Fragments

Steven has always picked up every penny he sees, it quickly became a routine practice for the both of us. You see, Steven already knew what I heard taught recently about  the significance of 'fragments'.  If you can find fragments of money, lower the cable bill, stop buying a cup of coffee before work, etc.... the fragments add up and can be helpful to either go towards paying off debt, increase savings, etc... One year, we used the change we found in parking lots and elsewhere to help pay for our vacation.  The past several months, we haven't been sticklers about putting everything we've found into our change bottles, but Thursday, we took what we had gathered into the bank to be counted. We came out with $44, not bad for just stopping to pick up change as you run across it.  Don't disregard the small things....

Coconut Cream Pie

Yummy memories of my Mom's coconut cream pie caused me to pull out my recipes to look for hers.  I couldn't find it so I called her and got the scoop-- an easy, delicious pie recipe you can use to make any cream pie....

Mom's Coconut Cream Pie

1        Pie shell-blind baked

Filling:

1/3C  Flour

2/3C  Sugar

1/4t    Salt

2C     Milk

3        Egg Yolks (set egg whites aside)

2T     Butter

1T     Vanilla (add coconut extract optional)

1/4C  Flaked coconut (optional)

Meringue: 

3        Egg whites

1/4C  Sugar

Flaked coconut (optional)

Using a heavy pan, cook the flour, sugar, salt, and milk until thick. Turn burner down to simmer and temper the egg yolks then add them to the pan.  Cook 2 minutes.  Turn off heat.  Add butter, vanilla and/or coconut extract. Pour into baked pie shell.

Beat egg whites in large bowl with electric mixer.  Once frothy, add sugar and beat until stiff peaks. Spread on top of pie filling and sprinkle flaked coconut on top. Place pie under the broiler to brown the meringue.  

To make Chocolate Cream:

Increase sugar to 1 Cup and substitute 1T Cocoa for vanilla extract.