Old Fashioned Chocolate Cream Pie

This recipe is my grandmother's, and she made this pie (at everyone's request) for most major family functions. It is a lot of work because it is made the old fashioned way (no instant pudding mix filling here!)...and you know what? Each bite has a deep, rich, old-fashioned, chocolaty taste that is worth every minute of work spent on it. Now my husband's side requests it, and I make it for major family functions....like our Thanksgiving dinner we just had this past weekend. I put only real whipped cream on top--a thick layer of course--without anything added to it--the cream definitely completes the pie without adding any more unnecessary sweetness. You'll need to save out time to do this--really great things take longer than a minute to make, you know--but you and your family will be pleased with the results...I promise!

Mamie's Chocolate Cream Pie

3 cups whole milk (needs the fat in the whole)
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp flour
5 tbsp cocoa (I prefer Hershey's taste)
2 egg yolks (no white parts at all!)
2 tsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 baked pastry shell (a larger shell is best)

Scald 1-1/2 cups of milk over boiling water. Mix sugar, salt, flour, cocoa, and remaining milk in bowl (mix very slowly to avoid any lumps). Stir into hot milk and cook slowly until thickened stirring constantly (this takes the most time). Once thickened, cover and cook over boiling water for 5 minutes. Add egg yolks and cook 1 minute longer. Add butter and vanilla. Cool. Pour into cooked pastry shell and top with whipped cream once cold.

Strawberry Muffins

Remember all of those strawberries we picked this past summer? I froze many of them. We have several bags of cleaned and processed strawberries ready for winter. Well, I found a great recipe at allrecipes.com for strawberry muffins. With a few modifications, they turned out great. Why wait until winter to try them? To me the test of a good muffin is if it is good, it does not need anything like butter or jam on them (this excludes lemon curd, of course--lemon curd tastes good on everything or just on your finger!). These did not need anything. Yum!
So, here is the recipe...
1\4 cup oil......... 1\2 cup milk
1 egg......... 1\2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder......... 1\2 cup white sugar
1-3\4 cups flour......... 1\2 tsp vanilla
1\4 tsp cinnamon......... 1\2 cup nuts
1 cup chopped strawberries
Oven to 375 degrees. Put paper liners in muffin tin for 8 muffins. In small bowl combine oil, mil, egg and vanilla. Beat lightly. In large bowl mix salt, baking powder, sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Toss in chopped strawberries (mostly thawed if frozen) and stir to coat with flour. Pour in milk mixture and nuts and stir all together. Cook for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Double the recipe for breakfast with a hot cup of tea in the morning1