Sugar Crisp Peanuts

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Water

2 Cups Shelled Raw Peanuts

Bring water and sugar to a boil to dissolve sugar.  Add Peanuts; Continue to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to evenly coat peanuts.  Stir until syrup crystallizes and no liquid remains.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Stir every 5 minutes to evenly roast.  Cool.

This picture is after they are cooked and poured on the cookie sheet.  You can see how they still look a little wet.

This is how they will look after they have been baked in the oven for 20 minutes (remember to stir every 5 minutes)

You can put these in cute jars and give for gifts.  This was one of my dad's favorite snacks around Christmas.  He had some stomach problems a few years before he passed away so he wasn't able to eat nuts the last few years he was living.  

Look What I Won!!!!!

I am so excited!  I won the White Lily Flour Give-Away from Christy Jordan's Southern Plate!  If you have never read her blog, then you need to start!  She posts the best recipes and has a few cookbooks too!  She is an Alabama girl so that makes her extra special!!!!!!!  Thank you Christy!!!!!  Please visit her blog at http://www.southernplate.com

If you know me, then you know I have spent a little bit of time in the kitchen.  I was raised in a cafe!  but I am not real sure what this in the picture above.  I thought it fit on the bottom of the sifter but it has a hole in it and the sifted flour or sugar would come right out that hole.  Any ideas??????????

Don't forget to visit Christy's blog!!!  I am hoping that Kathy at the Alabama Gift Company in Gadsden will invite her to have a book signing on a First Friday in the spring!!!!!!

Gadsden High School Tiger Band Reunion!

Ok Tigers--We need volunteers from the classes of 1967 through 1972 to help plan a band reunion!  We have a tentative date of June 28, 2014.  If you know anyone that was in the band during those years, please ask them to follow the Gadsden High School Tiger Band Page on Facebook.  We will be posting updates, meeting times, and other information there!  And speaking of meeting times, we will be meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. at 518 Walnut Street for our second meeting.  We only had 4 people to attend the first meeting and three of those were from the class of 72.

We also need contact info for those years.

Thanks and See you there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tigers Growl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prayer Request

I would like to ask everyone to pray for my friend Nina today, she is the baby YaYa.   She has her first appointment with the Radiologist and the Oncologist to began her treatments for colon cancer.  Her appointment is at 1:00 p.m.  We believe in the power of prayer and pray for God's hand to be with everyone associated with her treatments.  Thank you in advance for your prayers.

West Gadsden Cafe Coconut Pie

I have had a request for the Coconut Pie.  I do not have a picture of this pie but it is very good!!!!!!

2/3 Cup Sugar

4 Tablespoons Corn Starch

4 Egg Yolks

2 1/4 Cups Milk

1/2 Stick Butter

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Cup Coconut (use the coconut in the bag or can that is close to the cake mixes—Do not use the frozen coconut)

Mix dry ingredients well.  Add egg yolks and a little milk and mix well.  Add rest of milk, vanilla, and butter and mix well.  Cook in a double boiler or heavy pot.  Stir constantly.  Cook until thick.  ( I have no idea how long, the consistency will be a little thinner than you want the pie to be, it will thicken as it cools).

Add the coconut after you take the mixture from the heat.  Save enough to put on top of the meringue.  Pour into a cooked pie shell.  You will need to use one of the deep dish pie shells if you are buying a frozen one.  If you are using your pie plate, it should be deep enough to hold it all.

4 Egg Whites

1/3 Cup Sugar

1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar

Water

Mix sugar and cream of tartar until mixed well.  Add just enough water to make it liquid.  Beat egg whites with mixer on high until lightly stiff.  Add sugar mixture and continue beating until stiff.  Top the pie with the egg white mixture and coconut then brown in the oven.

West Gadsden Cafe Chocolate Pie

West Gadsden Cafe Chocolate Pie

The chocolate pie at West Gadsden Cafe was probably the most ordered pie of all.  It sure is a favorite of my family and friends.  Usually I make a pudding instead of a pie, it seems to go further and my family is not fond of the pie crust.  I add a little more milk and I don't cook it as long.  I still make sure it is thick enough before I pour it in the bowl.  Sometimes I use Vanilla Wafers in the pudding and sometimes it is plain.  Just a note:  Mother always cooked the pies in a large double boiler, but I just cook mine in a heavy pan but I stir it constantly with a wire whip.

This is a picture of the pie made as a pudding.  This is just one recipe.

Chocolate Pie

1 Cup Sugar
1 pinch salt
4 Tablespoons Corn Starch
5 Tablespoons unsweetened Cocoa
4 Eggs (Yellows)
2 Cups Milk (Full Cups)
1/2 Stick Margarine or Butter (Do Not Melt First)
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

Mix all dry ingredients well.  Add egg yolks and mix with a little bit of milk.  Add rest of milk and mix well before adding the stick of butter.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly.  If it starts to cook too fast, turn the heat down just a bit.  If it cooks too fast, it will lump.  If you are making a pie pour the cooked mixture in a cooked pie shell.  You can use a graham cracker crust if that is what you prefer.

Meringue

4 Egg Whites
1/3 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar
Water

Mix sugar and cream of tartar until mixed well.  Add just enough water to make it liquid.  Beat egg whites with mixer on high until lightly stiff.  Add sugar mixture and continue beating until stiff.  Top the pie with the egg white mixture and brown in the oven.

This is a pudding that is four recipes (Cooked in a dutch oven on top of stove).  This is for the Baby YaYa--Nina's Birthday!!!!!!  She always request the chocolate pudding instead of a cake.

The cafe always made their pies with a pastry type crust and with a graham cracker crust so the customers had a choice.   The staff and customers were like family.  Most of the waitresses knew which crust their regular customers preferred.  I hope you enjoy this as much as my family does.

Fudge Brownie Pie

Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner so I thought I would shared a recipe with you that is one of my families favorites!  Fudge Brownie Pie!  This is a brownie pie with hot fudge sauce.  For lunch tomorrow, I have doubled the recipe. In the picture below, you can tell how it fills this Pampered Chef pie plate.  

Fudge Brownie Pie

2 Eggs

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Melted Margarine

1/2 Cup Plain Flour

1/3 Cup Cocoa

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together melted margarine, sugar and eggs.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa, and salt.  Add flour mixture to margarine mixture; add vanilla; pour in regular pie pan.  Bake @ 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  It will still be a little soft in the middle.

Hot Fudge Sauce

3/4 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Cocoa

1/3 Cup Light Corn Syrup

1 Small Can Pet Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 Stick Margarine

Mix all ingredients except vanilla and margarine; cook on medium heat until it boils, stirring constantly.  Continue stirring and cook for 1 minute.  Remove from heat; add margarine and vanilla.  Stir Well.

This was the birthday girls desert today!!!!!  It is her favorite!  Happy Birthday Kristi!

This hot fudge sauce is wonderful even without the brownie pie!  You can make several batches of this sauce, pour in cute jars and you have yourself a wonderful gift for someone!

Serve Brownie pie with Ice Cream and top with Hot Fudge Sauce!

I would love to hear your comments after you make this!

Prayers for My Friend

If you are a person that believes in the power of Prayer, please pray for my dear friend.  I will not give details of the problem just that it is a health related issue.  I love her dearly and I believe the more people that pray the better she will be.  Thank you so much!!!!!

If you have a daily prayer list, please include my friend on your list and pray daily!

Thank you for praying for my friend!!!!!  Love you all!!!!!!!!!

Friends--A True Gift!

Friends

Friend /noun/ A person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations.

I want to tell you about my friends.  Do you have true friends?  I am one of the luckiest people in the world because I have true friends that have been with me through thick and thin! 

Beauchamp, Debra, and Nina and I met in 7^th grade!  We hit it off immediately.  We were in band together and several classes all through Jr. High School.  We went places together, like the movies on Friday night.  One of our dads would drop us off and pick us up.  Back then you could watch the movie multiple times with one ticket.  They didn’t clear the theatre after each showing!  Sometimes we would even walk down to Pasquales to eat and come back to the movie! 

We continued our friendship all through high school, but we added Kay in 10^th grade.  (She went to another Jr. High School).  We were all in the Gadsden High Tiger Band, Deleath Rives, Band Director.  Did we ever have some good times together? Oh Yes we did.  Some of the stories I can’t even tell you!  The Band trips to New Orleans—Sugar Bowl, Houston to the Blue Bonnet Bowl, with a side trip to Galveston were so much fun!  Little did we know at the time, that we were having the times of our lives!!!!!!!

I told you I was lucky well, we have dinner together on Wednesday nights and talk to one another at least once a day and sometimes all on the phone at the same time!  Not all of us can come each time but we try to make it.  Sometimes we bring our children, grandchildren, husbands, etc.  But we always have a wonderful time! Over the years we have laughed together, cried together, prayed together and been there for one another through it all.  I love these girls!

I have another friend that I went to high school with but we didn’t hang out in high school. Jane wasn’t in the band.  Our school was so big that you didn’t know everyone.  We also went to elementary school together for 2 years but she doesn’t remember me, even though I remember her.  We worked together for several years and have remained friends.  She is my walking buddy and partner in crime some of the time!  She moved to Virginia for several years but she is back home now. 

Thank you God for Friends like these!  I am not sure how anyone survives without friends like these!!!!!

Have you ever heard the song “Friends” by Michael W. Smith?  I think it fits us perfectly!

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end

'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

Thank you girls for your friendship, I know if I ever need anything, I can call on anyone of them!

Now meet the YaYa’s! (Which is what our kids call us)

From Top to Bottom:  Beauchamp, Debra, Nina and Kay.  Gadsden High School, Class of 1972!

Jane, Also Gadsden High School Class of 1972 but not in the Band!

 

 

Another friend is Julie, but she didn't go to GHS and I don't have a picture.  She and I have a booth at Churchill's Antiques, Downtown Gadsden.  Please Stop By and say Hello!