Creamy, dreamy pie

It was a beautiful, sunny day out today. After rising pretty early, Drama Queen and I went to the grocery store for food for the week. We have pantry items up the ying yang, but got some fish, shrimp, veggies and dairy. And almost fainted at the bill.

I was in the mood for baking and had asked Dude recently what other types of pie he liked. He popped off a few and then said "coconut cream". Hmmm, don't ever remember seeing him order this in a restaurant or at his grandma's house, but I was game.

I looked in a couple of cookbooks......and the recipe was exactly the same in all 3. Is there really only one recipe for Coconut Cream Pie?

This is from Best of Country Pies-Taste of Home-but it was the same in a church cookbook from Idaho and also community cookbook from, well, I think it was Wisconsin.

Coconut Cream Meringue Pie

1 unbaked pastry shell

6 TBSP sugar

5 TBSP flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups whole milk

3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flaked coconut

TOPPING

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

6 TBSP sugar

1/2 cup flaked coconut

Line unpricked pastry shell with a double thickness of tinfoil. Bake at 450 degrees F. for 8 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 5 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool. Lower oven temp to 350 degrees F.  In a saucepan, combine sugar, flour and salt. Slowly pour in milk and whisk together. Turn heat on to a medium-high and heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and cook two more minutes while still stirring. Add a small amount of hot milk mixture to beaten egg yolks, then stir yolk mixture into the saucepan containing the milk mixture, stirring while slowly adding. Stir constantly while bringing mixture to a gentle boil. Cook and stir for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and then coconut. Pour into cooled shell.

For meringue, pour egg whites into stand mixer bowl. Add cream of tartar and beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. With mixer still running on medium, add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until stiff peaks form. Pour over topping and spread over filling, making sure you cover all the filling. Sprinkle with the coconut. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack. Store in the fridge.

Dude was a member of the clean plate club-times two!

Haters need not reply

I'm a nice person. Really-I have been told on numerous occasions that I always have something nice to say to someone, a ready smile, and a helping hand.While I know how FAR from perfect I am, I think when I reach the pearly gates they will know I always tried to be a nice person.

 our Ash tree that succumbed to the evil bug

I received an email a while back regarding my blog. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't full of loving remarks regarding my blog either. Briefly, I am boring, food is bland and not imaginative and pretty much people are looking for more than I had to offer.

 the fire pit is almost visible!!

Then I was thinking back to what another blogger I follow posted about people who say they create recipes, etc on their blogs but they truly don't (I'm paraphrasing here).  Hmmm, maybe this person has a point. While I have never, ever stated here that I create my recipes, maybe I don't make it clear enough that I make old family favorites from my childhood that I 'created' out of memory, but surely didn't make up Tater Tot hotdish. I get recipes from my MIL. I get recipes from other blogs. I get recipes from cookbooks that I mashup together because of an ingredient I or another family member do not care for, or we may not have it on hand. I have several subscriptions to different cooking magazines that I read cover to cover the day I get them. I get recipes from friends. I get recipes from co-workers.

  I love how the ice formed around the leaves and in the indents in the stones

While I stated that I feel that I am a nice person, I also suffer from being very shy and I always have had a problem with self esteem. I admit I was this close to taking my blog down completely. Not out of spite or hurt feelings, but more from the feeling that if one person was honest ballsy enough to email me, maybe others felt the same but never said anything.

my strawberry leaves never died off this fall-I don't know what that mean for this spring

After several weeks of re-reading my posts to make sure that I had given credit to others, or said that I combined recipes from various sources, or that it was a family favorite on a battered old recipe card-I realized something. Who cares if this person doesn't like my blog. Like I say to people who complain about music or programs that offend them-TURN THE CHANNEL!  If what I offer isn't what you think it should be, there are 1,498,633 other blogs you can look at. Maybe they are professional chefs or actual recipe creators, cookbook authors or just way smarter than me. I. me.

So there it is. I'm just a middle aged wife and Mom. I enjoy my job. I enjoy my kids and hubby. I enjoy my cat (who wouldn't-she is cuter than the dickens). I like to make people feel good with my food. I enjoy watching them eat something and really enjoy it themselves. I enjoy beer, and wine, and apparently last night a little too much Cuervo. I love bonfires, camping, fireflies, tulips, fresh cut grass and riding around our yard on our white trash golf cart.

And I like hanging out here.

all the pics were taken today on a walk around the yard. I can't wait to plant the garden, use the fire pit, and barbecue. It has been winter waaaay too long!