Monday's Menu

We're back! And the older I get, the more I wish that South Carolina would just squinch up a little with Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi and be about 5 hours away from Arkansas instead of 14 or 15. This traveling stuff is getting tired. But until God sees fit to change it, here is where we are. And hopefully, He'll see fit to give us enough get up and go to keep visiting until He does move us closer.

The Chick is the inspiration for today's recipe. She has gotten more and more persistent about cooking. I would be okay with that if she would get persistent about cleaning up after herself. She does for the most part but it isn't really clean. It just looks better after a (really quick) glance. So we're working on that.

But she got the urge to make something in Granny's kitchen and, like a good grandmother, Granny trotted her off to the store to get what she needed. It was rather tasty too. She made chocolate peanut butter pies. We have had them separately but never together in one pie. It was quite yummy and even though she made two, there were only 3 pieces left total when we hit the road for home.

I don't have the recipe she used but that's okay because, well, the peanut butter filling in this one is just better tasting. We didn't have it at hand though so she had looked one up. If you use both flavors, you'll either have to make two pies or half it.

Trust me. Just make two pies. Give one to your neighbor or something. Foster good community.

The peanut butter pie recipe comes from my mother-in-law. She says you can just change out the flavoring to make a different flavor pie but the peanut butter one is the stuff. Why mess with a good thing? The Chick used pudding/pie filling to make the chocolate part. She also used purchased pie crusts -- one graham cracker pie crust and one chocolate cookie pie crust.

Here's how to do it:

Peanut Butter Pie

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
pinch of salt
1/4 cup water
1 or 2 egg yolks (I usually use 2)
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
Prepared crust

Stir together in a large saucepan sugar, flour,salt and water. Combine egg yolks, evaporated milk, and milk. Add to saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat until thick, stirring constantly. I highly recommend using a whisk to do this. I'm not sure my MIL even owns a whisk but I am a mentally challenged stirrer so the whisk is much better than having chunky filling that was supposed to be smooth. When desired thickness, remove from heat and stir in peanut butter until smooth. Pour into pie crust. Chill. Cover with meringue (from the leftover egg whites) or with whipped topping (which is what I do).

To make a chocolate peanut butter version like the Chick's:

Have two crusts ready. Pour half of the peanut butter filling in each. Chill. When cooled through, prepare chocolate pudding pie filling according to directions on package. Pour half of chocolate pudding on top of each peanut butter filling. Chill. Cover with whipped topping. Sprinkle chocolate chips and chopped peanuts on top if desired.

And enjoy!