3.14 PI day...What kind of pie are you making?

Friday, March 14, 2015is 3.1415 and PI day or as the way I like t think of it -  PIE day. What kind of PIE are you making? Try one of mine, here are two of our favorites. Both of these pies are old, family recipes. What kind of pie do you like to make? My husbands' family loves desserts, and his dad refused to leave the table without one! Treat your family and try one of mine!

Chocolate Pecan Pie --rich, chocolaty and full of nuts, so good with vanilla ice cream! View the recipe here :

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Or try some lemon chess pie, another family favorite and a recipe that has been in our family for many, many years:

You can check out the recipe and the history HERE

Lemon Chess Pie

Not my greatest picture, the pie is actually dark golden brown on the top and rich yellow underneath. The thing that really matters is that it is absolutely delicious! Very lemony and tart, with just enough sweetness. A favorite family story is one time when my husbands' grandmother, who everyone called Maw, made a mistake and left out the sugar in the recipe. When the pie was served and everyone was choking down the first bite, Maw smiled and said, "I like it tart, don't you?"

Fearless, just like Julia Child! 

Adventures in Baking and a Chocolate Emergency: Double Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I got bored today and I wanted something chocolate. I started rummaging around on the top shelf of the pantry where I keep my baking supplies. I don't bake nearly as much as I used to, since most of the time it's just me and my hub. Our younger son is home for the summer from college, so that justifies just a little bit of baking, right? Plus, there was that chocolate craving thing happening.

After a minute of shifting around some bags and boxes, OUT JUMPED a half of a bag of Nestle's White Chocolate Chips....Hhmmm I thought, I saw some cookies with white chocolate chips on the Food Network on Saturday.....OH Happy Coincidence!!! And Bless You, Ree Drummond!!

I only made 1/2 of her recipe because I only had 1 cup of those Nestle's Morsels....but I did have everything else!! I quickly retrieved the bag of Nestle's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips I keep hidden in the very bottom back of the bread drawer for those chocolate emergencies (that's normal, right?) and I was off in a flash, gathering eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla etc. I love it when I can make a smaller batch of some homemade goodies. That way I don't feel nearly so guilty about putting  temptation in our path to healthy living. Here's her recipe but in the meantime you can enjoy my pictures. Can't you almost taste the ice cold milk I washed them down with??

Here they are cooling off:

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookes

And here they are right before I started wolfing them down with some milk:

And another good thing, I even had enough parchment paper to line the cookie sheets, so the clean up was minimal. They were yummy! Next time, I am going to add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, probably either hazelnuts or macadamia nuts. They needed just a little crunch! Next time you are bored, start rummaging and see what you can come up with! Adventures in baking!

Salty, Sweet and Crunchy, Oh MY!!

Here is the recipe for the dessert treat I made on Father's Day. This recipe has several things going for it. First, it's a no-bake cookie bar/fudge kinda' thing, and it doesn't heat up the kitchen. Even though we've got a/c here in Central VA it can still get hot in the kitchen. Secondly, since it's sweet and salty, it hits all the things that my family loves to eat. And finally, it's easy to keep the ingredients on hand and make this whenever your little heart desires!

I get this from the Nestle's website:
Here
Gotta' give credit where credit is due, the folks at Nestle's have been baking with us home cooks for a long time!

No Bake Sweet & Salty Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars

Salty and Sweet, these Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars were the bomb!

Non stick cooking spray

2 cups creamy peanut butter, divided use

3/4 cup ( 1 & 1/2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar, divided use

4 cups (roughly 1/2" pieces) broken small pretzel pieces, divided use

2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) semi sweet chocolate chips

Line a 13X9" pan with foil leaving 2" overhanging on the 2 shorter sides. Spray foil w/cooking spray.

Beat 1 14 cups peanut butter and butter in a large bowl until creamy. Stir in remaining cup powdered sugar, 3 cups of the broken pretzels and 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips. Spread mixture evenly into he prepared pan. Smooth top to as even a layer as you can. (An offset spatula would work best but a regular one will do. It's kind of hard to do, mixture is very thick and lumpy!)

Microwave remaining chocolate chips and peanut butter in a large, heat proof dish or measuring cup. Start out at medium power for 1 minute. Check and stir if you can, and then heat again for 30 seconds on high. Continue at 15 second intervals, stirring between each one, until all the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth and creamy. Spread mixture evenly over the top of the bars in pan. Top with remaining broken pretzel pieces.

Put pan in the refrigerator and let sit for at least 3 hours or until bars are firm. Remove from pan by lifting the overhanging flaps of foil. Cut into 60 pieces. Store them in the frig, they are too gooey to sit out on the counter!

Cut the Peanut Butter Pretzel bars into bite sized peices, after they have chilled. Don't make them too big, they are RICH!

Love Chocolate?

I don't eat a lot of sweets, but if I do, I like them home-made, rich and more often than not, CHOCOLATE! I like to make pies because they are, well, easy as pie. This recipe is an old family favorite. It is written exactly as it was given to me by my mother-in-law more than 20 years ago, who got it from a dear family friend.

Next time you need to bring a delicious dessert to a dinner or want to treat your own family, or are simply craving chocolate, try this. And, don't forget to buy premium vanilla ice cream to go along with it!

Chocolate Pecan Pie

1 9" unbaked pie crust, your own or purchased

2 squares unsweetened chocolate

2 T. butter

3 eggs

1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. dark corn syrup

3/4 c. pecans (whole or pieces)

Preheat oven to 375 degress.

Melt chocolate with the 2 T. butter, over a double boiler or in a large measuring cup in the microwave. Beat the eggs with the sugar, and mix in the melted chocolate and dark corn syrup. Stir in the pecans and pour the entire mixture into your pie shell.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 - 45 minutes.

Serves 8.

Easy huh? Now you know why the saying is so true...