Pie is Awesome

Note: this post was written for the blog [Shabby] Apple a Day. If you haven't looked at the unbelievably cute dresses and such over at Shabby Apple, do yourself a favor and head over there. I lust over the Sheep Meadow dress daily... just SO adorable. Check out the contest rules over at the blog. I would so love to win one of those prints, and I would probably frame the notecards too.

Working in retail, you rarely get time off around Thanksgiving. "Black Friday," or the day after Thanksgiving, is both a dreaded and revered idea. On the one hand, it allows companies to get back "in the black" if they happen to be in the red. However, to me, "Black Friday" always sounded doom-filled. And, if you've ever worked a Black Friday, you'll know that it truly is filled with doom and gloom, angry customers and long lines.

I'm from Wisconsin, and my parents still live in the same house I was born in. Well, okay, I was born in a hospital, technically, but you get the idea. Every year, I would come home for Thanksgiving, and every year, I'd smell the turkey and the stuffing all day, teasing me. And, of course, the pies. Pumpkin pie, always, a rich shade of rusty orange and glistening on top. I don't even like pumpkin pie that much, but on Thanksgiving, I'd gladly have a slice.

One year, I couldn't go home. I had to work Black Friday, and there was no way I could fly back and forth that fast; besides, air travel during Thanksgiving is close to unbearable. I only bear it for the pie. The pie I only really like in theory. Anyway.

At first, I moped, and moped consistently. Everyone I knew was leaving to be with family, even my boyfriend. I pouted as I drove my roommates to the airport and came home to a cold and empty apartment. Nobody I knew was really "from" Los Angeles, so almost everyone was flying elsewhere to be with family. I don't think I've ever been as happy as when two of my best friends mentioned they would be in California for Thanksgiving, as would one of their fathers, and would I like to join them? I was ecstatic. They quickly assigned me pie and macaroni and cheese. I make extremely good macaroni and cheese.

For pie, I determined I'd be making pumpkin. However, when I mentioned it to one of my friends, Jon, he made a face.

"I don't really like pumpkin pie."

"Yeah, but it's Thanksgiving."

"I guess I just don't really like pie."

Don't like pie??? I decided I had to remedy that, and, along with the pumpkin pie recipe off the Libby's can, make something special for Jon. He likes chocolate, so a quick search brought up a seemingly simple recipe for frozen chocolate mousse pie, by Paula Deen. It's Paula Deen, and it has lots of heavy cream, so it has GOT to be good, right? I made the pumpkin pie and then began the chocolate pie. I had to make some changes along the way because, well, it calls for chocolate liquor, and I couldn't afford to buy a whole bottle when I just needed a tablespoon. I will say, I am a good cook, but baking is much harder than cooking!

Here's my slightly modified recipe:

-2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

-1 quart plus 3 tablespoons heavy cream

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-3 cups powdered sugar

-premade pie crust

I know, I know, I wimped out with the premade pie crust. But like I said, I'm no baker!

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Prick holes in pie shell and bake for 11 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

In medium saucepan over medium-high heat, melt chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons heavy cream. You can add an extra splash of heavy cream if it seems too thick. Cook until smooth. Add vanilla extract. Mix and let cool.

In a chilled metal mixing bowl (or a regular one, if you don't have a metal one), combine the quart of heavy cream and the sugar. Whip like a banshee. Using a hand (or stand, though I didn't have one at the time) mixer is highly recommended. It should become whipped cream-esque.

Now fold in the chocolate mixture slowly. Sloooowly.

Pour the mousse into the prepared pie shell and sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top. Wrap in foil and freeze for a few hours or overnight.

Easy enough recipe, right? Well, yes, but mine didn't turn out as I'd pictured. Instead of an even, chocolatey brown mousse, my mixture was more like white whipped cream with striations of chocolate that seemed to freeze free-form, so that it was more like a modified stracciatella gelato than a chocolate mousse. I think I folded the chocolate into the whipped cream wrong, but all the elements were still there. Regardless, the final product was chocolaty and delicious, if not traditional. I proudly brought it, still shrouded in foil, to my friend's house for Thanksgiving.

Jon couldn't believe I'd followed through on making him his own special pie. And hey, I actually got him to like pie!

It wasn't the same as being back in Wisconsin, of course - we never have macaroni and cheese at Thanksgiving, and chocolate pie would be blasphemous. But there were still those familiar elements... watching football, basting the turkey, debating about stuffing (inside the bird or outside the bird?).

While I missed my family, it really was a great Thanksgiving, and it felt good to celebrate together with my friends. However, out here in California, miles away from our parents and siblings, we are our own family. And at our family dinners, there's pie.