Today is National Pie Day…one of my favorite days of the year! I decided in honor of the pies, I would make my favorite….my Great Grandmother’s (Maw Maw) Fantastic Chocolate Pie! I realize the pie’s not perfect, but whoever heard of a perfect ‘pretty’ homemade pie?
One bite of this and I’m sitting in a tiny little blue kitchen in San Angelo, TX with my Maw Maw and Grandmother! We would make the long drive to Maw Maw’s house early in the morning and make it there by lunchtime…in which she would have cooked up a storm waiting on our arrival. Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, chocolate milk and either this chocolate pie or her famous chocolate cake, of which I sadly do not have the recipe!
Some of my favorite memories ever are from that tiny little Texas house. A few that come to mind are…
1. When my older brother was lying on the floor watching the tiny little tv one afternoon (in his short shorts mind you, this was the 80’s), and my Grandmother seeing a fly land on the back of his unsuspecting leg! You know what’s coming next right? She quickly grabbed the flyswatter and raised it up to the heavens, and with the force of a heavenly hand she brought that flyswatter down and smacked the back of my brother’s leg…HaHaHaHaHa!!!! It’s still ridiculously funny thinking about how fast he jumped off of the floor and the yelping he was managing as he flailed around! I don’t even remember if she got the fly or not…we were all heehawing too much to remember!
2. The fishy smell that would pour from the sink anytime you turned on the water. I’ll never forget pulling the string in the middle of the bathroom to turn on the overhead light, and using her (Plain) Crest toothpaste to brush my teeth…..with the fishy water!
3. The time my Maw Maw and Grandmother tricked me into eating a fig! I had no idea what a ‘real’ fig was, but I had eaten Fig Newtons before and well, you know me and sweets! They asked me if I liked Figs, so I said Yes I did…thinking it would be just like a Fig Newton…Believe me when I say they ARE NOT one in the same! I remember sitting in that kitchen and trying not to be sick and watching the two of them giggle over my new found knowledge!
4. Standing outside under the pecan trees and trying not to get knocked out by falling pecans when Grandma would be trying to rake them out of the trees! Seriously, the woman was strong as an ox and pecans being violently flung from trees can be dangerous! Although it was pretty fun trying to dodge the brown hail and seeing who could fill up their buckets first!
Awww…Good times! And all brought streaming back from one bite of Fantastic Chocolate Pie!
Hopefully one day a taste of this pie will bring back just as good memories for her!
this little birdie 
Funny how we remember silly things about our grandma’s house. Mine always had Aqua Fresh with the multiple colors. We were a plain Crest family, so her different colored toothpaste was fascinating. She also always had a can of Scrubbing Bubbles in the bathroom that I liked to spray all over the place. Good times! That pie looks great!!
omygoodness. that last picture = utter and complete cuteness. i can’t even handle it.
and that pie looks deeeelish! it’s funny how food transports us isn’t it… the flavour of condensed milk reminds me of my grandma, because she always used to stir it into my morning oatmeal. mmmm…
Oh man…don’t even get me started on condensed milk! There are some memories of someone and her Mom eating the stuff with a spoon! 🙂