Gratitude & Some Pie!

Gratitude: a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation, as for gifts or favors

 

 

It's very easy, as a stay at home mom, to feel so unappreciated that I forget to show appreciation.  It's easy to side step the fact that as much as I want to receive it, I need to be giving it!

 

Obviously, I thank God constantly for allowing me to stay home, for providing for our needs, for my husband having a job, for the friends He has placed in our life, for my beautiful daughter, for the future He has for us, and for becoming a man and becoming my Savior!

 

What I tend to forget is to show gratitude toward my husband!  While I do express it verbally and I try to be consistent in encouraging my husband, I don't SHOW it very often.

 

A little background is that we all have different love languages and different dialects within our language.  I have 2 main languages and a minor language.  My 2 main love languages are Gifts and Words of Affirmation (hence my "telling" my husband how grateful I am) and my minor language is physical touch.

 

My husband on the other hand only has 1 love language and doesn't understand love any other way!  His is Acts of Service.  I do not speak love in that language AT ALL!!!  Expressing love to my husband in HIS love language is something that I have to conscientiously do.  That is why I try to keep my house spotless and home made food available.  I try not to complain when he refuses to put his clothes in the hamper, because in actuality it gives me yet another way to love him.

 

That being said, I was on Pinterest today looking for a pin that I wanted to reference.  Obviously, you can't go on Pinterest and not look at all the pretty new pins, so a browsing I went.  (Don't worry, I did get to reference the pin I went on there for.  I didn't digress too long!)  As I browsed I saw a chocolate pie with a coconut crust.  That's what I said, COCONUT!!!

 

This one little pin inspired me to use some of the not so healthy stuff still in my kitchen to make something special for my hubby.  You see, my husband is working from 7am-4:30pm at one job followed by 5pm-12am at his second job.  He is doing that for the next 3 days!

 

So now down to the reason you're reading all of my commentary, The Pie!

 

I looked at how to make this pie and it was VERY simple, but I of course had to make it my own, so this is the way I made it.

 

Coconut Turtle Pie

 

Ingredients:

4 Tbl unsalted butter (softened)

11 oz Sweetened coconut flakes

1/2 c Caramel ice cream topping (You can use as much as you want, I just didn't have much)

1/2 c Peanuts (salted or not)

1 c Heavy cream

8 oz Semisweet chocolate

 

To make the crust:

Preheat oven to 350.  Put the butter and 1/3 of the coconut into your food processor and run it until it becomes a ball (1-2 min).  Then place in a bowl and mix the rest of the coconut into the mixture with your fingers.  Put the coconut into a 9" pie plate and press into the center and up the sides, leaving the coconut at the top of the sides fluffy.  Place your pie plate on a baking sheet and cover the edge of the crust with a foil ring.  Bake until the center begins to brown (about 15 min).  Then remove the foil ring and bake until the edges are browned (about 4 min).  Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the chocolate filling.

 

To make the chocolate filling:

Heat the cream on the stove until it almost boils.  Then pour it into a heat proof bowl and stir in the chocolate.  Stir it until the chocolate is completely melted and incorporated.

 

To assemble the pie:

First, pour the caramel topping onto the crust followed by the peanuts.

 

Lastly, pour the chocolate filling on top of the peanuts.  The peanuts will float, but I pressed mine down so that they would at least have a chocolate coating.

 

All you have to do now is place you pie in the refrigerator for about an hour to cool and set.  It will keep its freshness for about 1 day.

 

If you're making this as a special treat for someone you love, you can leave a little note for them like the one I'm leaving my hubby on the garage door :-)

 

What kind of things do you do to express gratitude to the ones you love?