Pie Time

I come from a family of pie-makers. I consider my mom an expert pie maker. I especially love her apple pie and her strawberry rhubarb pie and her made-from-scratch banana cream pie, and. . . . . I could go on. My sister is also a great pie maker. She won a pie contest when she was just in high school. She still makes great pie. I, however, have not inherited the pie gene. I like to try on occasion but never really succeed. I guess I just don't practice enough.
Tonight is our ward's chili and pie cook off. Chris signed me up for both pie and chili. I went for a single-crust pie "Coconut-Caramel Pie" (recipe follows) which is a really good dessert. I usually cheat and bake a pre-made Pillsbury crust. I decided to try my mom's pie crust recipe this time. . . . . Nope, I'm still not a pie maker! I always follow the recipe but it turns out to be a gloppy mess. I baked it anyway and it will just have to do. This may ruin my reputation!
I hope the chili turns out better.

Coconut-Caramel Pie

2 Baked Pie Shells
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 16-oz carton Cool Whip
1 12-oz jar caramel ice cream topping

In a large skillet, melt butter; stir in coconut and pecans. Cook and stir over medium heat until coconut is golden, about 6-8 minutes. Cool.
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth; gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk on low speed. Fold in Cool Whip. Spoon 1/4 mixture into each pie shell. Drizzle each with about 1/4 of the caramel topping (I never use quite that much) and sprinkle with 1/4 of the coconut mixture. Repeat layers.
Cover and freeze at least 5 hours. Serve or freeze, covered, for up to 2 weeks. Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before serving. Makes 20 servings (2 pies).

Weighing In

This is really embarrassing and I am not sure how to write about this. I may write this and then not post it. We'll see.
I had an experience last night that was kind of depressing to me. Without giving out more details than anyone would want to know about me, lets just say it involved a dressing room in Victoria's Secret.
I read once that you can use the excuse, "I just had a baby" for about a year, then you are on your own. My year is almost up--just about three more weeks. I've never had a problem loosing weight when I needed to. I seem to fluctuate between the same 5 pounds, no matter what I eat, no matter if I exercise. Well, that's just not true for me anymore. My pregnancy with Tristan was wonderful but I allowed myself too many indulgences over the holidays and I could feel my backside growing and growing but just contributed it to my pregnancy. That backside is now haunting me.
After my trip to the mall last night I am much more motivated to eat better and be a little more active. I started my "8 Minutes in the Morning" regime again this morning. That has helped me in the past. Here's to looking better and feeling good about looking better!
Nothing makes celery look more appetizing than seeing your chub hang over a sexy pair of underwear!

Home At Last

Yeah! I have my husband back! Chris has been gone for 10 days. He went to Utah for his brother's wedding, came back for less than 24- hours and had to go to work, then left for Florida for a meeting.


The kids and I went to the airport to pick Chris up last night. We stopped by the mall on the way home. We have to buy some appliances for our new house and need to start shopping. We looked at a few things then went to Chick-fil-a for dinner. When we picked Chris up Kennedy asked him if he got her a present. He was not in a good place for presents so instead he took Kennedy to Build-A-Bear, which is much better than a souvenir from Florida, if you ask me. We are all glad to have daddy back home, where he belongs.

Here are some pictures of my cute kids.

Kennedy with "Flat Stanley". We're helping a friend with her daughter's class project.

Everyone loves Grandma Mary!