Redemption

I have to redeem myself...this is a picture from last year of a gorgeous and yummy chocolate pie I made. Let's forget about the cake disaster even if it did taste sooo good. But back to the chocolate pie. This pie is highly sought after at all family gatherings. My mother once made 50 mini pies for a family gathering so that everyone could have their own pie.

Here's the Chocolate Pie recipe. It was my grandmother's...it may have even been her mother's recipe. I'll have to check on that.

Set aside in a bowl: 1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp/dash of salt

if lumpy make sure you sift

separate 4 eggs - whites go in separate mixing bowl

In a saucepan:

4 yolks - beat til creamy

stir in 2 cups of milk and put on medium/medium-high heat

stir constantly until mixed

pour in dry ingredients

stir while cooking until it boils for about 5-10 minutes, it should get thick

add 1/4 stick of unsalted butter

1Tbs of vanilla

stir until the butter melts and pour into a pre-baked pie crust

for the meringue: beat reserved egg whites 1/2 way until they are foamy

sprinkle in 4-5 Tbs or 1/4 cup of sugar

beat until peaks begin to form

spread over pie

(be sure your meringue is touching all sides of the pie crust, this will keep it from shrinking in the oven)

bake in a 400 degree oven (you must watch the pie at this point)

take out of oven once the meringue has browned.

The Ultimate Cake Disaster!!!

I had the bright idea of baking a cake today...not a real, made-from-scratch cake, just a boxed mix that's been in the pantry for I don't know how long. I'm pregnant, I had a craving. I thought I'd use the 9" circle pans that I received as a wedding gift last year. I've never made a layer cake and I thought might as well try with the boxed mix. If you've ever made a layered cake you know that you are supposed to even out/level the layers before stacking. But for some brilliant reason I thought, eh, it will be fine; it's not that bad. Well, here is the result. Beautiful, yes?

I have laughed all afternoon about this. Every time I walk into the kitchen another piece has cracked or has slid off. I tried helping it out with the plastic knives. I looked for toothpicks so they wouldn't show but we didn't have any. The only things I could find that would be light enough were the plastic knives. Poor cake. Poor Scott, he's so lucky to have married Suzy Homemaker! He's not home yet so he hasn't seen it. It'll be a good laugh!

I was going to hide this from everyone but my mom convinced me to archive this gorgeous cake. Thanks mom for encouraging self-humiliation and a really amusing afternoon.

the little graduate

Last week my nephew, Paris, graduated from kindergarten. He was so excited! All the kids would sing a couple of songs and then the graduates would take turns sharing something they wrote or a book they could read. Paris wrote a few of letters to the first graders about what he had learned in school. My favorite part was when Paris wrote how much his teachers would miss him. It was really funny because all the kiddos before him would say how much they would miss their friends and teachers. Not Paris, he knows that they will miss him. He is such a cutie!

Ava, Paris' sister, my niece, also goes to school there and was part of the singing group. She just about stole the show! She will be the next American Idol! Ava loves music and gets so into singing and dancing. I wish a had a good photo of this. She had everyone in stitches. Here she is anyway, singing a Japanese song with two other kiddos from her class. Ava is on the right in the flower print dress.

I can't wait to see them this weekend. We will be at a family reunion. I'll have to post more about them next week. BTW, Betty, this post is for you! I will work on posting more often :-)

Half-Way Cooked

Head and shoulder shot...no peeking at the "specialized" parts.

It's hard to believe that we are half-way through cookin' the baby bug! (The picture is from last month so it's not half-way done there) I have finally started feeling little bumps and bubbles of the baby dancing around. It's a little alien-like having something moving inside you. It freaks me out every once in a while that there is a living person inside of me. Anyway, I am feeling great and getting bigger every week. There is definitely no hiding the baby bump these days.

We are not finding out the sex of the baby which I'm finding out does not make people very happy. It does make it a little more difficult to shop early (too much yellow!!!) and to even pick out nursery furniture but I have had the delivery image in my head for so long...I want to hear the doctor say, "it's a boy!" or "it's a girl!" for the first time after the baby is here. There are too few surprises in the world these days and this seems like the best surprise you could ask for. And luckily I have an incredible husband that is supporting my wish!