Southern Chocolate Cream Pie Tutorial

No southern girl should be without this easy standby recipe in her kitchen. My mother passed it down to me and I thought I should pass it down to you! Tomorrow at church we are having a fellowship meal after services and I thought “Why not a “Chocolate Cream Pie?”...thanks to a friend yesterday I was reminded about chocolate pie and I could not get my mind off of it! So this afternoon I got busy in the kitchen preparing for tomorrow and this is the result. Too bad that you cannot smell or taste this yummy dessert right now because it is heavenly! You can click here for the recipe without photos.  

 

Southern Chocolate Cream Pie

2 cups milk

3 eggs, divided

1 ¾ cup sugar, divided

6 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla, divided

 

1 tablespoon butter

1 9 inch deep-dish pie shell

1 teaspoon cream of tarter

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prebaking a piecrust is also known as “blind baking” and you will need to do this to your crust, so prepare the deep-dish pie shell by using fork to lightly prick the bottom of the pastry.

 

 Bake the frozen deep-dish pie shell until golden brown in your 350 degree oven.

Separate eggs. Don't know what this means...to "separate" means to take two bowls and gently crack egg to separate the egg whites into one bowl and the egg yolks into another bowl.  

Stir together 1 ¼ cups sugar, flour, and cocoa powder in a heavy saucepan.

Blend in milk and egg yolks.

Cook until thick. Stir constantly.

Remove from heat. Add vanilla and butter. Mix well.

 

Pour into pie shell.

 

Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in mixing bowl.

Beat egg whites. Gradually add ½ cup sugar.

 

Beat until egg whites are stiff. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat well.

 

Pile meringue on top of pie.

Bake at 350 degrees F until golden brown. Enjoy!     

On a side note, fellowshipping together and enjoying hospitality can include food just like my pie above, which is the gift of sinfully good nourishment. Eating together fills our bodies with not only good food but also friendships. A mealtime is a perfect time to share with others and show service. The bible teaches us that one of the greatest gifts to give people is our time and we share our time through fellowshipping and bestowing hospitality. “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.’” Mark 12:28-31. In Galatians 6:10 we are told to fellowship with fellow Christians, “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith”.

Let me know if you try this recipe at home. I want to know how it turns out. I promise it is not as hard as it may seem!

Happy fellowshipping!

Domestic Diva + Busy Girl = Priorities

Like many others, I lead a busy life. It is a juggling act for me at times. I am trying to find the perfect balance of work life, a social life, and the domestic life all while trying to stay sound mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. It is a balancing act to say the least sometimes but I think I make it fine with only really getting frazzled sometimes. I am thankful God made inventors of appliances and sent others into my life to teach me how to use them.   

One of the most important appliances in my kitchen (besides my coffee pot) is my slow cooker. This appliance helps me be a domestic diva from time-to-time. This morning it got pulled out of the cabinet and dusted off in order to be put to good use to serve a family at church that is grieving from a recent loss. I knew that with everything going on with my work schedule today that would be the best option for this busy girl. I was thinking simple, easy, and comfort food and what better appliance to help me accomplish all that than the slow cooker! Click here to check out what I made and to get the recipe. Now if only I had a recipe for helping me be a better domestic housekeeper this week! As I look around my house after a busy week…I’m glad the weekend here! My house needs a domestic diva to spend a little quality time cleaning and preparing for the week ahead. This busy girl will have to utilize other appliances within the house this weekend like the vacuum cleaner, the steam mop, the washer and dryer, and the old-fashioned dishwasher (washcloths & towels) to dust and wipe away the week’s messes. LOL. It seems that things have been let go around the house and everything have gotten quite untidy.        

Hebrews 12:1-3 tells us that we should put our sight on the Lord. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  

As Christian women, we need think beyond useful household appliances, our crazy calendars and day-to-day schedules and think about priorities within our life. If we lead a life focused on the Lord then he will help us balance it all in stride. Jesus should be the example we look to since he understands what we are going through. 1 Peter 2:21 says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps”. My priorities are God, Family, Work, Service and Health. What are your priorities?

A Woman's Voice

 

Today I had the pleasure of eating lunch with three strong, wise, driven, independent, and beauty women. Each one of these women are special in their own way and each one is talented and unique. Together we make quite a team and can accomplish much. From time to time we meet for lunch to discuss non-work things and to empower each other to keep going. I wish I could bottle the energy from the group and sell it, because I think we could get rich!

I’m a young woman and I enjoy being around mature women who have experienced life so to speak. Titus 2:3-5 tells us that it’s older women who can teach younger women the practical skills to get through life. These women got me to thinking about myself and my future today when we had lunch. If I ever get the opportunity to have children in the future I want my future daughter(s) to have a few character qualities and opportunties that I believe that mold strong women. 

• I want them to know and practice the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
• I want my future daughters to have a voice.
• I want them to grow up to be strong, free thinking and independent women that are not get taken advantage of.
• I want them to have opportunities outside of life within the “normal” realm of their community of where they might be raised.
• I want them to have rules, discipline and consequences within their life.  
• I want them to have an advanced education and value lifelong learning.
• I want them to use their God given talents to serve God and others to the best of their abilities.
• Leave a comment if you can think of others! I might need to add a few more to my wish list for those future daughters.  

Doesn’t every woman want that for her daughter(s)? This is how my family raised me to be. Sometimes I get “the look” or “the comment” that I cannot believe you do that or I would never. I was raised to have a “voice” or “vote” per say when it came to matters. I was raised to think outside the box. I was told that my voice matters because I was good, special and important. I was raised to have an inquisitive mind, to ask questions and “why” if something did not make sense. I learned the value of a work, earning money to have things, and then how to give back to others through service.

I believe my parents did things with intention when they were parenting me and my sister. But I’ve never asked…who knows they might have been parenting us by the skin of the teeth and whatever patience they had at the moment! I believe they both had great examples of strong women within their lives that they modeled their parenting practices after. Whatever they did I believe it worked because I believe that I was molded and shaped into the woman I am today because of their parenting foresight and the experiences they shared with my sister and me. So Mama & Daddy thank you for giving me a voice and molding me into the woman I am today!    

 

Breakfast 101

Well this morning my electricity was off when I woke up so I let a local restaurant prepare my coffee and breakfast this morning. I have not ate breakfast out in quite some time so I was a little shocked whenever I had to fork over $4.89 for a semi healthy breakfast at McDonald's and it did not even taste all that great! I have chosen not to eat breakfast out for two reasons.

My health. I realized I was eating out way to much last year and when I decided to get on my new "get Lara healthier campaign" I cut breakfast out of my plan. (Keep in mind I still eat out my fair share at other meal times!) I want to be healthier and also “practice what I preach to others” so to speak.

I feel that part of being a family and consumer science county agent’s duty is to encourage others to make healthy lifestyle choices for themselves and their families. I want to be a living breathing example to the people I serve in Monroe County. I feel that others will value my advice and information if they know I have tried it myself and have been in their shoes before.

Trust me making this new lifestyle change was not easy! These restaurants make it look so convenient, easy, and tasty with their big flashy advertisements. Pulling through a drive thru is so much easier than having to get up earlier and prepare a quick bite to eat at home…or so I thought before. It does not take long to brew my own coffee at home and grab my yogurt and fruit out of the fridge or prepare a quick bowl of cereal & milk or oatmeal. In the same amount of time in the line at drive thru window I can have my breakfast prepared at home and enjoy it while I’m watching the news!  

Cost. $4.89 here and $4.89 there adds up over time. I save around $150.00 each month on my "eating out" spending plan by eating my breakfast at home. What I prepare myself at home cost pennies compared to the $4.89 breakfast I had this morning! Plus what I prepare at home fits into my new healthy eating routine.

I can count on my had the number of times that I have had a biscuit within the last fifteen months and the majority of time those biscuits were homemade because I could not resist my mother’s home cooking around the holidays or a special occasion! It has been a while since I ate out of the morning so I was a little in sticker shock whenever I had to fork almost $5.00 for breakfast. Oh well...life...right??? Everything cost money and everyone wants to try to make a buck or two when they can.  

So let’s compare my usual breakfast versus the breakfast I had this morning.

 

$1.00 to $1.50 depending on the "season" for my fruit & what exactly I have to eat.

$4.89 on 3/12/2013 in Tompkinsville, KY. Even if I had of ate a yogurt parfait and coffee from the same restaurant I still would have had to pay over $2.50 for my breakfast. I guess I  splurged a little this morning in more than one way!

 

This is something for you to think about tomorrow morning whenever you are hungry and thinking about food. Which option will you choose...the drive thru or an "at-home special"?   

The Game of Life

Since I am in a healing process of sorts and trying to stay positive about life and not do something irrational and negative that I would regret later I have decided to open up more and reflect some on my blog. I am human and have thoughts that need to be expressed, so friends do not call me crazy...call me a work in progress...trying to heal. Blogging is the easy part, facing the new reality and not doing something irrational and negative is proving to be hard.

But on a serious note, as humans, we have grown accustomed to having everything readily available at a moment’s notice. We have been raised by our parents and today’s society to have instant access to almost anything and everything we possibly could ever want with almost no questions asked. Within our instant society also comes the idea that we can have the “best of both worlds”. But really can we have it all…?

• Enjoy cake and ice cream every day without feeling guilty and having the possibility of gaining a few extra pounds
• Have a great body without having to work out and put forth effort to maintain it
• Have a great life and not have to face the reality of situations that might hinder us from achieving what we want
• Call or text to stay connected & show you care…all just because you want someone to feel better after you break the connection…maybe after a period of time & healing…
• Get up early & get work done and to stay up late & have fun with your friends 365 days of the year
• Have a cool fast car with all the luxuries and great fuel efficiency within ones spending plan
• Have a high salary and time off from work whenever we want it
• Enjoy independence & freedom yet have a deep connection with a member of the opposite sex while maintaining the status quo of everything just like it was before 
• You name it…???
• Last but not least…Be a Christian (Sunday-Thursday) and be the cool friend “of the World” (Friday & Saturday)

Seriously, it does not work that way! Usually we cannot have the “best of both worlds” in the game of life even though we would love it! Having the “best of both worlds” is in the ideal Barbie World of fantasyland! We have to be willing to make concessions, compromises, and set priorities within our life with what really matters. The world views my fellow generation (the Millennials also known as Generation Y) as the entitled generation, because we want it all…the perfect balance of work life and personal life, the ability to make our own rules and multi-task our way through everything and anything.  You are in my generation if you were born between 1977 and early 2000s, so let us own up to a few things and be realistic with ourselves if you are in my generation or can relate to what I am talking about. OK? Satisfaction with life is important and our attitude has a lot to do with it, so let us have some realistic expectations. Here are a few things to remember about life…

1. Consider others on your “team” in order to build relationships and help them feel more confident and supported. Do not build ones self-esteem up and then burst it in a moment’s notice whenever you feel like it…and do not play the “let it down easy game”. Be honest and truthful to your teammates. If you want them to have your back do not hit them in the back along the process.  
2. Understand that technology is not everything, generations before made it without the luxury of the Internet and text messaging. Make that phone call you have been putting off.
3. It is not necessarily greener on the other side! You are the one who is holding yourself back in life when you think you it is “greener on the other side” or that you can have the “best of both worlds” because that is not “reality”. Life happens. Situations come and go. Nothing can be perfect. Life is not perfect. If you wait for that 100% perfect moment or the 1 spark to top off all others you have already felt, then you might just miss something great and wonderful.
4. You cannot always have a Win Win 100% of the time unless both parties of the team are willing to put forth the effort to make it work. Just like with prayers, you will not always get a “yes” because sometimes you can also receive a “no” from God or a “not right now” as an answer.  
5. Figure out what is best for you and go with it, but please take time to look around and take inventory of those things around you that have made an impact within your life. Consider others. Take action on things, or they might slip away from you before you realize it.
6. It takes effort to build and protect healthy relationships, so realize what your priorities are and own up to them.  
7. You have control over yourself only, so focus on what you can change and do not waste too much energy trying to force others to change. People have to want change for it to happen.
8. It is never too late to say “I am sorry”, “I was wrong”, or “please forgive me”.   

These are just a few of my reflections & what I have learned while living and working within my normal everyday life. They can be applied to almost any given situation. Once again I am no expert and do not profess to know it all or have all the answers. I have made my own fair share of mistakes! I have a degree from the school of hard knocks, trials and tribulations, and life.

We are all weak from time to time, but we need to keep in mind that we are not perfect and that we each need the Lord in order to grow as Christians. It is OK to ask for forgiveness and help when you need it. We only have one life to live, so it is our job to live our life to the fullest potential that God gave us and if we fail at the game of life it is because we simply do not want it bad enough.