What's up Wednesday--cream pies

So I have already shared my favorite pie crust earlier here, so now I wanted to share my favorite cream pies that I make to put in those cookie pie crusts.

Coconut Cream Pie and Banana Cream Pie.  This recipe makes 2 pies, and I always make these 2 when I make it because Coconut cream is my husband Ben's favorite and Banana cream is my Dad's favorite.  I usually make these on Father's Day, Thanksgiving, and their birthdays--which are close and we always celebrate them together, so both get a pie.  I will usually try to make the crusts 2 days before I want the pies, and the actual pies one day ahead, then I don't make the whipped cream until right before I serve them.  But if you can't do it that far ahead, which sometimes I can't, then it will work to make the crusts in the morning, make the cream filling as soon as the crusts are cool, let them set up several hours and then serve them late evening.  I just like to make them ahead so I know for sure the cream part is set.  If you want to half the recipe to just make one pie, then I would use 4 eggs.  This is a versatile Vanilla cream pie base, so you can add whatever you want to it.  We just always do banana and coconut.  I put together the banana cream pie first and then just stir in 1 cup coconut to the remaining cream to make the coconut cream pie.

Vanilla Cream Pie

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

5 cups milk

7 eggs

3 TB butter

1 TB vanilla

whipping cream

In a large saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch.  Gradually stir in milk.  Cook and stir over medium-high heat till mixture is thickened and bubbly**be sure to stir it the whole time or it will burn!  Reduce heat and cook and stir for 2 minutes more then remove from heat.

Separate egg whites from yokes and set whites aside for another use.  Beat egg yokes light with a fork and gradually stir in 1 cup of the hot filling into yokes.  Return all to sauce pan and bring to a gentle boil while stirring.  Cook and stir 2 minutes more once it comes to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Stir in butter and vanilla.  

**For banana cream pie, put a small spoonful of cream into the crust and spread it around.  Slice up 2-3 bananas and place all over the thin layer of cream filling in the pie crust.  Top with remaining cream filling.

**For coconut cream pie add in 1 cup flaked coconut per pie after the butter and vanilla.  Put into baked pie crust.

Refrigerate several hours until pie is set.  Then whip cream --about 1 cup whipping cream per pie, and spread over top.  For Coconut I like to toast some coconut to put on top of the whipped cream.  You can do this is a pan on the stove or in the oven.  I usually just put a handful in a pan and heat it and stir until it becomes toasted.  Cool before putting on top of the whipped cream.

Enjoy!!!

2014 Blue Jeans Week 26

Do you realize the year is half over?  26 weeks!  Half over!  Crazy!  Our summer is also almost half over!  Man how time flies.  So this week we had the younger 2's first swim meet of the summer.  Those are always fun.  Miss O finished up driver's ed which she has been doing for the last month--class time and driving time. and Miss E did a quilt with my mom.  Take a look. . .

I think Skip-Bo is my favorite card game.  I love it.  Tonight I got these 3 to play with me.  Lots of fun!

Miss O at the wheel on her final day of driver's ed.  That has been really time consuming so far this summer.  She will be glad it is over!  Today she was driving to the big city!

Swim meet!  Miss E did awesome!  She has improved so much since last year!

This is Mr J's first year doing it and first meet ever.  He hasn't figured out the diving in part yet :)  But he did awesome!

After over 3 hours and 15 races between the two of them--it was a long night, but they did great!

This is a project we have been working on for a while and finally got all the medals in one place and a board to pin them on.  These are Miss O medals from 7th and 8th grade track.

Miss E and my mom have been making this quilt together for the last few months.  They are almost done.  Isn't it beautiful?  Love the colors.   Miss E just needs to blind stitch the border.  It is her first Young Women's value project to be finished for church.  Yeah!

Thanks for visiting!  Have a great week!

Friday thoughts--Our Home and first swim meet

My random Friday thoughts. . .

My weekly bathroom mirror inspirational quote.  Gratitude is so important.  I once read that the two most important words in the English language were "Thank you."

Saw this video and loved it.  I love the quote, "We are stewards not owners" of the earth.  

Enjoy the beauty of the earth.

Had our first swim team meet this week for Mr J and Miss E

This is his first season, and it was his first meet ever, and we still need to work on learning how to dive in :)

Miss E did awesome in her races.  Such an improvement over last year.  She got 2nd or 3rd in all 7 races she swam.

Mr J doing great on his breast stroke.  He was soooo nervous before the meet, but then once it got started and he realized he wasn't going to be minutes behind everyone and dead last he had a lot of fun :)

Miss E and her cute swim team friend.

Our swimmer Mr J

They worked really hard and did great!

But man, it was a long night and they were sure tired at the end after over 3 hours and 7 races each!  We were happy to take advantage of Sonic's half-price shakes after 8 p.m. deal :)

Have a great weekend!

What's up Wednesday--grape salad

Had a get-together with some girlfriends last week and was assigned to bring a "summer side."  Well, this grape salad just fit the bill for me.  It is a perfect summer salad, and everyone at the party loved it.  Thanks to my friend Angie who gave me the recipe.  I had thought I had it written down, but couldn't find it, so am putting it here so I never lose it :) and you can benefit too.

Grape Salad

about 2 lbs of grapes washed and dried--I used one big bag

After you wash the grapes and while they are drying, mix together

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese

1 cup sour cream (I used low fat)

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Add cream cheese mix to grapes.  You can make this way ahead of time and then right before serving--or about 20-30 minutes before sprinkle top with 1/4 cup brown sugar and chopped pecans.  Enjoy!

2014 Blue Jeans Week 25

Another fun week of summer.  Great to celebrate Father's day.  My kids are lucky to have the best Dad ever!  Had a lot of summer fun this week.  Take a look. . .

Sunday--Father's Day. These kids are super blessed with the Best Dad Ever!

Miss E and Mr J having fun on the trampoline.

Played the "thrift store game" with my sister and her husband while they were in town.  We had to find things in certain categories.  Miss A found the "ugliest" item :)

Had the youth from church out for volleyball and a bonfire to roast hot dogs and make s'mores.  It was a beautiful evening, and the kids had a lot of fun.

Mr J and I took advantage of Sonic's half price shakes today.  Yum!

Miss E and Miss O working hard in the garden.  The sticks with plastic Wal-mart bags on them keep the deer away.  They aren't the most attractive, but they work very well and are cheap :) otherwise the deer eat everything in the garden.

Fun in the pool--Miss E and her little friend.

Thanks for visiting.  Have a great week and come back often!

Friday thoughts

 My random Friday thoughts. . .

My weekly bathroom mirror inspirational quote.  So true, although I have no problem with ease, luxury, or constant thrills :) Okay, maybe I do.  They might get a little boring.  Maybe. . . :)  Maybe if I had the chance to try them out I could tell you for sure. . . ha, ha, ha.

Got my 4th of July theme going on the fireplace mantel in the family room.  Love it.  Got most of these off eighteen25  Love their subway art which can be found under their "Printables" button on the top menu on the site.

Have a great weekend!

What's up Wednesday--Hawaiian haystacks

Hawaiian haystacks is another of our favorites to have for dinner--especially in the summer.  You basically just cook rice, make a chicken gravy, and then top it with lots of good stuff.  I make this two different ways depending upon how much time I have.  There is the super easy way, which is good, or the little longer way which is way better :)

So to make these you just cook some rice, our family loves this

Good Rice I posted a few months ago.

While the rice is cooking you make the chicken sauce.  The super easy way is just to mix one can cream of chicken soup with one can of canned chicken.  Don't drain the chicken because that broth in the can needs to mix with the cream of chicken soup to help it be less thick.  That is it.  Mix those two cans, break up your chicken chunks and heat.  

Now if you want the really good chicken sauce then you need to make

Mel's Kitchen cafe chicken sauce

And this sauce really doesn't take that long to make either.

So either way you now have your rice and sauce.  Then you top these with any number of things, but our favorites are

-chunk pineapple

-cheese

-frozen peas, thawed

-sliced olives

-chopped tomatoes

-chow mein noodles

-chopped green onions

Other suggestions would be shredded coconut, mandarin oranges, and the list can go on.  It is a fun dinner that the kids can help a lot with because of all the extra things that need to be chopped and such to go on top.

Enjoy!