Week 18: Teacher Appreciation, Plus!

Well here I am again at another Teacher Appreciation Week. When I began this experiment I thought I'd do pies every single week for a year. Over a year later I'm not even halfway. Lots of things happen to thwart my good intentions: work, lack of grocery money to buy pie supplies, general busy-ness, major surgery, etc.! I don't mind, I'll just keep plodding along.

This week was teacher appreciation week at my boys' schools. I made an apple pie for each of them, and delivered them on Friday.

My third delivery was to the county courthouse. We recently discovered that some restitution money that was supposed to go to us, was mis-delivered by the mail service and then deposited in the receiving party's bank account! A police investigation failed to result in an arrest or the return of our money. Out of desperation I called the county courthouse accounting department and asked for a lady I had worked with before, who had gotten me a copy of the check so that the matter could be investigated. She let me know that there was a form that I could fill out that would result in the county treasurer investigating the matter, and if they got the money back they would then send it to us. She couldn't get hold of the treasurer's office on Friday afternoon, so on Monday she checked with that office and called me to let me know what she found. I felt like Jeannie really went out of her way to help me find a solution, when noone else would. So I made her a pie, and delivered it today, and I hope that it really made her day, week, month, whatever! I felt like she deserved to know that her efforts were appreciated.

For the recipe for this pie, go to April 2010 in my pie blog.

Hopefully more to come next week! I do so enjoy the pie-baking process when I make the time to do it.

Week 4 (ish): Chocolate Pies for Visiting Teaching

I am typing this up a week late, and having problems with this current week's pies, so I'm feeling a little behind. I also skipped a week while I was recovering from surgery. But here goes.

For this week's pies I wanted something fairly simple and foolproof. And, unfortunately, I was at QFC when I remembered that I needed to get pie ingredients (that means it probably cost about twice as much as it needed to). I decided to make something we hadn't had in years--Dream Pie. Dream Pie uses a powdered cool whip substitute called Dream Whip, instant pudding mix, and milk to make a fluffy, light pie. I wasn't even sure they still made Dream Whip, but there it was on the shelf.



Not wanting to spend the money on pre-made graham cracker crusts, I bought pre-crushed graham cracker crumbs instead. I followed the recipe to turn these crumbs into crust, and it came out looking pretty greasy after I baked them. Undaunted, I patted them off like some people do pepperoni pizza, and continued with my whipping.



The result--beautiful fluffy chocolate pie.



I was scheduled to go visiting teaching today, so I decided that the ladies that I was visiting would be the recipients of today's pies. Visiting teaching is something that the LDS (Mormon) church does as an effort to make sure that each woman in the church has someone who will visit them, check in on them, help them with their needs, etc. Mostly we try to visit the women who we are assigned to, once a month, and talk with them, have a little spiritual thought, etc. It's always nice to have a treat to bring them, so I felt pretty proud of myself for coming up with something, even serendipitously.

I actually liked the "homemade" crust--it was a little chewier and way less dry than the pre-made crusts. And the filling was delicious. Mmmm! This was one pie my husband really liked, too!

DREAM PIE

2 env. Dream Whip whipped topping mix
2 3/4 c. cold milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 (4 oz.) pkgs. instant pudding mix
1 baked 9" pie shell, cooled or 1 graham cracker or chocolate crust

Beat Dream Whip mix with 1 cup of milk and vanilla in large bowl with mixer on high for about 6 minutes until thick and forms peaks. Add remaining milk and the pudding mix; blend on low. Beat on high for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Spoon into pie shell; chill at least 4 hours.