Desperately Seeking Gina

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The Flavors of My Life…

Let me just start by acknowledging the end of NaBloPoMo because I can see you’re already transfixed on that lovely chocolate-peanut butter concoction up there  {I’m not blaming you, it is mesmerizing}.  I’m aware that most my posts this month were short ramblings and grumblings of everyday goings-on.  But, sometimes that’s what life is like: the ups and downs of excitement and good-shares (it should be noted that I stopped in the middle of this sentence to finish the last slice of this pie and almost didn’t make it back here to put this post to bed! In fact, I can’t even remember how I was going to finish it, so, let’s move on shall we?).
I’m glad I stuck with it.  I plowed through.  Thanks for all your comments and likes!  
Moving on to pie.  Chocolate and peanut butter are the official flavors of my life.  When I’m dead and gone, I’d like for y’all to remember how much I cared for you and how much I loved this flavor combination.  Maybe you could even make this and enjoy a slice for me.  My, how morbid this just got.
Make this.  It’s seriously good. And, seriously easy.  A few notes, first:
* Melt the peanut butter in the microwave carefully and at half power.  DO NOT melt on the stove and walk away.  If you do so, and you come back to what looks like a burnt mess, DO NOT touch the scorched peanut butter to see if it’s really burned.  It is.  Only a complete moron would burn themselves during the preparation of a frozen pie {averting eyes}. Not that I did that or anything.

*Cool Whip and an already-prepared Oreo pie crust are fine…but this looks so much more classy and gourmet if you crush your own cookies and use a spring-form pan!  I doubled the recipe and used a 9 inch square spring-form pan to bring to a Thanksgiving Day dinner.  The pie pictured above was a store bought crust {tasted-amazing}.

Frozen Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie
Ingredients:
24 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 cups Cool Whip
3/4 cup smooth Peanut Butter
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
For the Crust:
Place cookies in a food processor or a blender and pulse until cookies crumble into a fine crumb.  Alternately, place cookies in a sealed bag and whack at ’em with a rolling pin!  Transfer cookie crumbs to pie pan or springform pan and mix in melted butter with a fork.  Press cookie crumbs into pan pushing it up to the sides.  Bake at 350 degrees 7-10 minutes.
For the Pie:
Place peanut butter in a small bowl.  Heat until melted {see note above}.  Add powdered sugar.  Set aside to cool slightly.  Fold in Cool Whip until just combined.  Fold in Reese’s Butter Cups {chopped}.  Spread mixture in cooled cookie crust and freeze 2-3 hours.  For presentation, add more chopped Reese’s and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

Still There?

…or have I completely bored you to death?  To be honest, most of the time I completely bore myself which is the actual reason why I nap so much.

Not much too share this evening.  I made a meal tonight.  Stop the presses!  It’s news around here lately.  So, we enjoyed vegetable pot pie with homemade biscuits on top. Good stuff, people.

In other news…my eleven year old nephew called to tell me he had his ear pierced.  It was his birthday wish.  How funny is that?

And, finally, to celebrate the end of NaBloPoMo, I will be sharing a recipe with you tomorrow.  It includes the five food groups:  chocolate, peanut butter, cool whip, Oreos, and confectioner’s sugar. Disclaimer:  I am not a professional nutritionist so I may have a couple of those food groups wrong.


Between Holiday Lull

Now that Thanksgiving and Black Friday are behind me, I have a small window of time when I find myself settling in a bit earlier {darker sooner} than normal.  There aren’t many personal obligations to fulfill during this period and the work obligations that I tend to bring home with me {party planning} can be put off for a few more days.  I should be straightening up around here and making room for holiday decorations and the Christmas tree but that, too, can wait a bit longer.

Both Thom and I haven’t felt the greatest and so we’ve been laying low the last few days,  catching up on our Netflix queue.  Yesterday {Sunday} we recreated a little Thanksgiving feast of our own.  I’ve actually done some Pinterest crafting that I’m really happy with what I’ve done. I’ll share those soon.

NaBloPoMo is winding down, just a couple more days left.  Perhaps this blogging every day has become a habit?  We shall see!

What did you do over the weekend?  What do you have planned for the week?  I’m settling in further awaiting your reply.

Comfort

Each year when the weather turns colder, the days get shorter and darker earlier, and the holidays get nearer and nearer, I find myself seeking comfort in traditions that remind me of my {Michigan} home.  One of those traditions:  breakfast rice…something that also reminds me of the comfort of my mother.

On cold winter mornings, usually weekends, she would make a pot of plain white rice.  On the kitchen counter she would set out sugar, a tub of margarine, and a gallon of cold milk straight from the fridge and we were free to fix our own bowls of breakfast rice.  The older we got, the more exotic breakfast rice became. We experimented with additions of brown sugar, imitation vanilla, and sometimes a shake of cinnamon.  There was always a side of buttered toast for dunking.

These days the additions have gotten a bit more grown up:  cinnamon, nutmeg, a tablespoon {or three} of sugar, real butter and real vanilla bean paste.  Sometimes brown sugar and golden raisons find their way into my bowl.  But the one thing that is always a constant:  the comfort and tradition of breakfast passed down from my mom.

Breakfast Rice

1 cup cooked white rice
1/2 tbsp butter, softened
1-2 tbsp sugar, or to taste
1/2 cup warmed milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
cinnamon
nutmeg

Add softened butter to cooked white rice and stir to melt.  Sprinkle sugar on top and stir to combine. Add warmed milk and vanilla bean paste.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Will the Sun Ever Shine for Me?

It’s rainy and windy at 0’dark-thirty here at the Cove.  It seems as if I haven’t seen the sun in days.  I caught a glimpse the other day as I drove home from work.  Rain clouds parted just long enough for me to watch the sun drop below the mountain and it was completely gone by the time I arrived home.

So cozying-up is on the agenda for the rest of the evening.  And for tomorrow?  More of the same. And, possibly a movie, grocery shopping, and perhaps, Christmas decorations, and hot cocoa.  It is that time of year!

Hope y’all are warm and dry!