Chocolatechic

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I can talk about chocolate till eyes begin to glaze over and someone stuffs a Hershey kiss in my mouth to shut. up. already.

I have had French chocolate, German chocolate, Belgian chocolate and Hershey chocolate. I love all chocolate, but somehow I keep coming back to Hershey. German chocolate is a very close second. Sorry Jacqués Torres.

About 2 months ago, I scored.

I scored big.

I found Scharffenberger chocolate, at Odd Lots of all places, for $3 a bar.

I have been wanting to try this chocolate for like, forever. Score!

After I slowly nibbled my way through the first bar, I decided to wait, savoring the knowledge that this was in my chocolate stash till I found something worthy of using it for.

Today’s TWD was just the thing.

Melissa chose chocolate pudding, and I couldn’t have been happier.

Chocolate!

I am ashamed to say that I have never made chocolate pudding except out of a box. Jacqués will never like me now.

Making this pudding was fun.

It was mostly made in a food processor of all things, and it only cooks for 2 minutes.

After about 30 seconds on the stove, the pudding had thickened so much that had I cooked it any longer, it could have been used to make bricks.

Because of it thickening so quickly,  it had the consistency of fudge.

Who cares. Chocolate is chocolate is chocolate.

The taste of this is beyond any other pudding I have ever tasted. Had to be the Scharffenburger.

I seriously doubt that I will go back to a box.

Last Monday was the first day of school for the girl.

Yep, we started school early this year.

We have a lot to accomplish this year, and I get a case of major burn out come March/April.

Because I know this sad fact about myself, I always begin school so that we will be finished around that time. This year, we had to start last Monday.

Last Monday was a day of firsts for us.

It was the first day that she did school as a 10th grader.

It was the first time I took a ‘first day of school’ picture, and there was only one child standing in front of me.

It was the first time that the boy wasn’t down there making us laugh.

It was the first time she was learning alone, and it made her sad. I knew how teaching her alone would affect me, but I had no clue how it would affect her.

I went downstairs for something and she had tears streaming down her face. She told me later it was because she missed her brother, and she put a picture of herself and her brother in a picture frame and put it on her school desk so “her buddy would be still with her”.

It is amazing how one person can affect so many.

Go out and affect people for good. Let them remember you with pleasant thoughts. Make such an impact on those around you that they are sad to see you go.

The boy is leaving Thursday morning for a missions trip to Panama.

To raise money for the trip, the youth are being sold as slaves today.

Since the chips already know how to be proper slaves, it won’t be any hardship on them.

I am offering a gift certificate for baked goods, one a month for a year.

How much do you think it will bring?

I will let you know later on this evening. I sure hope it is more that $10.

All this summer, life has conspired against me to keep me from going to watch the boy play church soft ball.

Last night, I looked at life, said “pfthththhthth”, and went anyway.

The boy plays catcher.

Cheerleader.

Coach.

And point maker.

After the first game, (which they won) the girl and I left.

I had much needed beauty sleep to catch up on.

They lost the second game.

I think it was because I wasn’t there to cheer them on.

July 11???

Good gravy, wasn’t it just January, like 3 weeks ago???   Time, it seems to fly.  quickly.  over my head.  away from me.  as I grasp empty air.

Anyway, it’s Friday, and I am nosy!

When was the last time you had your hair cut?

Mine was just a short 4 or 5 weeks ago, and the poor soul that cut it had no clue what she was doing.   The girl and I spent well over an hour the next day “fixing” to the best of our abilities what we could.

My poor head will be getting relieved of this shambled hair do either today or tomorrow.

C has become a regular at our house for awhile now, and after supper last week we found out that the poor kid had a deprived childhood.

He had never played Clue before, so we decided to educate the poor boy.

First rule of Clue, never ask ridiculous questions, like “can I see your cards for a second”.

Never let them see what you are writing. Someone might try and peek.

Last but surely not least, never leave 2 boys men in the room alone in the middle of the game.

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You might just come back to this.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Internet, meet my grandson.

I have never had blueberry pie. As a matter of fact, until about a year or so ago, when my son brought me home a real blueberry muffin from his place of employment, I had never had wanted to even eat a real blueberry.

The closest thing I had ever gotten to one, was in a Jiffy muffin mix.

I lay the blame for this horror squarely at the feet of Willy Wonka and Violet. As a 9 year old girl, watching someone blow up like a purple blueberry freaked. me. out. with a capital Freaked.

Today’s TWD is Double Crusted Blueberry Pie, and I have to say that it was fabulous. I’m just glad that I didn’t blow up into a purple blueberry and have little orange men in green shirts have to roll me to the juicing room.

This pie calls for lemon zest and a squirt of lemon. Lemon compliments blueberries like peanut butter does chocolate.

It also called for a bit of dried bread crumb in the bottom so that the crust wouldn’t get soggy, but I used graham cracker crumbs instead. It added just a bit to the flavor, and guess what…no soggy crust!

I took it to our family’s 4th of July picnic, and everyone said it was superb. One man said “with every bite I took, there was a burst of flavor” and he was right. It was just. that. good.

Thank you Amy for picking this lovely recipe.

Thanks to you, I can now watch Willy Wonka again.

I was going to blog about something totally different today, but a horror happened yesterday and I just have to share.

The girl was sitting outside watching the boy across the street mow the grass reading. She called inside and all I heard was “orange”.

I perked up, wondering what was going on, because if I am nothing else, I am nosy.

Superman said “the neighbors are painting their porch orange”. I couldn’t believe it because it is such a lovely house, and maybe Superman’s X-ray eyes were on the blink.

This is what I saw when I poked my head out the door.

Maybe they are just priming it for a totally different color. Maybe a lighter color. Perhaps, a lovely shade of blue.

Blue and beige siding would look lovely together, don’t you think?

They are painting it orange. Not just any orange though, hunter blaze orange.

My eyes…my eyes. They will never be the same again.

Were they drunk when they made that color choice? delusional? color blind? I would have helped them if they had only asked.

We don’t live in a gated community or even one that has rules about how high your grass should be cut or what kind of flowers you can have growing in your yard, but good googlie mooglie…have a thought, have a second thought, have a third if you like, or a smack upside the head about what an orange house will do to the neighborhood.

Have a care that even though you might like orange, you are sitting inside your house and don’t have to look at it like those that live right across the street will have. to. look. at. it. forever.

They have even ripped off the shutters from the bottom half of the house. Can you even begin to imagine what the house will look like with orange shutters.

At least we now have a great land mark. Turn right on X Avenue. We are right across the street from the beige and hunter orange house.   They might as well throw turquoise siding up and call it good.

My eyes, my eyes.

Send salve, quickly.

Remember this little guy?

Well, his new mommy and daddy were up visiting this past weekend, and we were able to see him for a little bit.

Wanna see what he looks like now?

He was sound asleep, so I rolled him around trying to get him to wake up.

Didn’t happen.

I tried everything short of dropping the poor guy on his head to get him to wake up.

I wanted to play with him.

Didn’t work.

So I just held him.

He is so soft.

I want another kitty.