Chocolate · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Chocolate Fudge Pie

Today, another rainy beginning to this new normal of everyone working from home and kids being home schooled as well as parents trying to teach, and learn right along with them, while still trying to do what is necessary to bring in a pay check. These are difficult days, and challenging times when we all have to step up and change what we have been doing. What do we do to still serve when so many are confined to their homes? This week, when we began to hear about seniors being ask to self quarantine, I began to think of ways that I could help serve them.  What should be my part in stepping out of my comfort zone to share God’s love by meeting the needs of those who are seniors? As I was sharing these thoughts with Randy the other night, he watched me and listened to what I had to say. Then without a moments hesitation, the minute I ask him what he thought I should do, he smiled at me and said, “uh do you realize that in a couple of months you will be 70 and you are suppose to be one of those who are to self quarantine for awhile?” WHAT……but, wait a minute. That thought never crossed my mind that I am considered old. When did that happen? Quickly I responded to him, that because I eat garlic almost everyday and enough chocolate to ward off most bacterias, I should be able to hang a garlic bulb around my neck and get out there among the true old folks. Why I’m still young because I  still wear cute little blingy sandals and capris (even though these cute little capris might have elastic waistbands) and wear loop earrings that could easily be mistaken for “tapers”. And….I teach other people how to use their phones. So truly, I can’t be considered someone who needs to stay at home…? But because so many stores and restaurants are closed down, I haven been forced to spend more time at home than normal. It is allowing me time to work on another book, which will be called Tis So Sweet and is full of dessert recipes and stories of women who are willing to share how God has been faithful in difficult circumstances in their lives. Also, I have been baking a little more than normal, which means that instead of making a dessert each day, I’m now making two or three. It is fun to share food with others. Last night I made up a recipe that actually turned out really good. Was so easy and simple and I had everything on hand so no trip to the store was necessary. It was a baked chocolate fudge pie that we ate watching a really good movie on Netflix.  That is Randy’s job each night. To find us a good movie that is fun to watch and family friendly so that we can recommend to others without fear of it being full of foul language or sexual content. So far, he is batting a thousand. Two for two. Tues night we watched Faith, Hope and Love and last night we enjoyed a little french film called French Toast.  Darling movie. Here is the easy peasy recipe for a great chocolate fudge pie for you to up your immune system…at least that is what I tell myself when I am cutting a big piece and topping it with whipped cream.

1 bought chocolate oreo cookie crust

1 bar (4 oz) of semi sweet baking squres

1 stick (8 oz) unsalted butter

1 teas vanilla

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Melt the chocolate with the butter over low heat. When butter and chocolate are melted, remove from heat and stir in the can of milk. Set aside. In a medium bowl, stir the sugar, eggs, and flour together until smooth. Add the cooled chocolate and vanilla. Stir in the pecans and coconut and pour into the pie shell. The pie shell won’t hold all of this. With the left over mixture, I placed two chocolate chip cookies in the bottom of a small loaf pan and poured the rest of the mixture over them and baked them right along with the pie.  Bake in preheated 350 oven until knife inserted comes out clean. Cool and top with whipped cream.

Keep covered in fridge. Was even better the second night.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Senior Struggles in So Carolina

Maybe it’s just us, but as we travel along our great Nations byways, we are learning more about ourselves. Most travelers seem to write about the great experiences they have at each destination. We, on the other hand, seem to experience things that just point out that we are not getting any younger. This morning, Randy had the wonderful idea for us to go out by the pool and relax while soaking up some sun. Being the wonderful sport I am, I decided to just put on enough makeup so I wouldn’t scare people walking toward me. We stop by the coffee shop to buy a latte and head outside. We did consider walking a little father to go sit out at the beach, but decided that it was still just a little too cool out by the water, so found two pool chairs and “fell” down on them. Randy noticed that I was shivering just a little and offered to get up to go check out a towel to cover my lily white legs. When he tried to get up out of the pool lounge chair,it was so low that he just couldn’t get up. We decided that we would just stay there until folks left the pool area to go eat lunch so they would not see us trying to get up from the chairs that were so low to the ground that it was not going to be a pretty picture watching us getting up. The sun was shining very brightly and I was trying to read the book I had downloaded on my phone, but simply could not read the screen. I began to get bored just sitting there not having anything to read. Remembering watching others always on their phone and thinking about how they were so addicted to them, they couldn’t even relax by the pool without having their phones in their hands, I decided that I WOULD Not EVEN GLANCE AT MY PHONE. Why is it when you decide to do that, it is impossible to not look? I’m a senior, I should not be addicted to my phone. I should be carrying around knitting or a stack of books or taking naps out by the pool. But…my confession is that I am addicted to my phone. We finally could not stand it anymore and decided that no matter how old it makes us look, we have got to get up and go in. It is now noon and we haven’t had breakfast or lunch and everyone around us is not leaving. They are just having those young little 3rd graders bringing lunch to them from the pool grill. I get up first. Not bad, just took me a minute to get circulation back in my legs from sitting so long. But Randy, poor thing, well, let’s just say that we probably won’t be going back to the pool area for a few days. He just confessed to me that he had devised a plan in his mind that if he couldn’t get up by me pulling on his arms, he had decided that he would pull the chair beside him over and roll over to it on all 4’s using his hands and knees to push himself up. He was afraid that if he just tried to push himself up from his sitting position, he would loose his balance and fall into the bushes which were right beside his chair. So as seniors, it is always best to have a back up plan for times like these.
We will be writing a suggestion that they buy some pool chairs which we “mature” folks can just almost bend our knees to allow us to almost slide onto the chair.
Also, we think that seniors should get the rooms closet to the parking garage. I just videoed our walk from the elevator to our room and it took almost 2 min to walk the hall. I know that doesn’t sound like a long time, but when you are our age and nature calls, Depends only hold so much. Last night, because we are too embarrassed to have the valet guys see the inside of our car (remember we are homeless and living out of our car for a couple of months while traveling around until we close on our new place), we self parked. It took us 3 trips to the car just to unload what we would need for 5 days. Let’s just say that my FITBIT thought someone else was wearing it. We waited until after dark and late in the evening until we unloaded our Walmart bags full of Dr Pepper and candy. We already look like vagabonds and we don’t want to look like we are vagabonds who pack our clothes in plastic bags.
Tomorrow we are treating ourselves to Lady & Sons in Savannah. This was such a highlight of our trip East two years ago, we have to go back. In fact, we finally ate lunch today at 3 p.m. We decided that just having one meal today, and just snacking for dinner, will leave us lots of tummy room for our lunch at Paula’s place tomorrow.
We are in love with Hilton Head. Seeing so many folks riding around the island, we have decided that as soon as we get settled in our new place in AZ, we are going to get in better shape so next time we are faced with pool lounge chairs, we won’t have to sit there pretending to be reading because we can’t get up. But this trip, we are all about eating our way through the East Coast. Will be posting Recipes From the Road, starting tomorrow.

Daily Thoughts

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!!!! (is that a word?)

I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it…Spring is finally here. After many many gloomy days in the last couple of months, we have seen sunshine 2 days in a row. Honestly, I have always been a winter person, loving the fireplace, hot cobblers and stews. But I have found out this year, that maybe it’s my age, naw…surely not, but I don’t think I have ever been so excited to get flip flops out and put the coats in the other closet.

Today, we ate a sandwich outside on the patio to enjoy the breeze and the sunshine. I don’t even care if my dermatologist uses me for his poster child for what the sun will do to aging faces. It felt great to be outside.

Randy and I went yesterday and bought a new little patio table with 4 chairs, just the right size to use on these condo porches. We were so excited about the price and what a great deal we got, until we got home and discovered that it was a great price because we had to put the entire thing together. He told me it would be fun. That he could teach me a few things about assembling a table and that we would be proud of our project that we had built together. He said that if  he went first, I would know how to assemble a table if need be. I told him that  if he went first ,I would have enough insurance money to buy one already put together.  Now maybe it would have been fun, when we were dating or newly married, with all the stars in our eyes for each other to learn together all the furniture building projects. , We wouldn’t have seen all the loose screws that each of us were trying to tighten, only to realize that our muscles got a little “soft” during the long winter months of doing nothing except sitting on the couch eating all those delicious cobblers;  or all the nuts and bolts that kept falling and rolling under the car, and guess who had to dive under to retrieve them. Let’s just say that our little project didn’t bring us closer together. One of us, who shall remain nameless, even lost their balance trying to step over all the parts laying  out on the garage floor and ended up face down on the garage floor. In fact, by the time we were thru, we were barely speaking as2015-03-24 10.15.00 one of us sat at the “cute little table” outside to eat dinner, while the other one sat in the house, having dinner while watching the News.

But, we finally had it put together and we did learn a few lessons:

1. Just because the price is really cheap, usually means that even though the instructions say that it was inspected to be sure all the parts were there and functioning, don’t believe them.

2. Just because, as a couple, you have mastered emptying the dishwasher together without calling a divorce attorney, doesn’t mean that you are ready for the big projects of assembling furniture.

3. Be sure that you have your first aid kit close by, when you are using cutting knives and screwdrivers.

And one more lesson we learned yesterday, It’s usually worth a few dollars to have it put together before bring home. The extra dollars are still less than divorce attorneys.