BooksRule

I have two Hershey's cookbooks from quite a few years ago. I'll do some looking to see if it's there. Thanks!

I'm looking for a recipe for an old-fashioned chocolate pie (not the kind with pudding, milk, and Cool Whip that you chill). I want the kind with cocoa, egg yolks, sugar, etc. that you cook on the stove into a thick custard and then put into a pre-baked crust. I know I can find recipes online, but if any of you have one that you think is really good, please let me know. My mom used to make a good chocolate pie, but I don't have her recipe and she's no longer here for me to ask.

But if you're like me, when you are having some tea, you are thinking 'I sure wish I had a cookie or a piece of cake to go with my tea'.

I just put a lemon sheet cake in the oven. When it cools, I'll add a layer of a lemony cream cheese/pudding mixture and let chill. The final layer will be some whipped cream as a frosting. It's for a work lunch tomorrow (I usually bake lemon goods during the summer, but I thought this might be a good change from the gingerbread/cinnamon/chocolate/etc. baked goods that have been making the rounds.

I just put my first Sour Cream Pound Cake of the holiday season into the oven (it's for a holiday lunch at work tomorrow). The house should start to smell like butter and almond flavoring very soon.

I'm watching the episode where Bobby becomes a model for plus-sized kids' clothes and Hank isn't happy about it. I don't think I ever noticed this funny line in the scene where Peggy wants to encourage Bobby and Hank doesn't. Hank: 'I'm trying to stop an outbreak here, and you're driving the monkey to the airport!'

I made a vow this year to try to get my house as clean and neat as possible and to get unwanted items sorted and taken/given away by the time I get for Christmas break (my last day to work for the year is December 20). I actually make the same vow almost every year, but I don't stick to it. This time I'm really trying. I've found that I tend to put off things and end up spending my break trying to catch up on the 'big' chores (the chores that aren't part of my regular weekly tidying up and cleaning). I'm tired of doing that and want to enjoy my break for a change and spend the time reading, working on puzzles, doing some light yardwork, so I've been spending at least part of every weekend for the last month or so cleaning out closets, drawers, bookcases, etc. to neaten up. Not that my house is hoard-y or dirty, but things tend to pile up (clean laundry on the sofa in the den, items pushed into the pantry instead of being neatly sorted, etc.). I used to keep a nice neat house, but when the COVID lockdown hit and I knew that no one would be just dropping by to visit, I let things slide and got lazy. I've never really caught up. This weekend I'm focusing on the kitchen. Cabinets are clean and neat, and I just spent about 2 hours scrubbing the fridge (including getting rid of some really scary-looking veggies in the crispers). It's now so pristine and clean I almost hated putting things back. I might not get to the crowded pantry this weekend, but just having the fridge done helps me feel better.

Not really in search of recipe, but I do need opinions on a flavor. I want to make some snacks where you take Bugle salty snacks, pipe peanut butter into the open end and then dip the open end into melted chocolate. They are tasty, with the whole salty/sweet/PB thing. But, I haven't made them in years and I can't remember what kind of chocolate I used. I can find both milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips, but am not sure which one to use. Any thoughts?

I love coconut as long as it's in sweet dishes. I don't care for it in savory things, such as coconut shrimp (either in the shredded form or coconut milk). The one exception I've found is that I used to go to a Thai restaurant that served a lemon coconut soup (I think it had chicken broth in it too) as an appetizer and it was delicious. I've seen various versions of this bar cookie. Some omit the butterscotch chips and add white chocolate chips instead.

I haven't had much motivation to do holiday baking for the last couple of years (I do bake up items for potlucks, meeting refreshments, and several sour cream pound cakes for Christmas events, but no batches of cookies, bars, or other goods). I feel more like baking this year, and am hoping to try out a couple of new recipes. In the meantime, I'm beginning with an old favorite-- 'Hello Dolly Bars', also known as 'Magic Bars'. I'm supposed to take cookies for a swap at an event at work tomorrow, and I thought these would go over well. Graham cracker crust, butter, condensed milk, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, pecans, and coconut. What's not to like? (except for the people who don't like coconut, I guess.)

Jumping on the 'family exchanging Christmas gifts' bandwagon, for the last decade and a little more, it's been just my dad, us three 'kids', and my sister-in-law. We used to exchange 'wish lists' with each other (items that we wouldn't usually buy for ourselves) and we would each get my dad something useful that he could us out in the yard or maybe a gift card for the local big box home improvement store. But a couple of years ago, my sister and I suggested to my brother and sis-in-law that we stop exchanging gifts for Christmas (and for birthdays) and just visit and eat lots of good food when we get together. All of us have basically everything we need and could buy other things we desire. None of us have children of our own, so there aren't any little ones to buy for. We did all agree that if we happen to find something cute or interesting at an estate sale or something that went with one of our collections (we all collect different things) we could hang on to that and give it to that person. But nothing expensive. Just a little item. So far it's worked well. I love the lack of pressure to shop for 'just the right thing' now (either in stores or online). On another topic, I finally had to turn the heat on for the first time this fall a few minutes ago. It's going to get into the chilly 40s in my area tonight and for the next few days. I don't love really cold weather, but I do like a little cool and colder weather (especially living in an area that has summers in the 90s with humidity levels you could swim in).

I hate that the Cart Cop was assaulted, but sooner or later it was going to happen. And if you try to shame someone into doing the 'right thing' they are like to double-down and push the cart even farther away from the corral. I'm one of those who doesn't put my cart away if the corral is more than two parking spaces away from my car. My bad knees just don't want to take me that far. But if I can't park next to a corral that has carts in it (I don't mind parking farther away from the store entrance if I have a cart to lean on), I always make sure that I place my empty cart right in the spot where the parking spaces intersect so that it won't be in anyone's way. I do my best! As for Christopher, I think the original arrangement might have been for him to just stay with the grands for the summer. Eddie's mistake was not being firm about having Christopher come back when the summer was over, whether or not he wanted to come back. He's let it go too far, now. I love to bake, but I still want Buck to come over and bake for me. 'Here, have a scone.' (and from Eddie's expression, it was a good scone.)

Has anyone here used dried milk (mixed with water, of course) as a substitute in recipes when it calls for regular milk? I've used buttermilk powder instead of regular buttermilk before and it worked fine, but I've never used the dried milk in recipes. My googling seems to indicate that it works fine and you won't notice a difference in taste or texture, but I was curious to find out if this is true. I usually have half & half on hand (for my coffee), but rarely have milk. And I hate buying milk (even the smallest container) for a recipe that calls for 1/4 cup. I know you can freeze milk to use later, but I know myself and would put that off until the milk went bad.

I prefer salty over sweet, but combining them works, too, such as pretzels with a sweet/tangy raspberry pretzel dip, or salted cashews/peanuts with candy corn (the only way to eat candy corn in my opinion). I love Little Caesar's Pretzel Crust Pizza, but mainly due to the crust itself. I think my next salty snack recipe try is making some 'pretzel strips' using crescent roll dough cut into strips, brushed with the baking soda/water mixture and sprinkled with kosher salt and then baked. Right out of oven, brush with melted butter. I'm hoping they taste good (but would be more tender than a pizza dough would be, of course).

I took a 'baking hen' out of the freezer several days ago in anticipation of making gumbo this weekend. I got around to boiling the hen earlier today, but ran out of motivation before I finished the gumbo. So, I have a nice big container of chicken (I did take it off the bones before I stopped) and a huge pot of broth that's still cooling on the stove. I'll freeze both (tomorrow morning, which will give the broth a chance to let most of the fat rise to the top for me to skim) and will probably make the gumbo next weekend. At least the messy part is done (picking through the carcass getting all of the meat and having to wash my giant stew pot). I'll just have to make the roux, add it to the broth with some file powder and make a pot of rice. There really wasn't that much left to do, but I'm also trying to eat healthy and had my 'cheat' meal on Friday. So, it's really another week until I can have something like gumbo (it's mainly the roux that's the problem--pure fat and flour). I've never frozen the 'fixin's' before, so it if turns out well, I might buy up several hens, cook them, and freeze the broth/meat for later gumbos (sometimes it's hard to find hens around here except during holiday time and hens give chicken gumbo so much flavor). So now I have to figure out something else for dinner!