a brisket and a chocolate pie...

Old photo of house in snow

You know, I planned to take a picture of both the brisket and the pie... and then forgot.  Must be age. Both are totally gone now... and were very good. The brisket was 'fall apart' tender and DH and the boys loved it.  I thought it was a bit salty, but I'm not fond of salt... and I had used a BBQ rub (as well as BBQ sauce, Lea & Perrins, and Soy Sauce recipe - all salty). I will use less of these if I ever cook this again.

The dark chocolate cream pie is one of my favorites. And I don't make it  often. The recipe calls for only dark unsweetened chocolate, but I usually use half unsweetened and half semi-sweet.  Then I use real whipping cream on top. My neighbor when we first moved to Texas made the *best* chocolate pie.  She past away a long time ago and I never knew her recipe (back then I was 27 and had 3 babies and no time to bake). But I've tried several over the years and this one is the closest I've come. Some chocolate pies are more like chocolate pudding in a pie shell, others are like brownies in a pie shell.  This one is the consistency and flavor I like.  I found it in my King Arthur's Flour cookbook a few years back.

Well, we woke up to snow this morning here in Texas. It always surprises me. Luckily we haven't had any long lasting cold so far this year, just a few snowfalls and drops to below freezing days. It will stay cold today, so I suspect the roads will be icy tonight and tomorrow.  Hate that.  But... one of the good things about being retired... I don't have to go out in it!  When the weather is especially cold and nasty, I can stay cozy and warm by the fireplace with the cats and a good book.  THAT is one of the joys of retirement!

And yes, I'm still 'considering' the Alaska trip.  Haven't made any decision. I'm letting it 'ruminate' around in my head for a while.

My mom and a friend in my kitchen taken a few years ago - both deceased now and dearly missed

Just wanted to try this.  I did the 'resize thing' here where I resized the picture in Microsoft office manager and then downloaded it into blogger.   I think you can click on it and it will enlarge... thus keeping my google photo capacity lower... ??

One more 'blogger type' question.  If I should decide to 'change' my template to another form now... will all my old blogs be changed to the new form or will it save the old posts in the old template?  Just curious...