Yep, since Brandy got me hooked on Blogger, I have posted 200 times. How appropriate to use this opportunity to share a very evil EVIL dessert recipe!!!
Crunchy & creamy pumpkin custard pie (serves 8)
½ can (=1 ¾ cups) pumpkin
½ can (=2/3 cup) 12 oz evaporated milk
2 large eggs
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 -21/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
½ - 1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ pkg (=7/8 cup) yellow cake mix with pudding
1 cup chopped pecans
½ cup unsalted butter or margarine melted
Whipped cream for serving
TO MAKE FILLING: In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin ,milk,sugars, eggs,pie spice,cinnamon and salt.
Grease a 9 inch glass pie dish. Line with 14 inch piece of waxed paper. Pour filling into paper. Sprinkle top with cake mix and then with nuts. Drizzle melted butter over top.
Bake in center of oven at 325 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean.
Cool. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. To serve, place serving plate/platter on top of cooled pie and turn upside down. Remove pie dish and waxed paper.
It's not a very impressive looking dessert, once you pop it out of the wax paper. People look at it and go "ew." Really. But the taste is amazing.
For those of you who are doing the Christmas thing this year, Merry Christmas. We are having food and family and friends, but we've instructed everyone that we are not doing presents. We've been telling people this for years but nobody has adhered to it. So I guess this year it might "take" because so many people are broke.
My son has a few items that I've gotten for him, like a DVD and some clothing, but that's it. I may put some cash in his stocking, and that way he can go buy something. But we're not doing GIFT-A-PALOOZA this year. It's nice that my son is eleven years old and very understanding. We talked several weeks ago about Christmas and he was completely fine with it. I also let him know that his grandparents weren't going to be going insane with the gifts, either. He really didn't seem to care. Putting it all in perspective; Shay gets everything he wants and needs all year long. And he knows it. Anytime he gets money as a gift, he puts it away in his room and never spends it. If he wants a video game, he and I negotiate what he's going to do to earn it, and he follows thru.
He's a great kid, does what he's told and I reward him all year long for that. I'm taking this opportunity to start weaning him off the idea that Christmas is the gimme gimme gimme time of year.
It truly was breaking my heart to hear the fear in family member's voices when they'd call to tell me they couldn't afford to get us anything this year. "What? I don't WANT anything!!!" What's the point of a holiday that stresses people out because they've got all the pressure to buy, spend, and finance all kinds of gifts that typically won't be appreciated as much as it was originally intended.
Festivus for the rest of us, I say.
Merry Christmas...
