BTW. Don’t write me off as anti-Harbor Freight. I have, still do, and probably will always buy SOME things from them. It just won’t be any more tools that you expect precision and alignment from…

I remember the recipe for the fudge frosting. It is:

1 cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup cream (I sometimes use milk substitute and butter to equal 1/4 cup)
1 oz square unsweetened baking chocolate
dash of salt (don’t think this is in the original recipe – but, oh, well…)

Cook all of the above together over low heat – til it boils about 3 minutes – keep mixing it. It should coat the spoon like jelly does when you are making it. It will have a kind of sticky feel but, still drop slowly from the spoon.

Take it from the heat and add:

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Stir as it cools until it is ready to spread on top of the brownies (they need to be warm from the oven – do not cool them)

Oh, well – that is not the way Betty Crocker wrote it – but, it is how I cook it.

Now, if only one of you guys knows the brownie recipe.

Mom

First, the things you see on the news represent the bottom 0.1% of the people out there. I did not feel unsafe during the trip.

Second, you will ride with many people along the way. Too many people ride across the country each year. If you intend to ride with a partner, be sure that your riding distances are compatible. I would ride the same distance as others, but did so slower with more time in the seat.

If you can, do it. I would leaved to do it again tomorrow if I could.

This recipe has also been a big hit with my family around the holiday season. I’ve been baking these pies for years!

Many moons ago, when your parents were kind of young, we used to spend Saturday mornings going to yard sales. A lot of their clothes in those days were purchased at these sales.

One day we went to Charlestown Square for the annual sale there. There were booths galore all around the square. I hardly ever purchase baked goods at these type things, but, the name of the pie intrigued me and I purchased it.

The lady who was manning the booth couldn’t remember exactly what was in it but the more she tried to list the ingredients, the more intrigued I got. I kept asking what fruit it had in it – I was thinking about fruitcake(I’ve made it with the same fruits that I use in fruitcake – in addition to the coconut and it is good that way). She said that the lady who made them had put the recipe on the pies the previous year, and, she wasn’t sure why the recipe was not included that year.

Granny (Flying Grandpa’s mom) and Aunt Sue (this was before Aunt Sue and Uncle Nathan were married) came over that night and we cut this pie to serve. Wow! It was an instant hit.

We wanted the recipe and I thought I might have to go to Charlestown to knock on doors to see if anyone had the recipe for it – surely someone would have this recipe if the lady put it on the pies in previous years.

Shortly after that – before I got the chance to go knock on doors – Granny was cleaning Mrs. Moore’s house in Charlestown and Mrs. Moore gave her some tarts that she was baking. These tarts tasted like the Japanese Fruit Pie so Granny got the recipe from her. The rest is, as they say, HISTORY.

Several years later Sister Valerie told me that she found the recipe published in a seafood cookbook that she had.

When Grandpa and I went to Mackinac Island we ate at the Grand Hotel and we tasted a variation of the pie. Their chef had made a cookie type crust – much like the one on the Pecan Fingers recipe we make. He baked the crust and then spread currant jelly over the crust and then poured a mixture that tasted like our pie over it to bake. He used golden raisins instead of the regular ones. Absolutely delicious!