Mom's Butterscotch Pie Recipe and Ellie's Halloween Costume

If you've been around here long enough, you'll remember that I went on a 21 day diet where you ate categories of foods in different sized boxes. You were allowed plenty of boxes of vegetables a day, but there was a TINY box for fats, including cheese, and you only got one of those a day. I did lose some weight, but really, I ask you, who can live long term with only a tiny box of cheese a day? (If you missed those episodes of fleeting nutritious eating, read Part I here and Part II here).

Most importantly, you know what they didn't even have a box for?

Pie. 

Really.

I can't live in a world without pie. 1) Pie makes me happy. 2) Happy people live longer. 3) There has to be a box for pie, people. And there's no better pie than my mother's butterscotch pie recipe, which obviously will lengthen my life, making me happy and all. 

Seriously. It's the bomb.

I can't give up my mom's recipe without a proper introduction...Some of you may remember I've mentioned my grandmother, MomB, and how she was a character? (If you missed it, read about her here). Well, my mother, Lana, doesn't fall far from the tree in that regard, although she's a character in different ways. She's fun, sassy, and is always on the go. 

Mom and I at a Mother/Daughter Banquet several years back. I know, isn't she pretty?

When I say she's always on the go, I mean it. A few years back I called and said we were coming for a visit for spring break (she lives 12 hours from us). She paused and said, well, that'd be nice, honey, but I'll be in Spain. Most ladies her age are not dropping everything and running off to Spain. I don't have half her energy, but she keeps telling me she's just 29, so what do I know?

However, she does slow down long enough to cook when she's not jet setting off somewhere, and anything she makes is a treat. She is constantly entertaining and this is one of the favorites. Her cousin teases her that he's going to keep her locked up in a closet and only let her out to make this pie. (He's a little sassy, too, haha).

Here is her famous Butterscotch Pie Recipe, a perfect fall dessert. Delicious.

LANA'S BUTTERSCOTCH PIE RECIPE

Ingredients:

3/4 cup light brown sugar
3 tsp. Cornstarch
1/4 tsp. Salt
2 Cups milk
3 beaten eggs
3 tsp. Butter
1 tsp. Vanilla extract.

1 unbaked pie shell

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
6 Tbsp. Sugar

In saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, & salt; gradually stir in milk.  Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils & thickens. (Warning, if you don't thicken enough, pie will be runny!) Cook 2 mins. longer.  Remove from heat; in a separate bowl, stir small amount of hot mixture into beaten eggs; return eggs to hot mixture.  Cook 2 mins over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.  Add butter &vanilla.  Cool to room temp. You can pour directly into unbaked pie shell, or I like to bake my shell 10 mins. first, cover edges so it will be crisp.

Meringue: Beat egg whites with cream of tartar & vanilla until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beat until stiff.  Layer meringue on top of pie filling and bake at 350 degrees for 12 - 15 minutes.

PIN IT FOR LATER!

Hope y'all enjoy the pie!

Love,

Elizabeth

P.S. I need help choosing Ellie's Halloween costume...I'll show you the choices over the next few posts. Let me know what you think.  Choice #1:

Queen Ellie does have a nice ring to it. 

And I couldn't resist posting a pic of Mom a few years ago on Halloween.

I told you she's a fun gal.  She says this year's costume is a surprise...I'm almost afraid to ask, haha

Come and Dine

There once was a ten year old boy who was being raised, along with his brothers, by his grandmother. She tried her best, but she was disabled and times were hard.

Their tiny rented house was literally falling down around them and he would never invite friends over to play, because he was too embarrassed for them to see where he lived. 

The boy's clothes were too small and too few. There were no toys in sight, as these were only luxuries that his friends had, but never him.  

Until one day, a beautiful lady entered the house. Like a fairy godmother, she helped the family find a more suitable home. She cleaned it, mowed the grass, and filled the home with special touches.

The house was almost ready for the family to move in. When the lady asked the boy what he would want most in the house, assuming he would ask for toys and such, she was stunned by his answer.

His one wish - a dining table. 

His family had never had a table to eat on. He wanted to gather his family and sit around a table to have their meals, to laugh, and to share about their day. Mostly, to have a time of coming together.

That wonderful lady fulfilled his wish of a table, and in addition, a complete house of furniture and all bedding needed for the house. Some she bought herself, and for the rest, she worked and worked until she had enough donated for the cause. She even brought toys and clothes for the family. When the family moved in, they were incredibly thankful.

The little boy spoke few words, but you could see he held his head a little higher after that day.  And he gathered his family around that wooden table.

How long has it been since we've gathered our families? Held hands and said grace? Laughed and cried together?

Never underestimate the power of the gathering of a family around a dinner table, big or small, fancy or plain, especially in the eyes of a child. 

Or the magic of stopping our busy lives to notice someone else.

Love, 

Elizabeth

This is a true story that happened several weeks ago and Elizabeth has the honor of knowing the beautiful lady and the boy..  The pics are not the boy's dining room, (it's Elizabeth's), but can't you picture him gathering his family at his table? Go gather your people.  

The Fall Mantel - Don't Give A Hooey

Seasonal decor. I love you. But you come to other people's houses and are awesome, you show up at my house and ....meh, sometimes you're rockin' and rolling, and sometimes you are a single pumpkin on the porch, with some dead flowers left over from the summer...

AND I REALLY DON'T GIVE A HOOEY.

Fabric pumpkins from Burke's Outlet. 

Since I started the blog, I thought it would be best to try to have a rockin' year, but understand, this is not always the case. I used to read blogs and get really inspired and motivated, but occasionally I would also get down on myself because I wasn't that wife and mother with the perfectly decorated porch and welcome signs. Sometimes there were dishes to do and meals to cook and children to raise and work and on and on and on until forget the pumpkins, all I wanted was a hot shower.. 

All there would be on the porch would be those dead flowers. 

Foyer, see full post about it here.

Dead flowers sometimes means that you're busy with your children. They are well fed, bathed and hugged. That your husband or your friend got your attention that day. That you are hard at work so you or your family have a roof over their head or clean clothes to wear. That soup is on the stove. Even that ironing pile got a little smaller. Confession: Okay, I'm kidding on that one. I only iron once a year, then give up and take the pile to the dry cleaners.

'Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come'. Proverbs 31:25

Life will not always be so hectic, young mother, caretaker, wife. It will get easier.

Yes, I know my wreath is a little off. I don't give a hooey.

When my oldest was a baby, I didn't have the time or the money to decorate. Besides the demands of a normal toddler, he was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes (Read about it here). Definitely not my season for decorating. Later, when I was taking care of my sick daddy and two boys, I would probably have thrown a pumpkin at you if you criticized my dead flowers on the porch. Ok, only in my mind would I have thrown the pumpkin, I'm big talk on the computer. 

I was needed elsewhere.

If it's your year to decorate, or tackle whatever else you feel led to do, I hope you find some inspiration here (or at least have a good laugh at my attempts to do so). If it's your season for dead flowers, display them with honor. You've earned it. You're needed elsewhere.

Your season will come, so right now, don't give a hooey.

Hugs,

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is not using 'hooey' properly in a sentence. She knows this bothers me. When I told her, she said, 'I don't give a hooey.'  

Love her heart.