Guest post: Black Bottom Pie

Thanks to my wonderful friend Katie, here is a fabulous recipe for what has to be one of the most delicious pies ever! Her heritage story of this recipe is truly sweet.

I have grown up in the shadow of amazing cooks my entire life.  My grandmother was legendary, my mother was renowned throughout the neighborhood for her baked goods, and my aunts were admired for their recipes at each potluck and social occasion.

Growing up under this burden, I was always intimidated to try my hand in the kitchen - especially when it came to baking.  It wasn't until I moved into my first apartment in college that I started to enjoy experimenting with different spices, inventing new flavors of baked goods, and hunting down my family's favorite recipes.

In the past few years, my grandmother has had to stop cooking because of various health issues, but she has been generous in passing along family treasures - in the form of stories and recipes.  One of my favorites she has shared is her mother's (my great-grandmother's) recipe for "Black Bottom Pie" - practically a staple in the deep southern heart of Mississippi where my maternal family hails from.  The stories she shares while eating this treat are some of my personal favorites.

My grandmother shared both the typed version from her mother, and a re-written version courtesy of my aunt (who was responsible for the crayon scribbles on the original version at a young age).  I share them now with you to enjoy and savor.  I wish you a tasty dessert and plenty of fun stories to go along.

Black Bottom Pie

From Forrest Milam Bowen (my great-grandmother)

Pie Crust:

18-20 graham crackers rolled to fine crumbs, mixed wel with 5-6 Tablespoons of melted butter

Line a 9" pie plate with this and pat out like a pastry

Bake for 10 minutes at 300 degrees

Filling:

Soak 1 envelope of gelatin in 4 Tablespoons of water

Take 1/2 cup sugar, 2 heaping Tablespoons of flour and mix

Beat in 4 egg yolks and add 1 3/4 cups scaled sweet milk (regular milk is fine)

Cook over slow heat, stirring constantly until thick

Add gelatin and stir thoroughly

At the same time, slowly melt 2 squares of unsweetened chocolate

Pour a little over half of the custard over the melted chocolate

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla to chocolate mixture

Pour into the pastry and let cool

Make a stiff meringue of 4 egg whites, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1/2 cup sugar

Beat stiff and add to the remaining custard mixture while still smooth and soft

Pour this into the pie and chill about 30 minutes

Take 1 cup of cream, whip, and add 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Spread over the top of the pie

Grate semi-sweet chocolate over the top and set in fridge until cool.

ENJOY!

Cuisine creativity

< main dish inspiration >

As a woman who cooks almost every night, I am always looking for new and delicious items to whip up for dinner (or any meal, really).  Find yourself in the same boat?  To the rescue, any cookbook, food magazine, or these days- of course- the amazing Pinterest!  I have pinned and pinned tasty looking items on this board, and am just revisiting it and picking some of my favorites to inspire my creativity in that 'central hub' space in our house with the beloved fridge, detested counters, and ever-helpful cooking appliances.  You can check out some of my past culinary successes here, and let me know if there are any great recipes you have recently tried!

< appetizer ideas >

< desserts to crave >

Tastefully delivered

< Spices, spices! >

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a Tastefully Simple party at a sweet friend's house.  The evening was delicious- lots of good friends, plenty of happy laughter, wine to go around, and an abundance of tasty dips and sauces.  I was enticed to try out a few of the all natural spices and a few of the other highly recommended products, and was so happy when these arrived on my doorstep a few days ago!  I cannot wait to cook with these, and to make some semi-homemade (totally my style) items with the box mixes that I ordered.  Have any of you fabulous 3P lovelies used Tastefully Simple items before?  Which are your favorite products?

 < Everything arrived snug as a bug in a box that was the perfect size >

 < A few booklets were included to inspire new cooking ventures >

 < The products I chose were mostly for seasoning purposes >

< I have heard so much about this bread and cannot wait to make it! >

Insta-lately

 < Accessories from the day, a beautiful morning, what to do with this figurine, arm party, favorite books and polishes, spaghetti night, Tigger and Jack, making cookies, my Stella & Dot earrings, my new book I am sooo happy own, dinner spices, summer hair buns, Tuesday tootsies, my belt from the day The ABCs of belts post went up, delicious lunch salad, and the first of the September issues >

< A beautiful day among the palms, enjoying the beach, weekend brunch, a scarf to keep warm, singing along at an outdoor concert, a yummy breakfast, the outfit of the day, out to a baseball game, my gold sequined sleeve, accessories from July, the Fab Five, Mr. Lion and the lamb, Garnier Fall Fight, salads with my BFF, weekend arm party, and taco night >

Happy parts of every day shared on Instagram.  Find me at @3Pprettyblog, or online here or here.

Summer corn on the bbq

< Easy-peasy, crunchy, tasty! >

When the weather is hot, there is no food I enjoy more than something that has been cooked on the barbeque.  I love marinating meat for these kinds of meals, and am always looking for more recipes of any kind of summer meal.  However, my most favorite BBQ treat has of late has to be this corn on the cob recipe that me and the man have tweaked to make our own.  It is simply seasoned, and will not require any heat in your kitchen to come out complete.  See the recipe below, and simply serve with your other BBQ favorites and enjoy the tasty treat of this corn on the cob!

Do you have any summer BBQ favorites, for corn or otherwise?  Let me know in the comments below!

< Gather your ingredients: ears of corn, olive oil, salt, pepper, nutmeg... and tin foil! >

 

< Then shuck your corn, and remove any strings- I like to do this over the sink to make for an easy clean-up process- everything is collected and is easy to toss in the trash can, and the remaining small pieces can be sent down the disposal. >

< Next, give those ears (of corn, of course!) and gentle scrub with a veggie brush to rinse them and remove any remaining strings. >

 < Create 'plates' with the tinfoil you will wrap the corn in- I like to bend up the edges so that all the spices stay within the foil.  Brush on olive oil, then sprinkle on your spices- salt and pepper to your liking, and be fairly conservative with the nutmeg, as it can be quite flavorful. >

 < Wrap flavored ears of corn in tin foil, and seal well.  Place on BBQ for about 20 minutes, or until done. >

< One favorite way of mine is to serve this corn with barbecued chicken, and rice pilaf (we also enjoyed a tomato cucumber salad and honeydew melon with this meal), but add to any of your favorite summer dinners and enjoy! >

Spanish cluck cluck

Alright, I'll admit it... semi-homemade is pretty much the everyday mantra I am proud to embrace.  The other evening I decided to throw together a chicken and rice dish, and I used this recipe for a quick, simple, and delicious dinner meal.  The finished meal was perfectly flavored, and made me much happier than tacos would have.  Also, my favorite aspect of making a dish like this during hot summer weather: the house is not filled with heat from the oven!

 < Even when just the chicken was browning, the man said it smelled good already! >

< Chicken, green pepper, onions, and garlic... mmm! >

< Dinner is served! >

Recipe for insta-dinner

On nights when there isn't much time to make dinner, I love whipping up this pasta dish- with whole grain pasta, some veggies, and a little protein, it is a perfectly filling meal.  The first time I ever made this pasta was with my best friend, so any time I make it I feel it is courtesy of my fabulous friend!  You could probably add as many more ingredients as your heart desired, but I usually stick with sauteed onion and garlic, stewed tomatoes, spinach, and sausage.  Add a little parmesan before serving, and viola, a delicious meal is your to enjoy after a mere 15 minutes.

 < Simple ingredients- pasta of your choice, garlic & onion, stewed tomatoes, spinach, and whatever sausage or meat you want to add >

< Nom, nom, nom! >

Sweet joy treats

When I saw these on Pinterest the other day, I knew I would have to give them a try. Homemade Almond Joy bites?  Yes please!  I am a sucker for chocolate and easy recipes, and these were fairly simple and easy (although sticky) to make. I gathered my supplies, and within 10 minutes had homemade almond joy candies at my fingertips. I will definitely divide these into smaller portions in the future, but boy-oh-boy were these sweet and tasty! (A cold glass of milk was definitely necessary) Tell me, what are your favorite sweet treats to make in no time flat?

 < Just a few ingredients for this very sweet treat >

 < Instead of forming individual squares one at a time, I layered the coconut mix onto a baking sheet and separated it into squares there >

< Drenched in chocolate and drying with an almond on top! >

Ahoy, bok choy!

Thanks to a Groupon deal that was up for grabs a few month ago, a box of fresh, organic produce is delivered to our doorstep every once in a while.  Opening this box is almost like Christmas- that joy that shows in your eyes when a wonderful surprise opens up right in front of you, you know?  And some things are a complete surprise in the produce box- like bok choy, for example.  This was a complete surprise to me because I have never cooked bok choy- yes, in general I do enjoy eating most kinds of cabbage (much due to my German heritage, I suppose), but I have never cooked this Chinese cabbage before.  So, to use this lovely greenery in an easy meal, I decided to whip up a stir fry dinner.  And yum, yum, yum, this was taste-eeeyy!!

< Well hello there, fresh bok choy! >

 < I sauteed the beef for the stir fry first >

 < Frying the bok choy and some other vegetables came next >

 < I also sauteed some garlic (which is truly one of my favorite cooking aromas) >

< Quick, easy, pretty healthy dinner- I used brown rice to keep this dish more healthy. Delicious! >