Sometimes knowing that other women, mothers, sisters, friends, and care takers just like us face the same battles of what to make for dinner. Be it our task/chore/burden/or hobby of what to make for our families to eat each day sometimes it just seem easier to bear when you have a good recipe recommended from a "GIRLFRIEND"; they provide us with the boost to get over the lack of motivation or stumbling blocks in our way and get dinner on the table!


The number of those who report that their “whole family usually eats dinner together” has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning because the time a family spends together “eating meals at home [is] the strongest predictor of children’s academic achievement and psychological adjustment.”

Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark against children’s smoking, drinking, or using drugs. There is inspired wisdom in this advice to parents: what your children really want for dinner is you.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks Good, Better, Best (Nov. 2007)

Two researchers at the University of Minnesota investigated the potential benefits of family mealtimes on children and found that families that dine together tend to have healthier, more well-adjusted children. Their studies indicate that the more often children and teens west with their parents—and the happier, more structured these mealtimes are—the more the children gain these benefits:


Better Nutrition

Better language and literacy

Fewer Eating Disorders

Fewer risky behaviors


The national center on addiction and substance abuse at Columbia University (sept 2005) found that compared with teens who dine frequently with their families (Five to seven dinners a week), teens who have fewer than three family dinners per week are:

Two and a half times likelier to smoke cigarettes

More than on e and a half times likelier to drink alcohol.

Almost three times likelier to try marijuana


“….Mealtime becomes a way for families to bond. To show children they have access to a caring adult.” (The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner p. 11)


So as Women, Sisters, Daughters, Wives, Mothers, Grandmothers we can not put a price on the work that we do. Dinner hours and menus can be daunting at times and others it feels like a breeze. As we gather together and share in our love for caring for our families and enjoying the connections we have with them as we sit around the dinner tables of our homes. I hope that each of us can step back occasionally on those hard mommy days and “Believe in what we are doing! Believing in who we are and that we can make a difference one meal at a time.

~ Jill


Thursday, October 22, 2015

Homemade Vanilla Cream Pie

If there is one dessert for me and my family of origin that says "Thanksgiving" and "Family Favorite" It would be mom's homemade BANANA CREAM PIE!! Mom would always feed a crowd. We'd have one of almost every flavor of pie and we had to have 6-9 Banana Cream Pies. The other pies were always leftovers! You were lucky if you got a piece of Banana Cream Pie with all the family and extended family that was at our home on Thanksgiving Day. So holding with tradition I have continued to make this wonderful pie for my little family and guest where ever we have Thanksgiving. It is still the Belle of the Ball so to speak! If you love creamed pies this one is in my opinion just "HEAVENLY!!!"

Vanilla Cream Pie- Jill Carpenter
(Enough for one unfilled baked-crust pie crust)

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
(I like to put these in the saucepan and blend them together before adding the milk)
3 cups milk (I always use 1% whatever you normally drink works here)
3 egg YOKES, slightly beaten
2 Tablespoons margarine or butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

Prepare and bake pastry for unfilled one-crust pie using 9-inch pie pan. In medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir in milk. Blending until smooth. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Boil for 2 minutes; remove from heat. Blend a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks. (This part can be tricky if you pour it in to hot it cooks the yokes and you get little lumps of scrambled egg type pieces in your pie. I have found the best method after much trial and error is to put my yokes in a bowl that I can add the hot pudding to one Tablespoon at a time. I cool each Tablespoon just slightly before whisking them in the beaten eggs. I continue you this for about 4-5 Tablespoonful then I had one straight from the pan and when I feel like the yokes are warmed up to my satisfaction I pour them slowly into the main batch). Return the hot egg mixture to the mail pot, blending well. Cook until mixture comes to a boil. Boil 1 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in margarine /butter and vanilla. Cool pudding. (We always pour ours out into a new bowl (Because we need the pan to keep cooking several more batches! ;-)) and cover with waxed paper so it doesn't develop a skin. Pour into cooled , baked crust! (Never put a hot filling in a cold crust. Hot in Hot and cold in cold--to keep your crust beautiful and not soggy.) Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set. If desired, serve with whipped cream. (We also cover it with wax paper after putting in pie crust to keep the skin from developing. Maybe mom did this to keep little taste testing fingers out! until time to serve.) 

VARIATIONS

BANANA CREAM PIE: Cool filling in saucepan to lukewarm. Pour into Pie Crust. When ready to serve, slice banana on top of pie and top with whipped cream. (Bananas can be added in on top of the crust before pouring the filling in, but we have found that they don't keep as well-turning brown and mushy. Our preference is to add them to individual slices when ready to serve.)

Butterscotch Cream Pie: Substitute firmly packed brown sugar for sugar.

Chocolate Cream Pie: Increase sugar to 1 cup and add 1 oz (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate to filling mixture before cooking.

Coconut Cream Pie: Stir 1 cup coconut into cooked filling with margarine and vanilla.




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