cool, beautiful pine and spruce trees located at 8000 feet elevation. "Is it really 100 degrees at home?" "Please grab that fleece jacket for me, then I'll help unload the car." "Hungry?, "Yeah, the soup is still frozen in the ice chest, but I'll microwave it. Be ready shortly." Did you bring my walking shoes?" "Think they are in the black bag." and on it went...just in case.

maybe we forgot...does it really matter?

                               Random thoughts, random needs, random wants...but one never knows...just in case.


'til next time,

Alice


Consider a favorite read and I promise, laugh 'til you drop. I checked a library copy of the Erma Bombeck treasury of four books --Four of a Kind. What a talent--Bombeck wrote as if she wore our shoes. She saw life as we see it --daily!!

And a favorite scripture: II Timothy 2:15 "Study to show thyself approved unto God." --let us always remember