So I have a lot of teenage readers and I got a question through email that I originally was just going to write back to them directly and be done with it but I thought I would address it on the blog. It’s a super long email so I will just paraphrase the jest of it. Basically this girl’s parents don’t like talking about sex at all with her other than to just say don’t do it. She says that she really likes a boy and was trying to talk to her mom about it and got shot down.

I just want to say to parents that if you teen is trusting you enough to come talk to you about sex be thankful. Regardless of your feelings on it, at least hear them out as open lines of communication are especially important during the teen years. When I taught 8th grade I can’t tell you how many kids would come to me with their real life problems because they didn’t feel they could talk to their parents about it. And parents please do not use the excuse of your kid is a good kid and therefore would never do those things. I will tell you that in my years of teaching junior high that it was not the “bad” girls who got pregnant it was usually my sweet unsuspecting honor student (usually a band geek…American Pie movies weren’t that far off )who fell madly in love with their boyfriend that ended up with a baby on board.

When I was 15 I was head over heels in puppy love with my first real long term boyfriend. He never pressured me in any way but you know, things get heated and you have hormones and such. I went to my mother and we had a talk.

I will give the advice that my mother gave me when we talked about sex and not the this is a penis this is a vagina kind of talk. A real, honest talk. She told me that while she expected me to be wearing a white wedding dress she had hoped that I was wearing black underwear. I was a little shocked but she went on to explain that she said that not everyone you fall in love with is who you marry. You will have many different types of love throughout your dating life. She told me that she knew that I would have sex before marriage (shhh, don’t tell my dad) but that she would hope/would be disappointed if I did it just because everyone else was or I did it because the boy wanted me to and I was unsure but didn’t want to lose him as a boyfriend. She told me I should be in love and to think about if I saw myself with that person in the long run.

After much decision making I figured out that this probably wasn’t the long haul boyfriend. He was going to college at the end of the year (he was a senior and I was a sophomore) and that longevity wise it wasn’t going to be working. And it didn’t. I was happy that I did not have sex with him. I didn’t feel ready and talking with my mother helped. Now if you are like my reader and can’t do that, I suggest talking to a school counselor or an older trusted friend. For those wondering, since I’m pretty honest on here…I lost my V-card when I was 18…ironically to the guy I was thinking about losing it to when I was 15. He came back and found me my freshman year of college (yes, I am special ). That time was the right time.

While we all want to tell teenagers no, don’t have sex, we really must live in reality. If you don’t live in reality than your teen could be getting information from friends…and you don’t want that. We used to teach a sex ed class after school (parent permission) and I was shocked at how VERY wrong the kids had it. My favorite to this day is one of my honor roll boys who thought that women’s breast were like lizards…if one got chopped off, a new one would just grow back…and of course the always disturbing statistic that 99% of the girls in our class all thought you can’t get pregnant on your first time having sex.

Try and save the hate mail. I’m not saying teens run out and have sex…I’m just trying to get parents to have real conversations with their kids and never to assume their kids aren’t/won’t have sex. Give them chocolate instead and tell them often…it’s just as good.

This pie kind of ranks up there if you are a chocolate and peanut butter pie lover. Save yourself some time and just buy the premade graham cracker shell. I of course used the mini shells so that each kiddo could get an individual pie (you just feel more awesome when you get your own pie). I love the use of the chocolate milk (be sure not to get the low fat kind) and just how simple in general this pie is to make.
Hope everyone had a great Pi Day…if you didn’t make a pie…it’s not too late, this one takes no time at all.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

1 ½ cups chocolate milk
1 ½ TBSP cornstarch
Pinch of salt
½ cup creamy peanut butter (I used Jif)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup mini marshmallows
1 package mini Ready Crust (6 come in a package)

Place marshmallows, peanut butter, and chocolate chips in a large bowl. Set aside.

Using a small saucepan whisk together the chocolate milk and cornstarch. Stir in salt. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens and boils. Cook and stir for 1 minutes more. Remove from heat.

Pour hot mixture immediately over the marshmallows, peanut butter, and chocolate chips. Let it sit for 3 minutes. Then whisk to make sure that everything has melted. The marshmallows will take a while…if they don’t melt completely that’s okay. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in fridge for 30 minutes.

Remove from fridge and spoon into pie shell. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (I did mine overnight).

Top with chocolate whipped cream (1 cup heavy cream, 3 TBSP powdered sugar, 1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder…whipped on high until desired consistency) and mini peanut butter cups.

You can make a full size version of the pie. Just double the ingredients.

Adapted from Kellogg’s Kitchens.

Hope everyone has a great Pi Day!

Recipe to come later…

When one gets up at 5:30am to clean and one is not a morning person, one does things like run a load of laundry…without the laundry. And before you get all impressed at what motivation I have to get up and clean, guess again. Procrastination led to panic of realizing I had until 11am to pull it together. Forget a cookbook, I need to write about book about procrastination…you know, when I get around to it.

Also when you wake up that early without really getting much sleep the night before and you stop moving, you will wake up to your dog licking you while you have fallen asleep folding laundry on the ground. Such a good alarm clock dog though.

Strange Addictions the show is beyond crazy. I watched per my friend’s insistence the episode where the guy is in love with his car. Not in an oh gee I love my car it is pretty kind of way. But in a tell people you are in a monogamous relationship with said car and have sexual relations with the car. Yes, that’s right, he bones his car and they show him making out with said car. They don’t tell you what kind of car it is as they blur out the logo (I like to think they thought it was the car’s penis…it’s a male car). My friend made fun of the fact that it was a used car and didn’t the guy worry about getting STD’s. I want to have a fundraiser and buy the guy a blow up doll…or at least a lap dance from a live person or something. Anyone else she that episode?

And when you wake up early you also decide to make a Chocolate Stout Brownie Pie. But then that poses the question of what to do with an open half-filled bottle of beer. While they say Guinness is a meal, I’m not totally sure they meant breakfast. I played it safe and cooked down onions with it for later but it was tempting.

In the interest of cost, I used a box of brownie mix (it’s really hard to compete with $.67). And premade crust. Yes, I know. But really I had stuff to do today and didn’t want to sit and figure out a recipe. I served it with a rather large serving of Bailey’s Irish Cream Whipped Cream.

Chocolate Stout Brownie Pie

1 box brownie mix
1 refrigerated pie crust
2/3 cup stout (Guinness is what was used)
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½ cup milk chocolate chips
Heavy Cream
4 TBSP powdered sugar
3 TBSP Bailey’s Irish Cream

Preheat oven to 325F.

Roll out pie crust so that it fits your pie pan. Set aside.

Using a large bowl stir the brownie mix, stout, egg, and oil until fully incorporated, about 40 turns.

Pour into prepared pie pan and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes depending on your oven.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Meanwhile using a stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat cream on high, adding the Bailey’s and sugar once soft peaks start to form. Whisk until you reach desired consistency.

Top pie with whipped cream and enjoy.

Saying Karma is a very trendy thing to do. I probably hear it almost every day coming out of someone’s mouth. I find it most amusing that most of my friends who say it often are Christians. And well the concept of karma is a religious one coming to us from the Buddhist and the Hindus. And last I checked Christians only get to follow one God’s teaching? I’m not here to get into religion; I’ll leave that for Rick Perry. But I will say that I don’t really believe in Karma.

I don’t really believe in the concept for the fact that #1 I am not a Buddhist or a Hindu and #2 far too many people I know that are good people have many a bad thing happen to them, and yet the people who I think in my life who could really get a good swift kick in the pants seem to continue to skate through life with things just kind of falling into place for them. Or just finding new people to take advantage of.

Instead of doing things to gain good Karma for the day, why not just do something because it’s the right thing to do?

In case you haven’t guessed I’m dealing with someone who if I believed in Karma could use a good dose of it right back at them. And because I am stuck dealing with them a little comfort food is often necessary. I had a few apples left over from my Harry and David Fruit of the Month club and decided to make an apple cobbler. I make a very unusual blackberry cobbler from years ago but had never tried to make any other fruit cobbler out of it. So I thought I would give it a go. It’s messy no doubt when putting it together but seriously yummy! I ate it as my dinner last night and breakfast today!

Maple Apple Cobbler

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) cut into bits and chilled
1 cup water
1 cup plus 2 TBSP sugar, divided
1/3 cup plus 2 TBSP maple syrup, divided
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 ¾ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large Honey Crisp apples (mine are from Harry and David), peeled, cored, sliced, and slices cut in half

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a 10-inch glass pie plate or baking dish melt 1/2 stick uncut butter in oven.

In a small saucepan combine water, 1 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup maple syrup and heat over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is completely dissolved.

In a food processor pulse together flour and remaining 1/2 stick cut-up butter until mixture resembles fine meal. Add milk and pulse just until a dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and with a floured rolling pin roll into an 11- by 9-inch rectangle.

Sprinkle dough with cinnamon and scatter apples evenly over top. Beginning with a long side roll up dough jelly-roll fashion and cut into 1 1/2-inch thick slices. (Slices will come apart and be messy).

Arrange slices, cut sides up, on melted butter in pie plate or baking dish. Pour the remaining maple syrup over the dough. Pour sugar syrup over slices, soaking dough. *This will seem weird and the dough may rise up and float, just go with it, it works out in the end. Bake in middle of rack for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over cobbler and bake 15 minutes more, or until golden.

Best served warm…I served mine with maple whipped cream as we were out of ice cream.
Serves 6.
Adapted from Gourmet June 1996