it maybe not be a good pic, but I took 3 and this was the best... now accepting cameraperson applications, will pay in food...

So this began with the need to use up buttermilk (I spotted some on sale for $2.50/gal, and did well to control myself in only buying one gallon… truth to be told though I had no major plans to use it… LOL Enter the phone call home, as my dad is an endless source of brainstorming ideas (and he loves helping me toy with and tease out ideas regarding food so I often use him as a sounding board even when I have a plan) and after thinking on it I only had plans for a couple of cups worth… My papa did give me great ideas but I ended up freezing 3.5 qts of the milk for future use (and this begins their use) so I’ll start with one of his ideas…

Well, my daddy says that Buttermilk Pie was one of the desserts my Grandmother Tiney (my namesake) used to make Granddaddy Red and I’m always a sucker for a sentimental dessert… but throw in there that granddaddy was one of my favorite people ever in life, and this becomes pretty close to one of my top 5 perfect desserts before I even get the recipe from him (plus you know I’m a custard freak, so again bonus points!!). So now recipe in hand I shall prepare this pie, but being who I am I can never leave well enough alone… so I’m adding a turtle-ish, pecan caramel and chocolate topping… Now, for the recipe courtesy of the Pops (bearing a slight renaming by me in honor of the sentimental value)…

I had to put the foil around the edges...as it was browning up too much...

Buttermilk Love Pie (as per my Pops)
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 pinch salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 deep dish pie shell (either your own recipe or storebought)

Directions
1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Beat the butter and sugar together until light.
3 Add the eggs and beat.
4 Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the batter alternatively with the buttermilk; beat until smooth.
5 Pour into a deep dish pie shell and bake at 400F for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350F and bake for 50-60 additional minutes.
6 Pie should turn a nice golden brown and a knife inserted should come out clean.

And with my tweeking and toothsome topping (which I had to make mind you, since it cracked while I was scrambling to find a second oven mitt… nevermind that I planned the topping before that happened, that is insignificant as it became necessity)… it becomes:

this may be too dark for you to make out... I hope not...

Heffalicious Buttermilk Love Pie
1 buttermilk pie (see above for ingredients, but whipped together in blender… to check for doneness give it the jello jiggle to make sure it quivers but doesn’t slosh… oh and if you are particular, blind bake your crust first…)
Turtle-style topping:
1 sm batch chocolate ganche thinned with 1 T buttermilk (cheat = melt yourself some milk chocolate chips or part of a hershey bar for drizzling…)
1 batch of caramel sauce (cheat = boil a can of sweetened condensed milk, until thick and darkened…)
1 c broken/chopped praline pecans (cheat = umm, buy them already sugared or just use plain…)

After making all of the above, sprinkle the nuts on the pie… cover with the caramel, and use a spatula to adjust the nuts if needed… drizzle the top with the chocolate… and allow the whole pie to cool (this will of course be the really hard part of the whole process)…

Now truth be told this version would be a ’self-love’ pie I suppose as I have the sweet tooth in this house not my spouse… In fact, the desserts go down like this in our house… Round 1: the family all tries the cake/pie/etc and uses about half (if it is something for only me and the hubs I may end up with 3/4 of the thing)… Rounds 2-needed: I eat the remaining half (sometimes even having some for breakfast) or if we possess too many desserts at once I will send hubby to work with some… But not as often as you might think as I have a mean sweet tooth and tend to demolish some things either the same day or the next day… And while I could wax nostalgic about how I came to be the size I am now–pretty much the same amt as before the baby (but key point, this would be before the amt he was born not before I was pregnant… aka, at the height of pregnancy…)–let’s go ahead and wrap this up so I can get it posted and sent. Yes, sent… Because in further honor of my heffa ways and my love of pie, due to this wicked topping that takes nice simple lowfat buttermilk and eggs to this level (but if you make it with both lowfat buttermilk and egg whites/egg substitute only wouldn’t that make it heffa-light? *bats lashes*) I am also submitting this to Eat to the Beat with the song, “Girls Love Pie” by Nasty (a parody of Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure):

I would say I’m hungry
If I thought it meant that I could dine.
But I know that this time
I ate too much,
With no exercise.

I tried the Atkins diet,
“Cause carbohydrates make you die!
I tried to look like Jared,
Hiding my pizza supplies
But girls love pie!
Girls love pie.

I would give up bread and meat,
And beg for thinness;
Dreams come true!
But those trans fats
We should hate
Are that which always make me drool!

I try not to think about it,
As I order my plate full of fries.
I’m trying to work at it,
Hiding the fat in my thighs!
“Cause, girls love pie!
Girls love pie.

I would stay true,
And eat junk food,
If my weight could stay the same.
But my diet, I still abuse.
My weight’s not steady.
It’s gone astray.

Misread my measurements,
Sucked in my tummy too far,
Took food for granted,
Until I couldn’t eat anymore!

Well, now, I would do most anything
To get back to my normal pants size.
But I just keep on eating,
Like Krispy Kreme is my high!
“Cause girls love pie.
Girls love pie!
Girls love pie.

PS. I’m working on sweet talking a friend to record a quick mp3 of this, so I can give you an audio–as she’s got a nicer voice than I–but she’s not yet bitten so that shall come later (and unfortunately I may not even be successful, stubborn woman… cross your fingers for me…)… But this pie can be enjoyed now… and should be, I mean come on everyone deserves a little love, right?

Yep, it’s Eat to the Beat time and I did “I Want You” by Savage Garden at the beheadst of my little brother… I hestiated a bit a first, but decided I felt I could do fun things with this song and food… (The reason for my pause is this song and I have a soap opera story past, riddled with unforseen drama… and was once the source behind me being nicknamed Chicka Cherry Cola among other things…)

So on to the eats… I bet you could have guessed that I used chicken, cherries and coke, huh? I started with leg quarters because I saw them and thought of Amber and how I was telling her they were perfect for something sticky sweet and/or with something carb-y (so I also put this over mixed whole grains) and thus my first attempt at an Eat to the Beat was born…

Chicka Cherry Cola
4 chicken leg quarters (cut in thighs and drumsticks, and haphazardly skinned and trimmed of excessive fat)
flour for dusting chicken (maybe 1/2-3/4 c, no idea though since I never made note of it)
1/2 yellow onion
1 lg carrot
2 c cherries (I’d use 4 c next time)
1 T herbes de provence (I might sub something else never time–a little muddled with this pairing IMO)
2 tsp ea: garlic and onion pwd
1 tsp ea: thyme, salt, blk pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 c cachaca (or rum if you are normal)
2 cans coke
2 c hot water
1 T vanilla ext (next time I’ll plan on a bean I think)
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c creme de cassis/rasp reserve (leftover from PMG, but a cherry liqueur would work and might be better)
1/2 c chopped fresh parsley
1/4 c chopped fresh chives

Season the meat as you wish with s/p and garlic (not included in the amts listed above for the sauce) or however you season basic chicken before flouring… dry in flour and quickly pan fry in 2T of your preferred fat (I merely redendered some the chunks I cut off the chicken to have enough for the meat and veg, but oil works too) until browned on all sides… set chicken to the side and add the diced carrots and onions, with the alcohol (or a splash of vinegar in some water) to deglaze the pan and simmer until veg is soft and liquid is absorbed… add hot water and pour into blender to puree and add back to pan with seasonings and coke and bring to a simmer and pour over chicken and cherries in an oven safe dish andcover with foil… Baked 1 hr @ 375 and then drained off the reduced liquid to taste and adjust… decided to strain out the dried herbs (they’d done their job and I didn’t need that much mouth feel), and added vanilla, sugar and creme de cassis (I really wanted more cherry flavor but had used them all and had this tucked in the fridge and figured the berriness was a similar vibe to what I wanted), parsley, and chives before reluctantly–becuase I really wanted to add more cherry oomph but couldn’t–returning to the chicken for another 30 hr or so of cooking until the meat was to temp….

final oven stages... sorry, I neglectfully forgot to get a dished out pic over it's bed of grains...

All in all, it worked out alright as a stand alone dish with another name but I think I could make this rock the name better with more tweaking… so it didn’t submit because it fell short in a confusing way, and I really couldn’t decide what it needed (except obviously the cherry hit)… Hubs and the kids really liked it, and I think part of my disappointment rested in the Cherry Cola-ness not being more oomphy…ever so technical I know. LOL) But my best guesses where I’d start: I think I would pull the extra thyme and replace it with rosemary and perhaps pull all the herbs and use just rosemary as a stand out kick instead… yeah I really think that could help, and I’d like to double the cherries and puree half of them to lift the sauce… I guess in the end it is a brand new dish I invented on the fly and I just want to tinker some more (however we’ve been to 3 stores since then–I was gonna doctor up the leftovers some more to see if I could get it where I wanted it–and can’t find any cherries… *sighs* so I may just have to wait until next year, as I really don’t think I’d want to bake frozen cherries that long… but maybe I’ll try it, who knows…)

PS. Oh and despite my vows to try the bobbypin tip the next time I pitted cherries I of course did not, as I hadn’t bought any (there’s always next year, right?)…
PPS. I made this at the beginning of the month but still may find time to do another before the deadline, which hopefully I’ll deem submittable…