Chocolate Pie - Yum!

My first job was working at a small diner/cafe, A Taste of Home, opened by one of best friend's mother. I've had a few different jobs since, including teaching; but to this day working at the lunch cafe is one of my favorite places to have worked. I later would work in the food chain world and come to hate  the food industry. However, there is just something about the quaint small town diners that makes working in the food service enjoyable.

We were opened only for lunch and I think there was a total of only five employees. The cafe was located inside a small white cottage style home near the local college campus and downtown. Big single paned windows gave a view of the porch and passing vehicles on the street. Old wooden floors creaked with every step. The kitchen door swung open and close and we cooked the special meal of the day on an older stove inside a tiny kitchen. We served a variety of sandwiches, a different home cooked meal for each day of the week, and our desserts were amazing. Oh, and the fruit tea was a favorite among our patrons.

I think one of the reasons why I loved working there was the patrons themselves. We had new customers of course, but what kept us going were our regulars. They were friendly, becoming family after the daily conversations and jesting. They'd show up at the same time everyday and through the big windows I could see them pull up. By the time they came in and sauntered up to the counter I'd already have their sandwich or lunch plate ready - they never changed their order. Of course one of the best compliments a waitress could get when you repeatedly surprised them with their already prepared lunch would be, "Where have you been all my life?" followed by a wink.

I learned a lot working there. However, one of the best things I did learn was how to cook. To this day my mother swears that I learned my cooking skills from Rachel. She taught me fried chicken, chili, cornbread, banana pudding, and a long list. But the best recipe I learned was Chocolate Pie.

My husband will deny it, but to this day I still believe I won him over with my awesome cooking skills. It wasn't until after I made him chocolate pie that he asked me out on a date. Honestly, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

For Thanksgiving I made another chocolate pie. I haven't shared a recipe on here before, but I thought no time would be better than now since the holidays are here.

Chocolate Pie
5 eggs                                            1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. sugar                                       1 stick of butter
4 Tbsp. flour                                  1 c. milk
2-3 Tbsp. baking cocoa                  pie crust (I usually make my own, but for the sake of time frozen  
cream of tarter                                                always works great)

Bake pie crust for a few minutes at 350 degrees so it will be partially done.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Yolks go in a pot while the whites go in a bowl. Add sugar, flour, cocoa, vanilla, butter, and milk to the pot of yolks. With a whisk constantly stir over medium/high heat. Remove from heat. Eventually it will boil and will thicken. In the bowl of egg whites, add a dash of cream of tarter and sprinkle a tsp of sugar. Using a hand mixer, fluff the egg whites until thick and fluffy. Remove pie crust, pour in the chocolate mix and cover with meringue (if you get it right, the meringue will be tall - mile high). Bake in oven until meringue has a pretty golden hue. Remove and let cool.

Enjoy!

Being Grateful

I try really hard not to post my life on facebook. In fact, I do my very best to keep the status updates to a bare minimum. Only the really exciting facts and Biblical inspiration do I put on my wall. So even though it’s November and everyone – and I mean everyone, because you are probably included in this – is posting something they are thankful for every day, I have not. Now, I probably look like the Thanksgiving Scrooge (I couldn’t think of a Thanksgiving character that was a grouch). I haven’t posted a single thing about what I’m thankful for. But I am. I mean I am thankful for a lot. Who isn’t? Everyone has something to be thankful for, even those who we think don’t. For instance, everyone has air to breath. Everyone who is on this earth woke up this morning. Those are two things to be thankful for.

Even though I haven’t been posting on the World Wide Web what I am thankful for each day, I have been keeping a mental account of each thing I am grateful for. Originally I was going to create a new family tradition: write something you are thankful each day on a paper leaf to be added to a Thanksgiving banner. Cute idea right? I thought so too. Unfortunately, my husband thought it to be a great idea but didn’t intended to do it. The idea is a bit childish...Parents do things like that…And that is one thing I am not. So Thanksgiving-thankful banner will on my future checklist for when I do have kids.

Since I didn’t do the banner thing I decided to write down things I am thankful on here. After all, there are people I would like to express my gratitude towards and why not post it for the whole world to see.

We are on Day 19 so I will tell you 19 things:

19. To be surrounded by God’s beauty. My home is nestled in the countryside on the outskirts of a city. Instead of hearing the sirens wailing, the traffic speeding by and seeing into my neighbor’s window, I get to enjoy the wonders of colors, rolling hills and farmland.

18. My home. I’m so grateful to be able to have a roof over my head. There are many people without one and I am blessed enough to not just have a roof, but several spacious rooms that can be filled with family and friends.

17. My in-laws. A lot of people have strained relationships with their spouse’s family, but I love mine. They have accepted me flaws and all with open arms. I love them dearly and am grateful to have such wonderful parents who raised a wonderful man.

16. My job teaching. Even though it’s just part time, I am so thrilled to be able to get up every morning, drive to a school I love, and work with the students I’ve grown to care about as if they were my own.

15. To be a member of a church that is passionate helping others come to know the Lord and then mentoring them so that they too can grow in a deeper relationship with Him. Not only that, but that it is filled with friends that I consider to more than family just in Christ.

14. For our military. I’m beyond grateful to have men and women willing to sacrifice their time and lives for strangers. Not just them, but also their families who have given up more than most people can understand.

13. To have the ability to prepare a meal every morning and night. Many go without food in their bellies for days, but I have been blessed to enjoy a hearty meal three times a day and snack in between.

12. I am thankful that my husband has a full time job. Not just a job that pays the bills, but also one that he enjoys.

11. For my education. I am grateful that I was given the privilege to have a k-12 education and then a college education. I even was able to take classes that weren’t necessary for my degree, but for my enjoyment. Also, I have the new opportunity to take classes online for my love of writing. I love learning and I’m definitely grateful that God has given us the ability to obtain knowledge.

10. My grandparents. Not only have I been able to get to know one set of grandparents, but I grew up getting to spend lots of time with both of my father’s parents and my mothers, and then both great grandmothers on my mother’s side, and finally I was able to meet my great great grandmother. 

All of my grandparents are extremely wise and strong, with rich stories to tell. I will always cherish the memories of bacon frying, the smell of maple syrup and pancakes wafting to the back bedroom before the sun has risen. Then crawling out of bed to enjoy a breakfast fit for kings prepared by Ma’s hands. Being chased around the house by my Pa as I squealed trying to keep him from getting his CAT cap back. Then cuddling up to my Gigi while watching Scooby-Doo and helping her grade 4^th grade papers. And laughing (also, collapsing) as Papa tried to make me go down the stairs to the basement to turn the lights on, just after he told me a story of Rawhead and Bloodybones who lived down there. They are wonderful memories - funny, special, emotional, and precious.

 9. For Jordan – aka practically my future sister-in-law. I think that’s okay to state online. After all she’s practically family. You’d have to agree since she moved all the way from California to the South just to put up with my pigheaded brother. I am thankful for her for multiple reasons. One, I have another best friend and sister that I have things in common with and adore. Second, because she is my brother’s anchor. I am so grateful that she not only came into my life, but first and foremost my brother’s because she is a Godsend to him (and our family).

8. My sister, Hannah. For years I prayed for God to give me a sister. First I got a second brother, then finally…FINALLY, he gave me a little sister. A real life baby doll at first, then an annoying little kid who always got into my things and made me chase her down the drive way in my p.j.’s when I was twelve while the neighborhood teenage boys stared and laughed, and now a best friend for life. I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world. I am glad that she came into the world when she did. She brought some sanity to my boy filled life and nursed the frustration of living with brothers by creating some humor.

7. My brother David. When he first came into the world I did not shed happy tears. The opposite. I thought not another brother! But I soon realized that God had given me a sibling that was more like me than our mischievous Sam. I’m grateful to have such a tall shoulder to lean on, a brother who gets me, and can share a joke. Also, he is a nice distraction from Sam’s tomfoolery.

6. For Sam – the brother I’ve already spoken of. Despite all the pranks, tears, and menacing acts I truly love him and I’m so glad that I have him. I seriously couldn’t imagine growing up without him beside me. He has kept life interesting and a challenge and will continue to do as such. I am thankful to have him not only as a brother, but also as one of my heroes.

5. I am grateful to blessed with a terrific father. Say what you will, but my Dad is the best Daddy in the world – and yes, I still call him Daddy. He is a wonderful example of leadership, hardworking, God fearing, compassion, and strength. My Dad never has put his needs before others. He spent hours working to provide for our family to either come home and play with his children, see his wife, or coach our soccer teams, watch every dance recital, and intimidate every date who came calling. I’m especially grateful for his intimidation, because of his overprotective nature he warded off all the wrong guys so that God could provide the right man.

4. My mother. Words cannot express how grateful I am to have such a terrific Mom. She is completely selfless. She brought four children into the world, sacrificing her career to raise us all up in a Christian home and teaching us our education until we each graduated. She has acted as not only Mom, but nurse, teacher, chauffer, counselor, chef, banker, etc. And now she is the best friend that I can’t hardly go a day without talking to. I have learned so much from her and don’t believe any other mother could have done better with the zoo she had to deal with day in and day out. She is a miracle worker for sure.

3. I am blessed to have the Word of the Lord at my fingertips. Anytime I can open up my Bible and hear God speak. I thankful to live in a day where I own my own copy that can be read at anytime and anywhere.

2. I am thankful that God granted me with a wonderful husband. Never did I imagine to be blessed with such a great man who loves me unconditionally. Since the moment he came into my life I knew I wouldn’t have to live my life alone. I have him to grow old with and I look forward to it. He is hardworking, a man after God’s heart, sacrificing, loving, and definitely humorous. I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else.

1. Finally, first and foremost, I am grateful for my Savior. I am grateful that He has shown mercy on a sinner like me, that He gave up His own life so that I might spend eternity to with. He alone is someone worthy to be grateful and praiseworthy of.

In Honor of Our Men

To a lot of people Veteran’s Day is just another holiday. It’s a day that restaurants give out free meals to those who have served. A day when your town’s newspaper will have a front page story recognizing a local member of the military. When the Sunday before the preacher ask for all those who have served and are serving to stand for recognition. But to a lot of people Veteran’s Day is another holiday to be exempt from work and a day for kids to be out of school. Most people, I believe, don’t realize the importance of this honorable holiday.

However, I will tell you who does understand the depth of this day. The men and women who have served. Those that have sacrificed years of their lives, putting them at risk all for the sake of the strangers living in this free nation. The people who recognize the true meaning of honoring our veterans are the families who have dealt with the unknown and heartbreak of having a loved one serving. More than anything I want people, everyone, to come to a full grasp of what this holiday truly about. That it’s not just a free day to sleep in, hang out with friends, or fire something up on the grill. It’s a day to appreciate the sacrifices of those who have served.

The Great War, otherwise known as World War I, officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. However, seven months prior the fighting had ceased when a temporary cessation of hostilities between the Allied Nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Therefore, November 11, 1918 is regarded, generally, as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

The following November, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first Armistice Day. His statement reads: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

On May 13, 1938 November 11 became recognized as a legal holiday that would be dedicated to recognize world peace. Originally Armistice Day was designated to honor veterans of WWI, but WWII changed that. On June 1, 1954 Armistice Day was changed to Veteran’s Day so that all veterans could be recognized.

During WWI there were 116,516 killed serving in the United States military. The number wounded: 204,002 and those who were prisoners or missing added up to 4,500. Of WWII 416,800 U.S. military deaths. In more recent wars: Iraq War 4,488 U.S. serving and War on Terror (currently still going on) 6,717 deaths of U.S. military.

 

Not only do the men and women serving risk their very lives as they engage in combat, they also put their emotional and psychological lives at risk. Many of those who have served – in any war – suffer from PTSD. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a very serious ailment. Men and women alike return home to be plagued with nightmares, tremors, anxiety, social impairments, and anger issues. I have witnessed some of these things at first hand. Those of us who have not served – us civilians – can never comprehend the horror that our men and women have seen.  

The stories – if our veterans ever open up to share – are horrific and emotional. After hearing some of the things that my friends and family members have witnessed during their time serving, I personally can no longer sit and watch a military film. Before movies like, Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, and Black Hawk Down didn’t bother me. Now, if I ever attempt to watch one, all I can picture is my brother and friends in the roles of those serving and it brings tears to my eyes. I can’t imagine what was like for them as they were literally counting what they believed to be their last seconds as they stared down the barrel of the gun or awaited for the next IED to go off.

Veteran’s Day is indeed a day to honor those who have served in our armed forces, whether it be the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy, or the Coast Guard. Our men and women deserve our respect and gratitude for their willingness to sacrifice their safety and time where we have not. In remembrance of the day set aside to honor those who have served and are serving I challenge you to find a veteran, shake their hand, look them straight in the eye, and with a sincere heart tell them thank you.