Heaven in the form of Chocolate!

Oh yeah, this post has a recipe for a Chocolate Pie, from the brilliant mind of our Aunt Linda. This woman is a genius in the kitchen, she just threw this together one day and is now a staple in the family!

But before getting to that, I need to brag about my kids, because that's what I do.

Actually, nothing's really changed. Falon is still sassy as can be (she gets it pretty honest, I won't lie), and talks about going to school every day. I don't think I ever remember being excited about school, and now that I think about it, I would go back in a heartbeat. It wasn't school that I liked, but seeing all my friends daily. These days, I'm so busy with work and the kids that I don't keep up with all my friends like I should. Even a random text saying "How have you been?" would be nice, but I just don't think about it. I was telling Christopher the other day how I wish we could just go out, have fun and make fools of ourselves and do it every weekend. I didn't realize how lame we were! Haha. We need to go out and do something crazy. Any suggestions?

Baby Rhy is growing up so quickly! Does anyone know how I can stop it? I had a dream the other night that he started walking, like RIGHT NOW.. as in at 4 months old. I woke up freaking out, what a nightmare! If you haven't already, go check out the videos on my Facebook page, there's a video of him rolling over. Afterwards, he's out of breath, but holds his head up like he's so proud of himself. "Look what I just did!" I just love it. He's trying really hard to sit up on his own, too. It's more he's just leaning forward and plays with his feet, so not really straight up, but getting there! He's also teething already as well. He's behind Falon though! Falon got her first two teeth at 4 months old, so Rhy isn't trying to grow up as fast as she is. We haven't gone to his 4 month well check yet, schedules kept conflicting so we will be going next week to see how big he's gotten since his 2 month checkup! Next thing, he'll be eating on his own.. which reminds me, I think we need to start feeding him solids. My milk just isn't enough for him these days! I'm so depressed!

Christopher is still hating work, but we do what we need to keep the family going. I'm hoping he has some good news soon for a new store that will be opening up and he can transfer. Get him to a place where he can excel and have the opportunity to start an actual career. Send us hope and love, we need it!

Alright, I suppose I could get to the good stuff now. This pie is waiting at home for me.. at least I hope so. Between Christopher and Falon, not too sure if anything will be left. We'll just have to see..

Like I mentioned in the beginning, this recipe was created by our Aunt Linda, who I could imagine can make even tree bark delicious. This is one of Christopher's favorite and is so easy, a caveman could do it. Har har har. This is usually made with a homemade crust (also another one of Aunt Linda's) and homemade whipped cream.. BUT, I couldn't find my crust recipe (and I'm going to tear my kitchen apart to do so) and we decided to go super easy and got some Reddi-Whip. Yes, the cowardice way to go, but I really wanted a chocolate pie and didn't want to have to work any harder to do so.

This is what you need:

3 egg yolks (if you want to top with meringue, save the egg whites!)
2 cups of milk
1 tsp of vanilla
1 cup of sugar
2 heaping Tbs of cocoa
1/2 cup of AP flour

1 stick of butter
1 crust (I'll find my homemade crust recipe SOON!)

Thoroughly stir the egg yolks, milk and vanilla into a homogenous mixture. In a non stick pot, sift together the sugar, cocoa and flour. Slowly add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients while mixing to avoid lumps. Cut up the butter into tablespoons and add into the pot. Now stick the pot on the stove over medium heat. You have to constantly stir the mixture, a whisk works best, for almost 15 minutes, because it'll get thick and you don't want a lumpy pie! Get it to the consistency of pudding.. but you can make it as thick as you want, just keep cooking it.

Once you've gotten it to your desired consistency, pour in the crust and let sit for about 30 minutes to cool off. Cover with plastic wrap or with a pie cover and stick it in the fridge and chill it for at least 4 hours. The colder, the better, obviously.

You can top this pie with whatever you want. Christopher is a big whipped cream fan, so that's what I usually put on it. If you want to top with meringue, go to this blog: Adventures in my Kitchen, as Susan just posted a meringue recipe!

Get to it! You have all the ingredients (except for maybe the crust, but can be easily solved) to make this, so why are you wasting time??

It was very difficult to take a picture of this first and THEN eat it. But here it is! This was made with the premade Chocolate Graham Crack Crust and a healthy helping of Reddi-Whip! Nom nom nom!

You'll need magic and love for this one..

Look at me, keeping up with the blog like I'm supposed to! The way I see it is.. if I don't post, Google won't pay me.. so.. I guess my mind is made up.

I have THE best news.. at least for me. Baby boy slept last night for 7.5 hours. Oh em gee, you say? Oh yes, I speak the truth. Now, he went to sleep at 10, meaning he woke up at 5:30, which kinda stinks cause I usually wake up at 6 to get ready for work. We all know how crucial that 30 minutes can be, so while I may have been dragging ass today for being up so early.. I felt like I actually got some rest in over a year, which felt good. Now, I just need to catch up.. that could take some time.. Otherwise, baby boy has been doing good.. except I can't seem to keep up with him as far as milk goes. I certainly wish I could produce more for him, but he's just growing so fast.. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go straight to pumping, which totally kills me and makes me want to cry. I'm going to hold out for as long as I can, think I can do it?

Falon is super excited about starting school this fall, she won't stop talking about it! This morning, she asked if she can have an alarm clock to put in her room so she can get up for school on time. If you ask me, she's so excited, I'm afraid she won't even be able to sleep the night before. The trick is, how do I let her have an alarm clock without her destroying it? She gets destructive when she gets bored.. doesn't every kid? Anyways, she can't wait till the middle of August rolls around so we can enroll her. I am absolutely terrified of her first day of school.. it just means that my baby girl is growing up, and if I put her in school, then I'll have to admit that she is. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. Or if I ever will be.

Christopher informed me that there might be a potential change coming up in our lives, and I'm really hoping for it to pan out, because we sure could use some luck. The "joys" of adulthood have really caught up to us and we're in pretty shallow waters. However, we're making it work as best as we can.. after all, we did have a baby when I was 19 years old.. if we can handle that, we can handle anything. And I must say, Falon has turned out to be quite a kid. I don't want to jinx ourselves or anyone else so I'm being very vague about it but if you're really wanting to know, you got my number!

Work is still, well, work. Nothing's changed except the fact that my having a baby really affected where I stand in the department. Sort of depressing that they'd rather give me no credit than any credit at all.. I only have 3 weeks of data for them to pull from, which just so happens to be my first 3 weeks back, so I was still getting into the groove of things. I'm trying not to let it get to me, but I just expected more I suppose. How could I think such a thing? Although, it is a business.. que sera sera.

Now that I've depressed myself, let's get on with the delicious part, I need something to wallow with. You can thank this recipe to one of the cutest people I know, Mr. Eyan Hempler. This recipe is super easy and slap yo mama delicious!

What you'll need for Eyan's Magical Peanut Butter Pie:

3/4 cup of smooth peanut butter (maybe a lil extra to lick off the spoon..)

1.5 cups of heavy cream

3/4 cup of powdered sugar

1 tsp of vanilla
One premade Graham Cracker Crust (or your favorite recipe - which I have one of my own, but I'll save that for another blog!)

Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla and whip your lil hearts content out of it until soft peaks form. Fold the peanut butter with half of the now whipped cream gently with a spatula. Add the rest of the whipped cream and beat until just incorporated, no more than that or it'll lose it's fluffiness! Pour into the graham cracker crust and you can top it with whatever you like, or just eat it like so.  What I do is make more whipped cream with just regular sugar and vanilla and top it with chocolate shavings -- below is a picture of one that Eyan made for work: drizzled with melted Hershey's kisses and mini Reese's cups. You can't go wrong with whatever you want on it, just as long as you don't forget the magic and love! ;) [Best served cold!]

 Mmmmmm!

Enjoy this decadent dessert and be sure to send love vibes towards Eyan for this one, cause after I had a bite of this, I almost kissed him! No lie..

The brownie goes blonde!

I am so slacking on this, it's not even funny. I won't lie, I try to post at work, cause typing on that tiny lil keyboard on my phone makes me cringe.

So, trying to sum up the last 2 weeks in a nutshell, as not to bore everyone -- as I mentioned in the last post, Christopher and I celebrated 4 years of (I would say blissful, but who are we kidding?) marriage! The wedding in Louisiana was a freaking blast. I don't have a lot of fun at weddings, to be honest, but THAT. Was incredible. Them crazy coonasses have some AMAZING food. I'm talking pulled pork jambalaya, boudain bites, nacigdoches meat pies, etc. My only regret was that we couldn't stay longer cause we had quite a drive back to Bridge City ahead of us. We're going to head back that way for my great niece's birthday party, who will be a whopping 3 years old, and soon after, baby boy will be having his surgery. (If you don't already know about it and would like to, text me if you feel so inclined to.)

Moving along, while in Bridge City, I got to see said great niece, Marlee Rae. This girl, I love her as though she was my own. That girl is too sweet and cute and I swear, makes me cry every time I see her. When she left us to go home that night, I told her that I love her forever and ever, to which she repeated the same thing to me. And then after her mama asked how much she loves me, she responded with "the sky, the moon and the stars" *cue the tear* For super reals. It melted my heart. Then when Christopher (whom she calls Bubba) went to love on her, she told him that, "I love you punkin (actually pumpkin)" -- I don't see Christopher get emotional very often, but he just can't help it with that sweet child. A few days later, I talked to her mama, Karah, and she told me that Marlee Rae was ready to come see her "punkin" and "emmi" (which if you haven't already figured it out, is what she calls me.) I'm hoping things work out for them and they get to move as soon as possible. I need that lil girl in my life at all times, just like I have Falon.

Work has been.. well, work. It's still super hard to leave the kids every day, but it gets easier, I guess. I'm always ready to go home and love on my babies. And still no change with baby boy, he's still not sleeping through the night. But he's sleeping a lil bit longer every time, so slowly but surely! His sister spoiled me so bad, she slept through the night at 2 weeks old. *sigh*

Enough with the sappy stuff. Let's move on to the "Blonde Brownie" -- yes, the ever so popular brownie we all know and love got a highlight for the Summer (and beyond) and is absolutely divine. It actually tastes just like a chocolate chip cookie, but chewier and in brownie form. Yes, even through the computer, I saw just a lil bit of drool come out of your mouth.

After you're finished wiping your face off, head to the grocery store for these items (if you don't already have them handy in your pantry!):

2 1/4 c.of AP flour
2 1/2 tsp. of baking powder
1/2 tsp. of salt
1 3/4 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. softened or melted butter
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. of chocolate chips (semi-sweet is best, but any will work)

Preheat over to 350º

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Beat together the brown sugar and butter until it's creamy, or as creamy as it looks like it's gonna get. Beat in eggs one at a time, add the vanilla, then add the dry ingredients slowly. Spread into a 9x13 pan and bake 20-25 minutes. Now.. my oven took about 32 minutes to bake, so check it at 20 minutes, then 25 minutes. Do the toothpick test and what you are looking for is a slightly covered toothpick tip. You don't want a clean one, at that point, it's overcooked. You don't want a batter looking like tip, almost like sticky crumbles on it. When you take it out, it will continue to bake but will stay soft and chewy.

Try it. Love it. Thank me later. And come back (hopefully in a week) for the next shameful indulgence! <3