johnny November 27th, 2008
This will probably be our last week in Tennessee before we head out for warmer climes sometime next week. Jenn’s aunt and uncle have invited us to Thanksgiving dinner, and there’s no way we can refuse, considering the spread they put out. In the spirit of traditional Thanksgivings, we figured we’d share a few more homemade recipes: my grandmother’s chocolate pie recipe and Jenn’s uncle’s recipe for limoncello.
Grandma’s Chocolate Pie
2 cups of sugar
6 teaspoons of cocoa
1/2 cup of corn starch
4 eggs
4 cups of milk
1 stick of butter (or margarine if you insist)
dash of salt
1 8 ounce container of Cool Whip (thawed)
2 baked pie crusts
Grab a medium sized pot and toss in everything but the pie crusts (duh!), Cool Whip and butter. Set your stove to medium or medium high heat and begin mixing it together. Once the mixture seems to be warming up a bit, toss the stick of butter in and keep stirring. You’re going to do a lot of stirring. Basically, you want to keep stirring until it achieves the consistency of a thick pudding. I recommend a whisk for this… or even a small hand mixer if you can keep it from splashing all over.
Once the mixture thickens up, remove it from heat and pour into a couple of pie shells. Personally, I like Oreo or graham cracker pie crusts, but it’s pretty hard to ruin this pie by picking the wrong crust. Next, I like to leave the pies sitting out under a paper towel so that the steam doesn’t form condensation and make the crust soggy. About an hour should do it. Once they’ve cooled a bit, toss them in the fridge or freezer to cool further. Before serving, cover them with Cool Whip and grab your own fork and plate so as to be sure of getting a slice.
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Tags:
booze,
family,
recipe,
thanksgiving
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jenn November 22nd, 2008
As we make our way south and west to avoid the bitter cold, Johnny and I are stopping at places we wont be seeing for a long time. We have stopped at GSP, at Winchester, VA, and now we are sitting at my parent’s place. Its our familiar last stop before we hit the great unknown again.
While we are here, we have been doing some caving. Our good friend David visited us and we headed over to Camp’s Gulf Cave. We had a great adventure. Either Johnny or myself will post about it as soon as we get the pictures . Hopefully he, Pam and Chaos will join us for some more caving fun before we head off once again. We are surely going to miss them when we leave this side of the country. Its not often that you find good people who are great company and are willing to meet up in various places to do the things you like to do. We really lucked out when we met them. We would have probably left the east coast sooner if our paths had never crossed.
For some reason, when I get to my parent’s place, I turn even more domestic than usual. Tonight, for instance, I decided to make a batch of pasta. It was my first time, and I would have to say it turned out well. While it smelled just like the stuff in the box, it wasn’t quite like it. The best way to describe it would be to say that it was much more hearty - not so much thicker, but more… wholesome. I have to say that I prefer it to the boxed stuff. Not only is it more hearty, it is better tasting and I know exactly what is in it. Which is a major plus for me. I hate turning over a container and seeing 3425437 ingredients in an item that I know should only have 5. Not only that, but now I know that I can make it, too. Continue Reading »
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cooking
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jenn August 18th, 2008
Fun with the Folks. Part 1:Food, food, and more food
Before we headed to Karst-O-Rama, yet after our time in Gatlinburg, we spent a good deal of time hanging out at my parents place in Tennessee. We had only planned on spending a few days there, but those few days turned into a month. I was having such a great time that the days were passing as quickly as hours. If it had not been for Wormfest, Johnny would probably still be trying to think of a gentle way to coax me out of my parent’s yard.
Its been a long time since I have been able to spend more than a couple days with my parents. We have lived pretty far apart for the last 10 years. The first part of that was because I was getting my career together in a far away city, then they semi-retired and started traveling around. They did end up settling down and getting a home base, but they can’t seem to stay there for more than 2 months at a time. So, the majority of the time we saw each other was a quick 3 day weekend once or twice a year and Christmas every other year. That’s just not enough!
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cooking,
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johnny July 29th, 2008
During Karst-O-Rama, I finally uncorked a bottle of homemade whiskey that I was happy about. In fact, it turned out better than I’d hoped and had a very nice scotch flavor rather than bourbon. During blind taste testing, one person asked if it was Dewars and another asked if it was Glenmorangie. Considering it had been aging about four weeks and cost about eight dollars to make, I took both guesses as high praise on my bathtub booze.
Without further buildup, here’s the recipe. In a one liter bottle, add:
(using 190 proof grain alcohol)
- 1.75 cups of grain alcohol
- 2.25 cups of filtered/distilled water
(using 151 proof grain alcohol)
- 2.1 cups of grain alcohol
- 1.9 cups of water
- Roughly 20 grams of Jack Daniels wood chips. (I found these in the home & garden section of Wal Mart near the charcoal)
- 2 pepper corns
Allow to age for at least four weeks in a cool, dark place. Agitate every day or two for twenty to thirty seconds. Filter through a paper towel or coffee filter.
Add ice and enjoy! You’ve just made the world’s cheapest scotch.
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booze
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johnny April 23rd, 2008
Well,I guess it’s time for a toxicology report. Jenn’s banana liqueur turned out excellent. It was a very sweet liqueur, just right for mixing with juices. While we were waiting on the banana liqueur to ripen, we made a batch of kahlua, excuse me, coffee liqueur. The recipe was fairly simple, and considerably faster than the banana liqueur.
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booze
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